Tax and Freelancing

Caporegime
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28 Jan 2003
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At the minute I am doing very minimal amounts of freelance work in my spare time (I'm talking amounts of £150 so far for the year, and not likely to be much more come the end of the financial year) so what and how do I go about telling the government so I am kosha with them?

I work full time and obviousls pay tax and NI, but what else do I have to do on the freelance earnings?
 
Register for self assessment. Fill in the other income along with your normal salary stuff and you will get your tax bill.
 
For this year (17/18) you'll need to submit and pay by 31st Jan 2019.

There's also a deadline to register for Self Assessment but for this year that will be next October so no worries yet :)

EDIT - Just to check, when you say this year do you mean this tax year or this calendar year? If you made any freelance sales between Jan - 5th April then you've missed the deadline to register for self assessment. Not sure what the complication of that is though.

Also just to add that doing a self-assessment is very easy on their site, it's pretty straight forward :)
 
You don’t need to register, pay tax on or declare any income from a trade if the total income is less than £1,000. This applies for the tax year starting on 5 April 2017.

The above is subject to parliament actually enacting the draft legislation from the beginning of the year.
 
The £1k tax free allowance was dropped due to snap election: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...s-for-online-sellers-and-room-renters-for-now

In reality they were introducing this because it is not worth chasing those dealing on such a small scale so it was a way to make it legal. For that little I doubt they would even attempt to look into it if everything else (full time work) is above board.

The Trading Allowance is in the second Finance Bill that's just gone to the House of Lords...

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...hment_data/file/628642/list_of_provisions.pdf
 
It takes a negligible length of time when the situation is so simple. Definitely worth doing if the alternative is risking some fairly hefty penalties. It's not as though it's a big deal... if he does it online he won't have to fill in the equivalent of a full form and he'll be guided through it.

Yes, it's annoying effort, but he might end up earning a good chunk more than £150, and having to do the appropriate paperwork is something that comes with choosing to do freelance work... if you cba, don't do freelance work. Do it properly or not at all.

That's the thing, there is 'doing freelance work', then there is 'doing the odd job for some extra money'.

Are you saying you claim if you sell items on the MM? Or eBay? Or if you sell something on FB market place? I'm pretty certain people are making more on one on those than the OP. It's no different tbh.
 
It takes a negligible length of time when the situation is so simple. Definitely worth doing if the alternative is risking some fairly hefty penalties. It's not as though it's a big deal... if he does it online he won't have to fill in the equivalent of a full form and he'll be guided through it.

Yes, it's annoying effort, but he might end up earning a good chunk more than £150, and having to do the appropriate paperwork is something that comes with choosing to do freelance work... if you cba, don't do freelance work. Do it properly or not at all.

When I say it's more effort than it's worth I'm speaking from experience of having done it online, then there was the additional hassle of them trying to automatically take class 2 NI contributions, and they'd be asking for £30 in tax for earning a measly £150. If he starts earning real money then he can register.
 
When I say it's more effort than it's worth I'm speaking from experience of having done it online, then there was the additional hassle of them trying to automatically take class 2 NI contributions,

They don't do that anymore either, class 2 is calculated within the year end self assessment submission now
 
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