Self employed 2nd job - a few tax q's.

[nattylou]

I have a p/t time job, which I don’t pay tax on, as I don’t earn enough but pay NI, pension etc.
I also have another job, s/employed which I have to do my own tax and NI, but the earnings on this are not likely to go above £500 a year.

So, a few q’s.

When do I do my tax return? (I only started this job on Monday and will not get paid until 10^th of July)
What do I do about my uniform rental and mileage? Do I pay tax on these too?
Can I do it online so it will tell me how much I owe?
Will it take BOTH jobs into account for the calc, or just the s/e one? (I am still well under the 10k threshold with both jobs added together).

Thanks ladies xx

[donna-j]

Have you registered as self employed?

HMRC will send you a letter when they want a tax return.

You list all employment on the form - they will let you know if you owe or not.

Keep good records, including mileage.

Register for the free workshops that HMRC do.

[DDM]

You need to ring and register as self employed with HMRC as donna says.

Tax returns need to be completed either October for paper returns or January if you do them online. Tax years run from April to April so as you've started now (2012-2013 tax year), you won't have to fill in a return until October 2013 or January 2014. I hope that makes sense.

There is loads of info on the HMRC website and they are really helpful if you call them.

When you fill in your tax return you will usually put in your income as an employee, then fill in another section for self employed income. If you do it online it will work out how much tax you will need to pay (or not if you are under the personal tax allowance which is £8105, I'm not sure where you've got 10k from?).

Re the mileage, keep a record as you can claim the cost of it back at 45p a mile. I don't know anything about uniforms though. ETA keep a record of any expenses you incur as a result of your second job too as you may be able to offset the cost of these against your earnings.

[bubbasweet]

Give HMRC a call. They're usually pretty helpful about this sort of thing. You can do it all online too and get an idea of how much it'll all cost you before you finally have to submit the return.

[scatterbrain]

I'm guessing your paid employment will be dealt with as PAYE (although as you say, you don't pay tax on that due to earnings levels anyway.

For self employed work you need to register with the Inland revenue within 3 months of earning any money (whether you are likely to have to pay tax or not). I'm assuming it hasn't changed recently.

For your tax return you will need to complete details about all income (there are seperate sections for employed, self-employed, investment etc income. You'll tell them your self-employed income and capital expenditure and expences and they will calculate what you owe. This is usually for the year April-April & needs to be submitted before the following October (paper form) or January for online self-assessment.

Self employed Mileage - unless you are likely to do a lot of miles you can claim tax relief on the miles travelled specifically in the course of your work at a set rate
Uniform for your self employed job - I think the rules on claiming uniform costs as part of business expences are really strict. You'll need to check to see if you can count it.
Other expences - keep receipts and records of all other business expences
Capital equipment costs - check the rules as this depends how much you have spent.

The HMRC website has several useful help sheets and also our local one offers free seminars, which are quite useful.

S

[Chell]

The self assessment form (online) has a section to add details of your non self employed work. Just copy this from your last payslip or P60.

You must register as self employed within three months of starting. Even if you don't pay tax,you must still complete the tax return. Do it online then it calculates everything for you.

There is guidance on the HMRC site about uniform, etc.

[Dr Spouse]

I just registered online as self employed for freelance work (earned a grand total of £150!).
It says if you don't earn much you can be exempt from NI.

I thought there was some way to declare this income without registering (I didn't ever intend not to declare the income obviously) but apparently not. So I may get rapped over the knuckles for not registering in time.