Hi all you clever people out there. My OH who is a full time employee is also an aspiring writer. She has accepted a small commission to write some short plays but we don't know about paying tax outside of PAYE, how to do it, whether she can claim for expenses or even if she has to pay NI on it. It isn't a vast amount so we don't know if we need an accountant as it isn't all that likely there'll be any other jobs, certainly not in this financial year. So any advice you good people can offer will be gratefully received
Or we could just move to Monaco
Comments
I'm assuming they are earning a couple of quid more. Having said that, once we are settled in our new Monte Carlo pad we can ask Paula over the garden fence...
Stick it in a sock under the mattress
The tax people can't even answer 50% of their phone calls these days, I think there's a good chance you might get away with not declaring it. If your conscience troubles you you could give 25% to a worthy cause. The government will only piss it away on flood defences that don't work or bombs that don't explode.
What do we do with the other sock?
I fully accept that anything we do pay will be wasted and I asked on here as getting proper advice from HMRC was unlikely. So far under the mattress is best!
IANA(tax)L, but:
https://www.crunch.co.uk/blog/contractor-advice/2014/02/04/freelancing-side-tax-implications/
(from 2014, so double-check any figures)
That said, I've done a few small writing jobs on the side while being too ignorant to file any form of tax return without consequence- not that this makes it right. I'd obviously make more strenuous efforts to declare it these days.
If your OH is already filing self assessments then they'll need to put the writing profits on the next one.
If your OH has ANY untaxed income totalling £2500 or more (commissions, tips, interest, rents etc.) they should already be filing a self assessment.
If you OH has ANY NET profit from this or any other self-employment then they need to file a self assessment.
Get an online ID from HMRC and it's relatively easy.
Class 2 NICs are due if her writing profits are above £5965, and Class 4 if its above £8060. Sign up at the HMRC website.
Deductible expenses for computing your net profit for income tax and NIC purposes - here's a fair summary http://www.taxservicesforwriters.co.uk/our-book/allowable-expenses/
Enjoy...
Cheers all, I'll take a look at those links tomorrow.