practicalities of tutoring

[WimpyNamechange17]

Hopefully this name change has worked! Been a long time lurker/poster, but never in the staffroom before. A friend of a friend has asked me to 'tutor' their pre-school aged child - it isn't really tutoring, but she is concerned about the child learning English (family is from abroad). So I suppose she wants social interaction in English for the child (I've made it clear it would not be formal learning). I'm a qualified teacher and have worked in EYFS, but have never tutored before. I said I would do it for free, since I don't know what I am doing, but they are insisting they want to pay. DH thinks I should charge because nobody else would do it for free.

My headteacher will not be happy if he finds out (he has asked supply staff not to have weekend tutoring jobs in the past when considering taking them on as long term supply). Obviously if I charge then I have to declare it for tax reasons. Does this mean that my school will find out when they sort salaries, or will HMRC keep it separate? I've searched online and can't find the answer, but I suppose I'm not really sure what I am searching for!

[CaulkheadUpNorf]

Disclaimer: this may only be specific to me/area/etc.

I worked for a school and had another job too. School did not know about the job as I was taxed on that as my main job, by payroll went through the local council. The second job knew about the school as I was taxed as that being a second job.

In the school contact I did not have anything preventing me from having another job, but some other staff did in a different role. Check your contract.

[WimpyNamechange17]

Thanks - that sounds promising.

Will double check my contract, but pretty sure it is ok. It really shouldn't matter if the head teacher is happy with it or not, unless it affects my ability to do my job, but I just don't see the point in falling out with him for £20 a fortnight or whatever it ends up being.

[GHGN]

Your HT has no control over what you do outside work. They don't own you.

[Iwantacampervan]

Your tutoring will have no impact on your school pay this year, if you owe tax then you can opt to pay it through an adjustment of your tax code during the next tax year - you'll need to register as self employed through HMRC (easy to do online) and complete a tax return after April - you can have paid employment (from p60), self employment etc on there. Keep a spreadsheet/list of amounts charged for the tutoring and also any costs incurred (travel, materials) as these can be offset. If you have any questions please contact me.
This has reminded me that I must sit down soon and do my return for 2016/17.
Unless the child is a pupil at the school or your contract specifically states you cannot have a second job I don't see how your Head cannot prevent you from doing this.

[SpareBedroom]

I agree with campervan - I do tutoring and supply. Tax for supply is paid in the normal way (PAYE and a tax code) and tax for tutoring is paid when I do my tax return as I've registered as self-employed. If your tutoring earnings don't amount to much, ring the tax office (good luck getting through though.. ) and they will adjust your tax code to reflect the amount you earn through tutoring - that way you won't have to do a tax return.

Anything you need to buy related to tutoring (books, stickers, paper, post-its, pencils - however insignificant!) can be offset against your tax.

Im fairly sure your headteacher can't tell you what you can and can't do outside of school!

[SpareBedroom]

I've just realised I haven't actually answered your question.

If you go the self-employed/tax return route, that isn't done until the end of the financial year. Any tax you need to pay at that point (or indeed any the tax office owes you) is done directly between you and the tax office. I don't see why the school would find out.

If you go the tax code route, payroll at your regular job would be told the new tax code but I doubt they'd be told why. I did this to start with (I was in a permanent post at the time) and all that happened was that my tax code changed on my payslips. I was never questioned either by payroll or by my headteacher.

Hope that helps.