Self employed, self assessment, screwed up!

[TaxesTaxes]

I’ve been self employed for a year, earned a little over £8k.

I assumed (having not looked into anything at all) that I’d wait until near the deadline, input details and voila, job done.

I think I’ve learnt that I should have registered as self employed last year, and that I will be fined.

Any recommendations as to what I should do?
I’m now procrastinating and avoiding doing anything.

1. Register immediately
2. When HMRC set you up they will give you 3 months to file the return
3. There may be a £100 penalty for Kate registration - pay it if it arrives

When I first became self employed (which is almost 20 years ago now) I did the same thing, didn't end up with a fine. I just registered as soon as I could when I realised and filed my return, and it waa fine. They're pretty good about not being too harsh with you if you make an honest mistake and try your best to rectify it as soon as you can.

Yeah I got a fine too, when you register with companies house they could make it clearer. Or do you mean you didn't register till now 🤔

Companies House is for limited companies not self assessment

Ok. Sorry my accountant did it for me and we still got it wrong and was fined. One ltd company and one sole trader. Was just trying to reassure OP a fine isn't the end of the world

When you say ‘for a year’ how long exactly do you mean? Because my hazy memory (so might be wrong) means in your first year they’re more lenient with you. Get on it now, be honest.

The self assessment return you need to do now is for April 23-24.

Unless you were self employed before April 2023 you're fine.

I was self employed from November 23, but I was told I didn’t need to declare that until now.

I maybe need to find better people to advise me!

Have hit a slight snag in two ways.

1. HMRC have said “your UTR (unique tax reference) is: (no number given)
2. I am only currently working for one person because he has such a backlog of work (reason he wanted my expertise), plus I’m juggling it with caring for a disabled child, so have limited time.

I’m going to ring a helpline tomorrow and hopefully go through it all with someone!

1. You have to register for your UTR, it takes a while to come through. Have you definitely already registered for it?

2. If you’re only working for one person are you certain you’re self employed? Search for ‘am I self employed hmrc’ and it gives you things to check to find your answer.

HMRC says I’m registered (I was a cleaner years ago), but hasn’t shown me the number.

I play a niche role in a certain industry and was taken on by someone with a huge backlog of work, he’s always had people like me to help and always on a self employed basis, so I’m not sure how it should work. He will only hire people on a freelance basis, so him employing me isn’t an option, although I will talk to him about it. Would him employing me mean a lot of work or costs to him?

So you just need to get your UTR, set up an account and do your tax return for November 2023-April 2024.

As already said by others, check if you actually are fulfilling the terms for being self-employed - if not, the person you are working for might be in trouble with HMRC. Get onto all this tomorrow because the first tax + NI (2 sorts) payment is supposed to be actually in HMRC account by 31 January.

As someone else said, this return concerns your income from self employment and interest, dividends etc etc for year 6 April 2023 to 5 April 2024 but if self employed you also have to make payments on account (31 Jan and 31 July) towards the next year's tax too. This will be calculated by HMRC through the tax return information.

I earn well under £10k, would that still be the case of having payments on account? I thought there was a threshold.

Your tax-free allowance is £12,570 so probably not but I imagine you have to do tax return anyway. You need to pay the NI in any event.

Have you got copies of old tax returns from when you were a cleaner? They will show your utr

Sadly no, I have nothing.
It was nearly 20 years ago, I remember very little about it!

Re the one employer, to clarify, I’m hired by different customers to do the job I do, but they then pay the total amount to the business owner, who then pays me the total I’m due.