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80% for self employed - question (I am a customer and

42 replies

Exoffice · 06/04/2020 18:06

One of the DDs is doing taekwondo. All classes have been suspended because of Corona. We received an email from the teacher today asking us to pay nevertheless. He runs it on a self employed basis and has about 150 students in total (he told me before Corona). He is asking everyone to keep paying to keep the club going and to make sure he and the other teachers still would have an income.

I am luckily still working but may lose my job but still can afford to pay. But I am not sure if I should. I am sure many families hAve been hit hard and cannot afford £30 per month for a none lesson. But I would not want him the have no income either. I am really conflicted.

Would he not get paid 80% as part of the Corona package? or is he taking the mickey?

can anyone explain how this works? Should I pay? As I said, we can afford it for the time being but it may change.

OP posts:
EmAndes · 06/04/2020 18:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Windyatthebeach · 06/04/2020 18:08

Unless he has been running for 3 years he will get zilch..

Palavah · 06/04/2020 18:10

Suggest you contact him and explain your situation and that you don't want to give him nothing. See if you can come to some arrangement. Is he still offering video classes? Or similar?

Exoffice · 06/04/2020 18:10

windy we started 4 years ago and it was ready and established club by then...

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Exoffice · 06/04/2020 18:11

palavah, nah - nothing right now. He is posting some training videos on the club's Facebook page but that is all..

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daisypond · 06/04/2020 18:13

Not necessarily. How long has he been running it for? It depends on his last tax return. If he has started recently, he gets nothing. If he had profits of more than 50k he gets nothing. He may still have to pay for hiring premises etc. My DH is recently self employed and gets nothing.

Windyatthebeach · 06/04/2020 18:13

Cf will get 80 % if he filed a tax return.
Offer will 20 %of you feel guilty or imo nil....

daisypond · 06/04/2020 18:14

Cf will get 80 % if he filed a tax return.
This isn’t true. It depends.

ChipsAreLife · 06/04/2020 18:15

If he earns over 50k he won't get anything. Plus money isnt even paid till June

Exoffice · 06/04/2020 18:15

daisy, he founded the club. Just checked the website - been established by him 12 years ago.

Windy that crossed my mind. He prefers cash payment and we never get receipts.

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daisypond · 06/04/2020 18:16

He prefers cash payment and we never get receipts.
Ah...

Doyoumind · 06/04/2020 18:17

Is he running it as a sole trader or as a limited company? If there are employees surely it's a limited company.

Also, PP was wrong, you don't have to have been self employed for the whole three tax years up to April 2019.

LoopyGremlin · 06/04/2020 18:19

We received this from our swimming lesson provider. It explains why they may still be asking for payment.

“The funding support for both the employed and self-employed workforce has been applied for and can be accessed by some of our teaching staff however within the guidelines it states that the self-employed income must make up at least 50% of that person’s income. In many cases our teachers carry out the work as a 2nd job on a self-employed basis and so do not qualify under this scheme. The teachers who do qualify for this support are not be able to apply for this scheme until June, as you can appreciate is still some time away.”

daisypond · 06/04/2020 18:19

He probably doesn’t employ the other teachers. They are likely to be self employed too. That would be quite normal.

Jellykat · 06/04/2020 18:20

He will get the grant in June, if he filed his tax returns like he should've, and made less then £50,000.
Meanwhile he has Universal Credit available to him like the rest of us, plus if they hire the premises for the business, they can access various grants and loans re. rent.
I'd say unless hes still offering some form of teaching i.e online, he's taking the piss.

Jellykat · 06/04/2020 18:24

Just seen he prefers cash.. hmm, no doubt not all of it has been going through the books, hence his slight panic!

mummmy2017 · 06/04/2020 18:33

If he owns the buisness premises he can get a £10k grant.

musicposy · 06/04/2020 18:37

I’m asking parents to keep paying if they can (though for lessons they are having online), even though I will get the 80%. I’m not taking the mickey. Firstly, the 80% is an average over the last three years, the first of which I was in hospital for a long time and off work for months so had very little income. Therefore it’s going to be more like 50-60% of what I’m now earning. I’ve also easily lost 50% of my income in the last two months as only around half the pupils are keeping going and I’ve been ill with possible Covid 19 into the bargain.

On top, DH has lost his job so we are almost a zero income family at the moment. Because my tax return shows I earn a bit more than the universal credit limit (which is only around £500 a month for the two of us - our mortgage is more than that), we don’t get any government help other than the 80% scheme. The government scheme kicks in in June. That’s a long way away and we need to eat. DH is unlikely to earn what he was and has been heavily subsiding me to work shorter hours from home. If things don’t keep ticking over I will have to look at getting a school teaching job eventually and then there won’t be any lessons for people to come back to. So if my business is still going to exist after this, I need people to support me if they possibly can.

I’m sure some of my parents will think “oh she’ll get the 80%, what’s the issue?” but it isn’t as simple as that.

FunnyInjury · 06/04/2020 18:39

SE people will claim 80% of their Taxable Profits...ie enough to live on personally.

The business will have (possibly huge) overheads, these will still need to be paid.

Turnover does not equal profit.

I guess it depends if you and enough other students want the business to be able to keep afloat or not.

Doyoumind · 06/04/2020 18:45

Music you should be able to make a claim for the time you were ill. Also, I'm not clear about what you mean about UC. If your DH isn't earning and you are earning very little I can't see how you aren't entitled. But UC payments are low anyway and don't go towards a mortgage.

When did your DH lose his job? It is possible for companies to take people laid off because of CV back on and furlough them.

Doyoumind · 06/04/2020 18:45

You should also be able to get a mortgage holiday for 3 months with no questions asked.

FunnyInjury · 06/04/2020 18:49

Also, I expect he prefers cash payments as people are cheeky bastards when it comes to paying for classes etc. So many businesses have to spend far too long chasing odd bits of fees up all over the place, so cash at the lesson avoids all that hassle. Lots will take card payments too.
It's a way of avoiding a time consuming admin task rather than avoiding tax in most cases.
A business which has students, insurance, premises and staff will not be 'flying under the radar'
MN love to bash the self employed as jellykat and daisypond have both demonstrated here.

museumum · 06/04/2020 18:53

If it’s a Ltd company with him as director rather than as a sole trader then he won’t get the 80% for self employed or the 80% for furloughed employees. Lots of small businesses are falling through this gap.

daisypond · 06/04/2020 18:54

MN love to bash the self employed as jellykat and daisypond have both demonstrated here.
Er, I don’t think so. My DH is self employed.

Greysparkles · 06/04/2020 19:00

I'd bet his profit is close to 50k a year.
Student fees alone would be 54k plus sales of uniform and merch, birthday parties if they offer that service.
The extras paid for going up a sash or whatever 🤔

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