Do I have to declare my income?

[whataboutmenow]

I am a SAHM and DH works full time. The only 'benefits' I get is child benefit and DLA/carers allowance for DS.

I work every weekday evening as a self employed tutor, plus about 4-5 hours at the weekend. Probably adds up to about 13 or 14 hours a week.

Should I be declaring this income or paying tax on it??

It's what you earn rather than the hours, isn't it? Do you mean for income tax or carers allowance?

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Caringforsomeone/DG_10018705

www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

Oh dear - I hadn't thought about eligibility for carers allowance, I just meant for income tax

I do earn more than £100 per week so looks like I may have a problem with the carers allowance in that case

Also I've been paying no tax - should I have?

i would have thought you should be filling in a self assessment form, deadline is jan 31st every year. it's highly likely that you won't have to actually pay any tax as your income may well be below the tax threshold, but yes, you do need to declare your earnings.

I think you have around £7k tax free allowance so if your income (including CA) comes to less then you don't pay tax.

Forgot to say you will need to register as self employed with HMRC and complete a tax return which will establish if you need to pay tax.

Sorry and if your work fluctuates such that you earn less than £5200pa (eg you work during term time but not during hols) you may be able to still claim CA.

Will stop posting now

You will need to pay income tax if you earn over £8,105 a year. National Insurance contributions (class 2) are payable if you earn over £5,595; not paying them can affect your entitlement to a state pension/MA etc (though if the child benefit is in your name I think this is irrelevant)

If you are self employed, you are supposed to register as such with HMRC, regardless of expected income.

Thanks, am a bit concerned now but I will need to sort it out!

Im in a similar position in that I earn a small amount more in a self employed capacity over and above my usual day job for which I pay tax. I also have expenses that I can claim back if I fill out a self assessment form and the extra income and expenses roughly cancel each other out.

When I called the inland revenue to find out if I should be filling out a tax return form (which would probably result in me owing them about £100 or so) they said not to bother.

They were very nice about it so just give them a call and they'll tell you what they want you to do.

Thanks - I'll do that