Self employed jobs post retirement

[damekindness]

I’m just retired and getting to grips with post retirement finances. I’ve got a DB pension and some high interest savings of circa 100k from the lump sum.

I’ve been offered some self employed work. However after a long career in public service I haven’t a clue how to approach paying NI/taxes etc. My income won’t be enormous enough to employ someone to do it. How easy is it for the financially illiterate to manage it?

In theory it is easy to do a self assessment form. However I bit the bullet and just paid an accountant to do mine for me. Good job I did as she spotted things I wouldn’t have considered needed to notify HMRC plus the information I was given (from investments etc) was incorrect - I wouldn’t have known, the investment firm didn’t themselves notice until 2 months later. My accountant did. She also saved me around about the same amount as her bill, so technically didn’t cost.

fwiw I wouldn’t do it the first time myself. I would pay an accountant, take a copy of what they did and then, if I thought I could, I would use that as a template for the next financial year. In my opinion, taxes/HMRC are worth paying for advice to get it right first time, the potential fines are very hefty.

It is so easy. I did my first tax return last year. You just need to keep records of outgoings with receipts and incomings and on the tax return you only need to put your profit plus any other income. I also have a part time job as well. They work out how much tax you pay. As mine isn't too complicated I just keep paper records.