Sole trader & PAYE?

[comewhinewith]

I have a part time job and am planning on doing some extra work in an unrelated field in addition to this.

What is the best way to do this? Set up as a sole trader for the extra work and bill for work? Is this possible?

I currently have to complete a tax return because of repaying a proportion of child benefit, does this make a difference?

As you can see I'm pretty clueless!

I have just done this. Setting up as a sole trader is pretty straightforward.

Your unique tax reference number for the child benefit is the same as your UTR for a sole trader, but you do need to let HMRC know you are an ST. The form was a bit buried so have a good look round.

I was advised to set up a separate bank account (lots of places will offer specialist ST accounts) to help with book keeping. And depending on how much work you are doing quickbooks or xero are worth looking into.

Other than that, assuming you will be under the VAT threshold, you should be fine I think. There maybe other bits I have missed off but if I remember them I will come back.