Starting Up

[ILoveGregoryHouse]

Hi All, I've recently got back to the UK from overseas having been away for three years. With 4 kids in tow now, I can't work full time and a lovely lovely friend of mine who runs her own business has found me a job contracting one day a week with the possibility of odd days here and there for different clients and for a daily rate. I'm in HR/training. So, I need to set up as self employed. How do I do that? Can I claim expenses for travel and training courses etc - there's a refresher course I want to do but it's £500 and I don't want to shell out the whole amount if I don't have to. I may also be able to do days from home - what's tax deductible there?

Thanks on advance.

Some places with useful information:
Business Link Good general guide (provided by the government) to starting a business, links to HMRC web site and telephone numbers for registering as self employed.
The Professional Contractors Group has some more targeted information, although they will try and sell you their services. Biased towards operating as a Limited Company, which you should consider.
UK Business Forums busy forums with people always quick to give advice; most of them (but not all) know what they are talking about.

Travel expenses (actual fares, parking etc., claim car journeys at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles in the tax year) and training costs, as well as other expenses incurred necessarily and exclusively for your business can be used to reduce the amount of profit you pay tax on at the end of the year. You will have to pay the

Home expenses is a tricky one, basically until you have got to the stage of setting up an office which is used mostly for work (but you must use it for non-work some of the time too), you can't claim a lot so I'd worry about the detail of this later. You can claim for a mobile phone if it is necessary for your work, and you can claim Annual Investment Allowance for any other necessary equipment such as a laptop, decent printer etc. (although if you also use these for a private purpose you can only claim a proportion).

It was written for ebayers but most of the information is generic and up to date (and comparatively short) - feel free to print out and keep
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