Am I Self-Employed?

[Katiedale73]

Hi, hope someone who is self-employed can help me. I've recently started working from home, doing telemarketing. I'm being paid to do the work by a company, but am not under contract. I get £8 per hour and do around 20 hours per week. I have to invoice the company every fortnight for my pay (no idea how to do that either!). I'm not a business and think the work will probably be short-term, with four months at most because I'm starting college in September.

Where do I stand regarding my employment status? Do I need to register as self-employed? I've been on the Inland Revenue site and it was pretty unhelpful tbh. Can anyone offer any advice because I'm worried about working illegally.

Help!

Katie

I don't want to worry you, but I think you are self employed and if you haven't informed the Inland Revenue that you are you will get an automatic £100 fine. The best thing you can do is to ring them.. they're not monsters and are there to help you - once you get the form filled in they will send you the pack on "how to be self employed" which will tell you everything.

Invoices are dead easy. How long have you been doing the work?

Thanks, Squarer. I started work this week (on Tuesday), so have only done a little so far. Can I register via the web, or does that not count?

You have 3 m to register so you are OK for a while

Had a look at the website - I am actually an employer and remember something about this coming in a few years ago - you actually aren't classed as self employed - you are actually employed by the company given the terms you work under.

You have 3 months from the end of the calendar month you started self employment to register so no rush there.

Do you have an option to be "employed" by the company? I would take that if possible. You can get into a whole load of trouble if you don't do your self assessment correctly.

I would wait til monday and ring the telephone number from the website personally.

What do you think you might do?

Yes, I think you are self employed too and you need to inform IR. It's easy - you are just a sole trader and just trade under your full name (this is what I do). I think you have to let them know within 3 months of starting, but check that.

Even though you are only doing it short term - you will still need to declare your earnings on a tax return next April.

Invoicing is easy - just set up a simple invoice in word and use that. You just send it off and then they pay you - set yourself up a spreadsheet or simple table to enter details of what you do and how much you are paid and when so you can keep a record to make doing your tax return easier.

If you need any mroe help - just shout!

Well, I just went to the website to register online - and it told me to call them!
So, I'm going to do that on Monday when I finish my 'shift' for the day.
Do I need to shift a third of my pay into an account for taxes, or am I getting ahead of myself now?

Yes, do shift money into tax account. The Inland Revenue will take you through a list of questions that determine whether you are an employee or not. They are really helpful when you start up as self-employed, actually, will even send you on a workshop if you like!

HMRC have an on-line tool for helping establish Employment Status - \link{http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/esi.htm\ESI Tool}
Worth trying out to see what you get for your particular job.