Usborne sellers

[LornaDoon]

I am a recently signed up Usborne organiser but I'm beginning to lose heart because I've bene told now by a few people that I need to register myself as self-employed??

I had no idea - I just thought seeing as I won't be earning anything near the £5K limit (it's just a hobby as and when I can for a bit of pocket money!) then I didn't need to fill in any forms or register with the tax office etc etc (I'm a SAHM)

I'm now also being told that I need to do a tax return each year as part of being self-emp, and as part of the tax return I'll need to work out what bank interest I've earned on any commission and so would probably be best to have a separate bank account, and will need to upgrade my car insurance to cover me for 'commuting' no doubt at extra cost...

I feel like I@m getting out of my depth for what was meant to be a hobby - any advice?

I'll buy Puzzle Balloon Race off you, can't find it anywhere

Sorry, no other reall advice

HI,

I do Usborne too and don't earn enought to pay tax.....who has told you that you HAVE to?

You do have to let the inland rev know, for n.i reasons mainly. BUT, it is really easy to do, just a phonecall.

Don't be put off by the necessity to register with the I>R> and so on. It's very quickly done, as a previous poster said. Then, once a year they'll send you a fat form to fill in (or it can be done online). Only a few boxes will apply to you, and once you've done the first one, you'll be able to do them really quickly.

You won't actually pay any tax if you earn below the limit, but you will avoid the tax people investiagating you and assuming income you might not have had. So it is worth doing!

I too am an usborne organiser and am registered self employed. I havn't had to fill in a tax return yet but i'm trying to keep all my receipts and then it should all be straight forward.

Try not to loose heart, if you keep all your money in and money out receipts by month it shoul dbe realy easy come tax return time. I've not changed our car insurance and don't intend to just yet....although i have heard its quite often free.

You do have 3 months from when you start being self employed to actually registering, pehaps you could hang on a bit and see how everything else goes before you comit yourself.

Goodluck Gemma
[email protected]

You are supposed to register as self employed however it is very easy and the tax return is just simply a matter of keeping a record or your income and outgoings.

In my dh's case when he first set up as a private teacher he actually ended up with a tax refund.

Re the car insurance. Technically speakling that is true. However I do Usborne on a small level and havn;t bothered. This is because the types of places I go to (toddler groups etc) are the same type of places I would be going to anyway with my 2 year old ds.

Registering qs self employed for you will be more about proving that you don't have to pay tax. Don;t worry about the bank interest. As a self employed person you do have do declare bank interest, not just on your Usborne money but on all your accounts (everyone who has substantial savings is supposed to do this anyway) but you will probably find that it is taxed at source unless you have told your bank you are a non tax payer.

Do not worry about any of this, it is so simple.

I have business car insurance rather than just commuting and pleasure or what ever they call it. It didn't cost any extra.

The tax side of things does sound a bit daunting and in theory you should register as self employed even if you will be under the tax threshold.

You will pay self employed persons NI and fill out a tax return each year. The tax return is actually quite simple especially if you have no other employment or incomings.

If need to keep records of incoming and outgoing money, which you would probably want to do anyway.
I use \link{http://www.hingston-publishing.co.uk/accountsbooks.htm\The yellow book], it is very simple and spells it out for you, just fill in the boxes that apply to you (click on sample page). WH Smith sell it.

You can either choose not to bank the takings from your business or open a seperate savings or current account, no need for a business account really.

You won't have to worry about VAT as you have to earn loads before you have to register for that.

The yellow book ,

Hi

Yes you do need to register and it needs to be within 3 months of starting work or you can face a £100 fine. It is in the small print of the handbook that you should register, but as we are self employed that is all Usborne need to do is point it out.

The tax form isn;t too bad as long as you have kept all of your invoices etc.

Sarah x