Employed and self employed tax

[Slowprogress]

So I am currently employed and I want to set up my own business as well.

how does it work with self employment? Do you have to start paying tax right away? or can you earn a certain amount first in your self employment?

For example if in my employment I made say ??20,000 per year and in my first year in self employment I made say ??3,000 would I have to pay any tax on the ??3,000 or can you earn a certain amount before paying tax?

the reason I ask is because I don't know how much I will make in my self employment, I am willing to put in the work to find out but I don't want to have to pay lots of extra tax or loose the little tax credits I have left.

Is there a website that clearly explains it?

All your sources of income are added together and your personal allowance deducted. If you are already using your full personal allowance against your wages, then, yes, you will be paying tax on all your self employment profits. You don't get a separate allowance for different types of income.

You have to pay income tax on all your income - the easiest way to do this is to ask your tax office to reduce your paye tax code by an amount equal to your anticipated profits and at the end of each tax year write to them to give them the actual amount of profits so they can adjust up or down.

If you could have an allowance for each employment I imagine some people would have 20 jobs that each paid £5000 per year.