Will filling in a HMRC 'sole trader' tax return alert my employer that I'm freelancing?

[belfastlass]

I work full time at a 9-5 job and my tax is of course automatically deducted from my pay via PAYE.

In the past year I've also started doing some freelance work on the side which has bought in more than £1,000 so I'll need to fill out a sole trader tax return for HMRC.

My question is - will filling in the latter alert my main employer that I am freelancing? Will HMRC get in touch with them or anything like that?

I suspect my main employer will take a dim view of me freelancing and it would risk me being put in the 'not fully committed' camp, which is in fact true, as my long-term goal is to become freelance full-time. However atm the freelance is nowhere near enough to live off so I need to keep my current job. Basically, I'd much rather they didn't know.

If anyone has any advice on this it would be much appreciated.

best,
Beth

From experience, no it won't alert them as the tax is managed separately.

It depends what you're doing though and whether there's any potential conflict of interest. I approached HR to get their blessing beforehand as my consulting was in a similar field but you need to check your employment contract to see whether there are any restrictions. If not, they don't really need to know, providing it doesn't affect your day job.

I don't think it'll alert them, but you might want to check your contract as I know I'm not allowed to do any other work without asking first ( to check there's no conflict) and if that's the case it'd be grounds for dismissal if they found out some other way.

I receive an income as a partner in the family business my DH and I run. I also work part-time as an employee in a totally unrelated job. I pay PAYE as an employee, with the partnership earnings I am invoiced twice a year by HMRC in July and January for what I owe. If you were working for two separate employers as an employee your tax coding would probably be adjusted to split your tax free allowance between them but if the freelance work is considered self employed earnings then I don't think it will affect your coding. Even if the coding did change your employer would not be informed why, it could be because you had untaxed income from another source for example, a rental property or investment income.

Your employer won’t be alerted, but I would be very concerned about conflicts of interest and possible dismissal if your employer found out. If it’s in an unrelated area then they should be okay, but if you are poaching customers that would be unethical and probably grounds for dismissal.

I worked as a sole trader and my employer was fine, and were very understanding that I sometimes had to take a call etc.

thanks guys.

The company is very large so even if they changed the code I doubt anyone would notice (or care).

The work is vaguely related, though they are working with big players, whereas I just do small jobs for small firms most of which are in the States anyway.

Not that it would stop me frankly. They took advantage of my unemployed status to drive a very hard bargain on salary/T&Cs etc. and the contract is very one sided (e.g. I have to give 6 weeks notice to quit but they can fire me with 1 week's notice).

Working and freelancing will be the only way I can ever save enough to buy a house. To have that taken away by a bunch of boomer and gen X homeowners? Sorry, no chance.

I can't see that they would know the details of what was in your tax return and you could have many other reasons for submitting one of which being a sole trader is only one.

You might be a non-working partner in a partnership, you might have property income to declare, you might have made extra pension contributions that you want to claim tax relief on, and more.

They would not find out from HMRC.

And anyway, people file tax returns for all sorts of reasons. Dividends from foreign shares for example. Or property income. I know someone who gets royalties from a late relative’s book sales and must declare them.

Good luck with your venture!