DICT8 Plus (new November 2022)

[Whitestar55]

Hi, Here we go again, anyone else set up a new thread yet? Hope to find everyone 🙂

I don't recall having having to submit an hourly rate of earnings, or number of hours worked, for a self-assessment tax return. You usually just need to calculate and declare your overall earnings/profit in your self-employment for the tax year and number of hours worked is irrelevant. With self-employment you don't generally have set hours or an hourly rate and it's the overall earnings for the year that is taken into account.

I’ve never submitted hourly rate as we do not get a set hourly rate. I have started working where I do get an hourly rate but still only putting the amount earned each week, if that makes sense?

@Frazzledbynature After estimating my low hourly rate and the shear length of time I spend on transcription, and the fact that I was once unable to work, with no income and it almost bankrupted me, the fact that we can work flexibly as and when we want to has been wiped away, I now work longer and harder for much less than I used to do as an employee and as for the 8p a line being inclusive of holiday pay, what a joke, I can't afford time off or to contribute to a pension scheme, I'm more a prisoner now than when I was employed.

@Frazzledbynature I have never had to submit an hourly rate on my tax form it is as @Whitestar55 states.

You don't need to submit an hourly rate ... as self-employed what is available is what you type so an hourly rate can be extremely variable from day-to-day. I submit to my tax advisor yearly what I have earnt for the previous and then my outgoings for the office (my tax advisor does all the other calculations. I find it easier and less stressful to have a tax advisor. The last 3 years my tax advisor has not charged me anything for his service ... something to do with they can claim their expense through some system if an 'earner' has not achieved the requisite amount per year in earnings -office deductions. Last year I paid nothing to my tax advisor, did not have to pay tax and neither did I have to pay NI contributions (I am on some benefits though so that covers my NI _.

Just done mine to send to the accountant……dreading my tax bill this year 😖

Hi all, hope everyone had a good Easter break.

I suppose this week/the following will be interesting work-wise due to the strike !

@Pinksville : I am frustrated by the strikes, particularly after the Bank holiday week and NHS staff away this week too. Earnings are not looking good already for the month and last month was not good. Just received my chq from Dict8 this morning (long time coming due to holidays) If you work as a typist/med sec NHS then there are other things you can do like 'backlog, expenses, filing, other admin ... not the case for us self-employed. It is very disheartening ... I don't this week will be good (as mentioned above) and I am trying to stay positive BUT it is difficult. 🙄😓

@danblack87 I understand. I really feel we need more baskets for our eggs, Easter or not.

@nomadchild @danblack87 @Whitestar55
Still yet to finish it off, because I have carer's allowance It got a bit complicated for my first time. My friend is an accountant ex council so his example he sent me included hourly rate probably because he could do that I don't know. He has his father in the hospital and I've not been on my computer in over a week due to hurting my hip and it is uncomfortable. I decided to get easter over with before relooking at it.

He told me to fill in an Excel spreadsheet like his and submit it with the online assessment.

He included this link do any of you use it for any tax rebate?
https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/working-from-home

@Frazzledbynature I used do an excel spreadsheet for my reference so I have everything to hand eg UTR number etc but I never submitted with the tax form. Just fill out their form and save yourself the extra hassle. It is a horrible form mainly due to the wording but you will get used to it. I used to worry if I put the wrong thing but if they cannot word it more for the layman I decided that is their problem. You will be paying so little tax any small error will mean nothing it will be pennies to them. Well that is what my old accountant told me. I now do it all myself as I have got so used to it. The key thing to remember with HMRC is get it submitted on time. Once it is in they can quibble over things with you then. The answer is always I filled it out to the best of my knowledge at the time. If you get a fine for late submission pay it immediately as it goes up daily after the first fine and then claim it back. Good luck and relax about it.

It's usually pretty simple to fill out your self assessment, you just need to add up what you have earned with DICT8 for the tax year and key it in. If we were truly self-employed and running a business it would be more complicated as we would be trying to calculate our profit against outgoings etc. If you have another job as a real employee the HMRC will already have those details anyway (although I think there is a section to declare this) but the tax and NI from that will be taken at source from the employer, and tallied up with your self-employment earnings regarding tax and NI, as to whether you need to pay any more tax. There are sections to declare any pensions claimed and income from other sources like property you rent out or shares in companies over a certain figure. I'm not sure if you can claim back any tax paid, for equipment, electricity used etc.

I swear Boris Johnson has got a job at DICT8 proofreading - the contradictions have been insane on my feedback recently 😅

@Pinksville Don't worry they'll lay off you soon and go onto the next person in line for scrutiny, that's how it seems to work, they take a percentage of everyone's work and check it, then leave you alone for ages.

I hate filling in my tax form. I keep copies of the each year as reference mainly for the expenses as I am never sure which method is the one to use when they offer the choice of two - the one where you just give the total and the other where you itemise everything - forget what it is called (cash basis?). I picked the wrong one once and filling in the form took about 3 times as long.

Also a couple of years ago they changed the form (last year seemed back to the original) and there were questions for contract workers and using a float for expenses and I got so confused (I remember it asked how much was in the float at the beginning of the year so I put 0 - as it was at the beginning - and I got an error message to say it could not be 0 so I think I changed it to £1 or something silly).

I have in the past emailed my Uncle and also tried contacting the tax people via Facebook and Twitter for help with answers half way through as I find the explanations more confusing that the original questions. Usually have a large whisky once the form is submitted.

If you make a mistake or remember something later you can go in and amend it but often I find trying to access the form in the first place difficult.....

There have been a fair few tasks on DIct8 for me. For most part really good. Hope everyone is experiencing the same.

@danblack87 same for me. Clearly it's the junior doctors who are crap at dictating letters as yesterday and today on my list the dictation has been clear, made sense and the drug names pronounced right !!! No crap tasks clogging up my list, and I have no headache this evening - happy days 😁Oh and I reached my daily target early too !!

PS: on that basis I feel the junior doctors are not deserving of a 35 % pay rise !!!

@danblack87 @Pinksville Yes same here, long may it continue! I do think Junior doctors are underpaid for the workload and the responsibility they have and hope they get a reasonable pay increase.

As for 35%, that's definitely what we remote transcribers need to bring us in to line with our NHS colleagues!!!

Works is drying up now. I wonder how it's going on T-pro??

@Whitestar55 same here, but it has been a massive improvement in dictation this week and because of that I am able to sign off for the weekend having reached my quota and some ! I dread the junior doctors coming back on next week 😂

@Pinksville I don't think the junior doctors actually do clinics and dictation, it's usually the registrars and consultants, and of course the specialist nurses, pharmacists, physician associates etc, and the junior doctors are paid a lot less than most of these. I've had my usual mix of clear and, let's say, challenging dictation today, and tasks are sparse.

@Whitestar55 I do a lot of GP trainee letters/SHOs/ST etc on my task list.

@Pinksville I think the junior doctors are the newly qualified ones that are just starting out in the hospitals. I could be wrong, but that's what they used to be years ago, i.e. junior house officers. I think they're the ones that are striking???

@Pinksville Lol I think I'm out of touch with the description of doctors. Junior doctors used to be the 'Junior House Officers', but that title now seems to encompass every doctor apart from consultants, so I've no idea just who is striking.

*I should have said 'Junior Doctor' not 'Junior House Officer' seems to encompass all except consultants.