Registering as self employed

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HMRC’s guidance says that you are probably self-employed if you:

  • run your business for yourself and take responsibility for its success or failure;
  • have several customers at the same time;
  • can decide how, where and when you do your work;
  • can hire other people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you;
  • are responsible for finishing any work in your own time;
  • charge an agreed fixed price for your work;
  • sell goods or services to make a profit (including online)

Your legal obligations if you become self-employed

You will need to register as self-employed if you earned more than £1,000 from self-employment between 6 April 2018 and 5 April 2019. If this is the first time that you are required to submit a tax return, you must register by the 5 October in your business’s second tax year. This is not a deadline you can choose to ignore as there are penalties for late notification.

If you’re newly self-employed you must also register:

  • to pay Class 2 & Class 4 National Insurance contributions if applicable;
  • you should monitor your turnover as registration for VAT will be necessary if sales exceed £85,000 over the preceding twelve months or if you expect it to exceed this limit in the next three months.

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