Friday 21 February 2014

Self Employment

Registering as Self Employed:
This can be done on the HMRC webiste (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs). You need to register online for business taxes and the sooner the better or you will incur charges. After you register you fill out a self assessment form which contains details of your earnings and income during the last tax year (April to April) and this in turn will be used by HMRC to calculate how much tax you need to pay.

Organisations to help small start up businesses:
The HMRC website has a lot of internal and external links to sites which contain help and advice about support, finance, loans and grants. The government website (gov.uk) also has a breadth of links for people setting up a new business and has it's own section which tells you if you are entitled to government backed loans or grants.
http://businessinyou.bis.gov.uk is a link to a site which is all about the campaign to inspire people to start their own businesses and also has other links to sites which provide help and advice.  The campaign has many partners encouraging this new way of working including: Start Up Britain, the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses and many many more.
For more specialised advice for us illustrators the AOI are full of advice and knowledge about being a self employed illustrator.

Earnings before being taxed:
I took this table from the HMRC website, it displays how much tax you pay depending on how much you earn. There are different methods of paying tax but as a self employed illustrator this will be through the annual self assessment. 
As well as income tax, self employed people must pay a National Insurance contribution. This is usually Class 2 (flat rate of £2.70 a week) however this can change depending on how much you earn. 


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