Whats the procedure to register as self employed

[1stlifeline]

Is it simple to register self employed when working for yourself. I believe you have up to 12 weeks in which to do this. Is there a benefit to doing it straight away or is it wise to wait the twelve weeks?

[ChloeJane]

Hi,

After having an ordeal personally with being self employed, I suggest waiting the 12 weeks.

The reason being that once you register it, the tax office logs it and if anything changes and you go back to being employed for any reason it is quite a task I have endured, to prove I am no longer self employed as the self assesment was forecasted for a year.

So I would wait....just my personal opinion!

[bazak1]

not sure about this one, as i suppose there are pro's and con's.
as Chloejane says, its a pain if you pack it in and return to normal " employee" but then there is the fact that there are certain things that can be claimed against your tax, such as fuel costs, clothing ( buying and laundering ), tools etc, but whether you can do that while waiting twelve weeks is another thing.
have a look at http://hmrc.gov.uk to see if they explain it further.

[tiglet]

It is very simple to register - go to the HMRC website and phone the number for self-employed registration listed there.

[minniemouse_81]

I would try and stay as PAYE for as long as you can. If your only only to be self employed for say 3 to 6 months then I wouldnt bother with it. Its too time consuming and fiddly for that.

If you do decide to go ahead with it I would suggest that if you find the whole scenario a bit of a mind field than you should go to a professional company who take care of everything for you. There are a few companies out there that deal with these sorts of things for you on your behalf. 1st contact is one that jumps to mind. Try having a look at tnt.co.uk website.

Also dont be tempted by someone who has particularly cheap rates. I learnt that the hard way!!! Just because their cheaper doesnt mean that they are any good (or in my case do anything at all!!), sometimes you are better off paying a little more for the peace of mind.

they deal with all set your company up and run it for you, register you for VAT, do all your companies house docs including annual returns, annual accounts.

So have a look around.