Hi, I wonder if someone could possibly help me with a couple of queries I have. Hi, My husband and I currently have a DMP with CCCS which we have had since May 2010. When we first started the DMP, I also had a Littlewoods account but I didn't include it with the rest of my creditors as it didn't have much on it and I thought I would pay if off before the DMP started. Unfortunately we needed to use it for some household appliances which broke and we hoped to pay if off with my husband's commission, however, he hasn't received as much as we expected. The account has now increased to the point now where I can no longer afford the monthly payments. I have been burying my head in the sand a bit about it but I now need to do something about it. I have emailed CCCS to see if they are going to cancel my DMP or if they are willing to help me but in the meantime, I wanted to find out how I can go about managing my own DMP if they cancel. - All my creditors have accepted my DMP so I don't think it would be difficult now to manage it on my own. I'm not sure, however, how I would add the Littlewoods debt to it? Do I send them a letter saying I can't afford the monthly payment and offer them a reduced amount? Do I have to tell Littlewoods that I have been in a DMP for the last few years? Do I have to tell the other creditors about it? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi all i am waiting for my claim pack to come hopefully will be quick. I am going from unemployed to self employed having never done this before im guessing i have to send cashflow in, but also been told that for the first year i dont have to give accounts? Any advice is great

Hi My husband is a self employed DJ but after losing his main income now only works 4 hours per week at a club, this income is declared to HMRC. He is looking for alternative work and is thinking about setting up a mobile car valeting business...... How does this work for tax purposes, does he submit 2 tax returns or does he add all income together and do as 1 tax return? Also, after expenditure is deducted off income, what rate of tax is paid on the profit and what is the figure you can earn before paying tax? Just trying to get it right in my own head Thanks

Hi All, HMRC requested 5 tax returns from me between 2007-2012. I haven't returned any of them, so now HMRC says I owe them £4400 in late fees and interest. I have never been self employed, always employed and taxed via PAYE. My question is: once I complete all my tax returns, is there any possibility that HMRC will reduce the amount owed? The amount owed is roughly 1/3 of my take home pay, so I cannot afford this. Thanks for any advice. James

Hi There, This is a bit of a drawn out story so I'm going to try to keep concise. A difficult customer... I quoted on some works, these changed as they went along. Therefore I was asked to requote for what had been done so it could be paid. Then to requote on the remaining works. The customer is witholding £20. This is in relation to another quote that I have agreed to drop. She now wants to finsih this part herself, so to keep it amiable I agreed not to charge for what I had already done. With this going on I have been organising other trades people to quote for her, so I can complete decorating work I had also previously quoted for. Due to this £20, obviously I will not complete any further works (especially after dropping the above mentioned). My question really relates to the organisation of trades people, this was done in good faith so I could get on with the next set of quoted works. As this has now fallen through I feel that I have spent a lot of time 'project managing' and want to know if its acceptable to make a charge for this? I'd be grateful if anyone has any knowledge or can perhaps point me to the correct legislation, would sale of goods & services 1982 be a starting point? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I'm after some advice as I'm finding this all very confusing. I've recently bought a sewing machine and was asked by some friends to make various bits, bunting, mobile covers etc. They bought the materials first and I made them. No money was exchanged. But after receiving comments from others and being asked to make for them I thought I could do extra. I already work part time (20 hours in a school) but thought in my spare time as I enjoy making stuff I could maybe do extra for people and also do craft fayres etc. I was told I'd need to register with hmrc, so I registered the other night whilst very tired, using a name of the top of my head and I put that I started working (the business) on) 06/04/12 (I think it was this date, I know I did it for the new tax year) - the new tax year?!? So I can start receiving money and not get in trouble...is this right? HMRC have sent me a UTR number so I went on the site to finishing registering but I want to change the name...can this be done as I don't like the name I started with? Also I have put 08/06/12 as the date I started working for myself on there as I cant remeber the exact date I put previously, will this matter? I have also read that I will have to start making class 2 NI payments? £2.50 a week??!?! Yet I am no where near earning anything like that yet, so this is worrying me? As I have heard nothing about it either from HMRC and don't want to be owing? I've had 2 people enquire about orders but no pennies as yet. I'm so confused by it all I'm thinking of not bothering now, but how do I cancel it all if I do?!?! I posted this in a different forum last week, today I have recieved a letter from HMRC telling me I need to complete a self assesment for last tax year 2011-12, yet I registered for this year and apart from the things I made for friends last year (which as I said they paid for) and materials I have bought myself to make for my own little boy I have had no other income or outgoings so now I am more confused. I made lots of little bibs and took them to my local craft fair but I didnt sell any off them so I have been giving them as presents for my friends who have had babys...Im even more confused now, why are they asking me to self assess for last year? I dont even want to set up a business anymore now as its coming up to the 6 week hols and I just want to spend time with my boys and dont even want to do any off the craft fayres etc that I was thinking of doing, I wont have the time...what do I do now???

Hi all, new to the forum, and while I know this has probably been asked before (more than once) I cant find a specific thread on the search. I have been self employed since 1996 and in that time have had a mortgage, bank loan, 2 credit cards and a catalogue account (that apparently has ppi). I have been putting off claiming for the ppi on all these as paperwork is not my strong suit and was expecting to have to do a mountain of forms, but was told recently by a freind that as I was self employed I should never have been sold these policies as they would never have been paid and it should be easy to claim. Is this correct? Also is there a time limit going back (ie can I claim right back to 96)? Thanks in advance for any help, Karl

Hi, I have been trying to sort out my brother-in-laws financial mess. He took out a loan with RBS in 2006 which had a PPI single premium of £2304 added to the loan amount. We have written to RBS requesting a copy of the agreement and have had a reply back saying they have lost the paper work. Thankfully we have found the original agreement and would like to claim a refund of PPI. He is a self employed DJ and this is stated on the agreement. Can he use this as the reason for his complaint and add 8% interest to the £2304 for 6 years. Regards GB

Hello all. I am seriousley thinking about going self employed, I have been on jsa for 12 months now in that time i have recently had a break from it as i went on a overseas holiday. Whilst there i did some thinking and i really watch to get of the jsa cycle as its just crappy to live on and demorilsing. Since my return and (recent) i have made a rapid reclaim basically as i need to ensure i one have some funds to live of and 2 to get the help i need to pay my rent and council tax I was self employed a few years back and stuppidly had not heard of working tax credits so never applied for them, This time i will try for them But more importantly and why im posting is back then i had no rent or council tax bills to cover (Mums n Dads r g8) But now its diffrent and i do have them responcibiltys, my requests for help revolve around this I dont expect to earn much in the first 6 to 12 months of trading I expect to live of my working tax credits top up as well as my minimal wages I called turn2us.org and they said i should get full housing and council tax benifit whilst my earings are low I belive i will need to show the h/b office proof of earings every 3 months, Can someone explain how you write your books out to show what you have earned as this is were i struggle to understand, what do i put as in if i earn 30 quid and it cost me 15 on fuel ect how do i write the 15 as a for instance weekly wage if that was all i earned that week Also in addition to that question would i be entilted to the run on for 4 weeks of housing benfit even tho i have just had a 2 week break in my claim? thanks to all that contribute to help out

im hoping somebody out there can shed some light on an issue a friends of mines girlfriend seems to be having in regards to "Self Employment" i`ll try keep this as breif as possible my friends girlfriend was short of money and saw an advertisement in the local paper in regards to a job working from home the job description was "people required work around your own schedule" she rang for the job and subsequently was hired that same day the business owner showed up with a peice of printed paper basically saying "You Are Self Employed and are NOT employed by (business name here) he got her to sign this paper at the bottom but he failed to sign it himself since she started this job hes incrased the work load by quite a lot and is paying her £4.50 per hour my question is what can i do to help her as if she is self employed what proof of this would she need for tax/N.I contributions as the way i see it he dictates the work load and pay and provides no payslips surely she cannot be self employed? my apologys if this post is in the wrong forum but i want to help her get some answers

Hi Hope someone can offer some advice. The father to my children tells the csa he earns 125 a week. He gets away with this as his son who is his accountant fixes his books, therefore the csa follow the tax return that Inland Revenue have accepted, and they say there is nothing they can do. I used to do his books, he earns over 600 a week. He told me before going to CSA he would get son (from previous relationship) to fix books so that he wouldnt have to pay much csa. (his daughter in law works for CSA so knows what he needs to get wages down too) 125 is less than min wage, he works 12hrs a day (earning 100) , he has mortgage of 260 pm and monthly bills that would take him easily up to 500 pm......there fore what money does he have left to feed himself, cloth himself, drink like he does, go out, run car etc etc....not only this he sees his children twice a week(not overnight) and spends money to buy them pointless magazines/trinklets, mcdonaalds, clothes (which they dont need) it equates to about £50 each week.....work this out and its £200 pm....so clearly he must be earning over 125 a week....he just could not survive on 125 a week, its impossible.....how in the hell can inland revenue not see this??? I struggle to feed the children and pay for utility bills, clubs and petrol to run them to these clubs, we are on border line, yet he happily flashes cash on them for rubbish (prob to rub in my face) but then declares barely anything to CSA, and refuses to think he should pay for their actual upkeep which Im doing on miniscule benefits. I cant work because cannot afford child care, and have a child with special needs. how can he think (despite how much he hates me) that it is appropriate to not pay for their upkeep which would actually benefit his children. Even the children know he earns more than 125, theyve worked out he couldnt survive on that! he has even told one child he has plenty of money and earns more than 100 a day! I go out of my way to be amicable with him seeing the children, all he does is be manipulative, play games and try to punish me. He doesnt want to give ME any money, but its not MY money, it is for his children, and thats exactly where Id spend it and he knows it. it would help the children have nicer things like their friends, enable them to use the internet, feed them decent food, pay for clubs that benefits their socialisation and the petrol to get them there and to school. Hes lying to inland revenue to avoid paying tax and avoid an appropriate payment to CSA....they say I should report him to inland revenue, but ive heard theres not much point as they dont investigate it?

hi there, I wonder if anyone can give us an idea of what to expect when we renew our tax credits... From April to August last year, my partner was working 40 hours a week as a self employed subcontractor. Then the company he was working for folded, but rather than sign on and claim JSA as we were sure we could weather the financial storm without doing so, he continued to look for work and we lived off our small savings (and sold pretty much everything we owned). Our second baby was born in November, so having him at home was a godsend really as I was pretty ill, all in all he was not working for around 5 months. By the beginning of Februuary thanks to the generosity of friends and family we had managed to find him enough tools etc. to set up on his own as a gardener. So he informed HMRC that he was now a sole trader, and at the time I rang tax credits who said that that in itself made no difference as he was already registered self employed. Things are really positive now, he is working 6, sometimes 7 days a week and we are financially back on track. However, now that we have got last year's accounts back from the accountant and it's time to renew our tax credits claim, I realise that the details they have for last year won't be correct, (he DID work 40 hours a week when he was working, but obviously that doesn't apply to the 5 months off). I feel stupid that we didn't tell them about the 5 month period where he was looking for work but not signed on. We continued to receive tax credits for that period, which I assume is fraud as now I've looked into it we should have told them within four weeks if he wasn't working? Being newly self employed last year, we just didn't think as I assumed our award would just be based on income (overall, he still made a profit of £4237 for the year) Will they just ask us to pay it back from future awards? Or will they cut off our award altogether for not disclosing all of the relevant information? I'm making myself sick with worry as this was a genuine oversight as we had so much on our plate. Any advice gratefully received.