Claiming working tax credits as sole trader, need to record hours worked?

[DCam]

Like the title says, to claim working tax credits as sole trader, do I need to record the hours worked?

I will be working 30 hours a week, will they need/ask for prove of this, so will I need to keep a record?

I looked around the web for a couple of hours for the answer, but Google is not working well for me today

[jadeybags]

I'm sole trader claiming working tax credits, have been since april. Never been asked to prove hours. I am down for 30 hours but add another 10 at least on to that tbh! lol

[mest116]

im the same, I have never been asked to prove hours, but I was told that all of this can be classed as part of your 30 hours or more, , posting leaflets {advertising ] going out to price jobs, doing your books , picking up supplies etc, basically anything that takes up your time to do with your business...

[nik1ki]

Hi I would log your hours and ensure you can prove them through job invoices etc. The reason is incase you along with thousands of others end up receiving one of their compliance letters asking for information as I did from end oct 12 to end jan 13. They wanted to see that I am actually working at least 30 hours but wanted all invoices, bank statements etc etc for that period. The problem is that it took me 8 hours over 2 days painstakingly trying to find, collect all info required. Unfortunately, they stated that they feel we could only prove 24 hours per week and said Inhad been overpaid. It was infuriating because they had not taken into consideration time taken to conduct quotes, do paperwork, telephone calls etc and even after I had appealed and wrote a breakdown of this showing a clear 55 hour week averaged over the year and asking if they would like me to send invoices for the busier months, they just replied with their decision still stands because I did not provide evidence!!! I asked them to let me know if they want it!!!! I cannot be bothered as they are now taking back the money I was entitled to. So much for being honest........so if I were you conduct your paperwork in the event of this so you do not have the stress I did. X. Furthermore, I was told by tax credits to do an average over the year as our work is seasonal so we worked many more hours over summer and far less over winter....but we have been told by tax credits recently that we cannot do an average over the year,!!!!!!! So infuriating x:mad2:

[jadeybags]

Blimey I would have to sort out mountains of emails & facebook messages to prove all the quotes, progress photos of the custom work I am making for them that I send to them, taking the pictures alone can take an hour a week, a months accounts can take up most of a day a month. Sounds like we're all heading for a fall.

That's ok, i'll quit working 12 hours a day self employed, go work in Tescos for 16 hours a week & they'll still have to pay me the same in tax credits, I just wont have to work as hard! lol

[nik1ki]

:mad2:Yep!!! thats about the short of it!!! now you can see why I posted a lengthy reply...because I do not want anyone to go through what I did.....hours of unpaid collating of paperwork , whilst trying to run a business and with a 4 year old in tow!! .... just after Christmas etc....and in the end although I can prove my hours they are still deducting my money...it is a big fat con and on top of that I have just had my end of year accounts back and I have well underestimated my earnings for last year by £2,500 so they are gonna sting me all over again!!! it is so difficult to estimate and although we are told to over estimate, this is difficult as the tax credits will be too low and the whole point of them is to top up your low income so that you can eat and pay your bills throughout the year.....I wish they would adopt a monthly thing whereby I could give them a monthly figure and they change the tax credits accordingly!!! a months overpayment would be easier to live with than a year!! so please heed my advice as you could suddenly receive one of those awful letters.....I got my first one in January....5 years since my business started. Tescos sounds like a good idea! xxx

[EagerElephant]

Did you see this nik1ki? http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/work-out-hours.htm

 

It does say there about what makes up your hours?

 

If you are not happy with the Overpayment have you appealed the decision (not just asked for it to be looked at again)?

Compliance make up the rules as they go along.

Once you have appealed if they don't agree it has to go to Tribunal and they look at all the facts etc - much better IMO.