I don't know anything about paying tax

[Didji 1]

A while ago, I started putting AdSense ads on a hobby website I was keeping. It didn't really make any money, until 2012, when it took off.

 

Since April 2012, until today, it's made about £8,000. This has been my only income in that time (I claim no benefits).

 

I'm hoping to formalize this website in to some kind of business very soon, but I have absolutely no idea about what tax (if any) I should pay on my 8 grand, when I should pay, how, or anything. I have no problem giving the government what they want.

 

What should I do?

 

Thanks.

[scotgal68 557]

you can register as self employed on HMRC website. If you earn over £5995 then you'll be expected to pay class 2 contributions as well as tax. I don't expect the tax on 8K will much though, if you take in account your running costs

[Nystagmite 1,122]

Your tax free allowance for 2012/13 is £8105.

[Didji 1]

It's not so much a naked figure on what my personal allowance for the period concerned is that I'm looking for; I'm wondering how to go about paying, whether I should have been paying all this time, whether I'm in any trouble, and so on.

[jadeybags 197]

Well, officially you should have registered as self employed within 3 months of becoming self employed, profit or not. They can fine you if you don't. But if you have only been earning since april this year, you wont be asked for any tax yet anyway.

I have been self employed since april & have only so far received a NI bill for 60 quid, which needs to be paid by this month actually arggg, but nothing to do with tax yet.

When you register with HMRC as self employed you get a personal number & it all goes from there.

[honeybee13 3,890]

Hello there.

 

Have a look at HMRC's self-employed page. The first heading on the left is about registering a new business.

 

Please let us know how you get on, it could help someone else.

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/index.shtml

 

My best, HB

[*Thumper 51]

Congratulations, on making £8K from nothing!!

 

Time to start a second website, me thinks

[ericsbrother 3,387]

I'm fairly sure that although this is income that is taxable it would not be counted as earnings so it wouldnt be liable for NI contributions. You declare it on your self-assessment tax return as other income. If you did set up a company with this as its sole trading activity you can ofset your costs for your website, ICANN registrations and other necessary expenditure against the income tax liability.

[ericsbrother 3,387]

forgot to say, this tax year runs from april 5th 2012 to april 4th 2013 so you have plenty of time to ask for a suitable tax return. You then have to get it returned back to HMRC by Oct 31st for the paper return and the 31st Jan 2014 for online returns. They make you register to the Government gateway first for online submission so if you arent then you will need to allow at least a month to get that sorted.