Self employment

It can seem an attractive option: you are your own boss; the great results are down to you and your hard work … and there’s no one to steal the glory from you!

You are free to do what you like when you like without sanction. It allows a huge degree of flexibility so that you can fit your work around everything else in your life rather than being tied to strict office hours (providing that you remember that other do work in offices that shut). Working for yourself means that you will no longer have to work yourself to exhaustion for someone else’s gain … and it might be worth working that hard for yourself!

Self employment does come with some less liberating strings attached, though. You might find yourself saying ‘yes’ to every offer of work because you never know when the next job will come up, only to find yourself inundated and unable to complete any of them satisfactorily. You might find that not having a guaranteed salary makes big demands on your energy resources; it’s very stressful.

You might find yourself really busy with the work and very successful … but too tired to deal with all your admin. You may just not be very good at admin or the financial side of running yourself as a business.

Having considered your situation and decided to become self employed you have also taken on some real responsibilities.

You must register with HMRC as self-employed; you will have to make self-employed tax returns; you must keep accurate records and keep on top of all your figures and receipts so that when it comes to the end of year and you have to do your tax return it hasn’t turned into an impossibly huge ordeal … which has to be done by the HMRC deadline, whatever your workload at the time, or you become liable to financial penalties.

Suddenly that liberating step sounds a bit daunting. Don’t be put off … the Tall Dog self-employment packages are designed to help … whether to get you off the ground, or at year-end, or more regularly to keep the machine clean, tidy and well-oiled.

The Registration Package

The most basic deal. We’d register you with HMRC as self-employed, set up your NI Contributions and if you want us to set up as your agent so if you need to speak with HMRC, we can do so on your behalf. And we’d supply you with a guide explaining about your NI Contributions, Expenses you can claim and telling you exactly what you need to do and the penalties involved if you fail to fulfil those requirements.

The Valet Package

Deals with everything covered by the basic package and then while you work, the Tall Dog provides the valet services: sorting/ordering your receipts, detailing your expenses, keeping all the records in order so that submitting your tax return at the end of year is straightforward. We can’t work magic … so if you don’t supply receipts, we cannot detail the expense … but if you give us the relevant information we can deal with the red tape. And keep an eye on VAT thresholds, too.

It’s always worse and more time-consuming (and therefore more expensive) to sort out a muddle than to keep things in order from day one. Do contact us today to talk it all through before things get out of control.