Finance for Freelancers – UC Leeds / Leeds Conservatoire

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England

Various explanatory slides and materials to help you set up as a freelancer can be downloaded below.

You can also see some explanatory videos and online calculators on our Free Stuff page.

Click for ‘finance for freelancers’ explanatory slides >

Click to reveal helpsheets
Click to reveal templates

MSMicrosoft Office (Excel and Word) format…

If you need these templates in other formats, please email us at: training@davidthomasmedia.com

Budgeting sheets to control spending
Spreadsheet – for personal (not business) spending

Spreadsheet – Monthly budgeting sheet for freelancers

Cash flow planners
Spreadsheet – Cash flow for sole trader/Ltd

Spreadsheet – Cash flow planner incl. household and PAYE income

Business income record sheets
for Sole Traders, Partnerships, or Ltd Companies
Spreadsheet – Income and Expense (Profit and Loss) account for businesses

Spreadsheet – Pay Slip record for PAYE freelancers

Getting paid properly
Template 7 – Invoice (Or here for a pdf example with notes.)

Handout 13 – Blank project proposal form – with notes


For media freelancers (including payroll freelancers) Simple “Confirmation of Booking” letter – downloads Word doc in new window

Click to reveal latest tax updates

Tax basics:

The information below reflects important announcements made by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the autumn budget of 2025.

NB: Not much changed for Sole Trader Freelancers in the 2025 Budget. Dividend taxes to go up a lot from April 2026. This is not good news for Limited Company Freelancers.

  • Class 2 NI contributions are £3.50 per week for 2025-26. (Up from £3.45 per week in 2024-25)
  • Class 4 NI is 6% of profits over £12,570 for 2025-26.
  • The personal allowance (i.e. free of income tax and NI) is still £12,570 and is likely to stay at that figure until 2030-31, dragging more people into tax
  • The higher income tax rate of 40% kicks in after £50,270 (2025-26) for England, Wales and NI. Also frozen until 2030-31. The income tax bands for residents of Scotland are now very different. Check help sheet 3s.
  • The points at which income tax bands kick in have been frozen since 2022, and seem to have been frozen until 2030-31.
  • VAT threshold is £90,000 from 2025. So you have to be VAT registered if your turnover in any 12 months hits that level.
  • The Annual Investment Allowance (to buy kit and machinery) remains at £1m per year.
  • Corporation Tax is 19% for all Limited Company profits below £50,000 in the year, with a sliding scale up to 25% when profits are over £250,000 per year.

Contacting HMRC

Places to find support if you’re a new business:

NB: The New Enterprise Allowance was closed in 2022.

Other resources

The union BECTU/Prospect has some resources which might be useful if you’re freelancing:

BECTU – Support and Advice > – a site with information about support for freelancers in TV, film, theatre and events.

Working internationally? Click to reveal more...

We often meet trainees who are working in the UK but have moved to the UK from another country.

To check how much tax you might have to pay, have a look at the guidance on the HMRC website. Specifically, it’s worth looking at the definitions of:

If you are living and working in another country and supplying to UK companies, this article on Contractor UK might be helpful (Oct 2023):

VAT registered, and selling overseas?

If you’re VAT registered in the UK you need to be sure whether or not to account for VAT yourself, or whether your client has to account for it.

The rules vary, broadly based on

  • whether the client is based within the EU or not
  • whether they are VAT registered in their own country or not

This is not the place to go into detail – especially as Brexit has complicated things – but you can find out more on GOV.uk:

HMRC – VAT and Supply of Services

You may well need professional advice from an accountant who is used to working with international clients.

NB: David Thomas Media Ltd is not responsible for the content of other sites nor any financial advice provided by them.

Please note:

Although every effort has been made to provide accurate tips and information, David Thomas Media Ltd accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions or out-of-date facts. Trainees are advised to seek up-to-date professional advice on all financial and tax matters before making decisions relating to these subjects. Nothing in our notes, courses, webinars, downloads or social media should be considered as financial advice.
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