Originally posted July 2020. Updated to include delayed implementation date.
HMRC have announced how they’re intending to move to digital tax reporting under their Making Tax Digital project (MTD).
In some ways the announcements are not that surprising. They’ve been talking about MTD for years. I’ve banged on about it many times.
Reporting VAT via MTD is already compulsory for any VAT-registered business.
What’s new is their timetable for making all businesses MTD-complient.
READ MORE > Posted on 23 July 2020
If you’re a freelancer it’s good to think like a business, and part of that is keeping an eye on how tax works. You can sometimes save a bit of money just by tweaking your behaviour across different tax years.
Yesterday (17 November 2022) Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled the latest plans to deal with the UK’s financial woes.
READ MORE > Posted on 18 November 2022
What to do when you feel your social network no longer cuts the mustard?
This is the question loads of people have asked themselves since Elon Musk took over Twitter.
For many it seems the answer is Mastodon.
I started my training business before social media existed, and usually claim that I only use them for work, not personal life.
READ MORE > Posted on 07 November 2022
I’m often asked about the idea that sole traders have to pay tax ‘in advance’.
That’s not quite true, but the ‘payment on account’ system means you might have to pay tax in advance of knowing precisely what the final bill for the year will be.
READ MORE > Posted on 22 July 2022
Every year at this time I outline some tweaks and changes to the tax system, so that you can plan your finances better.
This year it’s more complicated, partly because of the government’s reaction to the pandemic and partly because of some decisions made by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to change the balance of who gets taxed and how.
READ MORE > Posted on 01 April 2022
NB: This blog mainly uses 2021-22 figures for Plan 2 loans. Figures change every tax year, and might be different for Scottish residents, but the principle is the same.
For useful links, scroll down to the Find Out More box.
Student loan repayments are a bit of a pain when you’re a PAYE freelancer.
READ MORE > Posted on 03 March 2022
I was struck recently that only nine people are in the pilot scheme for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-assessment (known, horribly, as MTD-ITSA).
This is the massive HMRC project requiring sole traders (people registered as ‘self-employed’) and landlords to report turnover and business costs quarterly from April 2024, using special ‘cloud accounting’ software.
READ MORE > Posted on 01 March 2022
Last week I tweeted angrily, not something I do often:
The tax office appears to have decided right at the last moment that certain Covid hardship grants should, after all, be taxable. Whereas they’d said earlier that they were not.
READ MORE > Posted on 31 January 2022
For the second year running HMRC have moved the deadline for filing your income tax self-assessment back to Feb instead of the usual 31st January.
They’ve relented to pressure from accountancy and other bodies because so many people are off with covid and might not be able to get everything done in time.
READ MORE > Posted on 07 January 2022
If you use an iPhone you may be aware of Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 15.
Apparently it’s full of “amazing” new features. Apple are going big on new memojis, and clever things that FaceTime can now do.
As a trainer in freelance business skills the new feature which caught my eye is called ‘Focus’.
READ MORE > Posted on 29 September 2021
[
Big update: The Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced on 22 September 2022 that this new levy for the NHS has been abolished. As of 6 November 2022 National Insurance increases have therefore been reversed. (They applied only between July-October 2022.) This blog is now of historical interest only!]
The Westminster government invented a new tax for the UK this week. You can’t have failed to notice that we’re all going to be paying a ‘Health and Social Care Levy’.
You’ve probably also heard that it’s something to do with national insurance.
Well sort of. Here’s a look at the key features and how they might affect freelancers.
READ MORE > Posted on 09 September 2021
