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
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
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
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: Unbelievable: @HMRCgovuk suddenly decides Arts Council Emergency Response grants for freelancers during lockdown are now to be treated as taxable. With 3 days till tax deadline. This was the ONLY income for some people during lockdown. Inhuman.https://t.co/b9kCXR0myq — David O Thomas (@davidowenthomas) January 27, 2022
READ MORE >Posted on 31 January 2022
Following announcements about the likely easing of lockdown I wanted to make sure I update you swiftly on our training plans for the rest of 2021. I’ve been delivering training online for about six years with some clients, and was able to move everything online pretty swiftly in March 2020.
READ MORE >Posted on 06 July 2021
One of the most stressful things for a new freelancer is talking about money. We’re not culturally set up to do this in the UK. But there are ways to approach this knotty topic which will reduce stress and help you come across as professional.
READ MORE >Posted on 18 May 2021
[Updated 23 July 2021 to include a note about holiday pay.] Every few years there’s a new initiative to help freelancers get paid on time. Maybe I’m getting old, but it seems to me that if these initiatives were effective, there wouldn’t need to be any new ones! Nevertheless, it’s good to see that there’s
READ MORE >Posted on 04 May 2021
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