Basically, I haven't the foggiest! Do we need to register as self-employed? Even if we are an equity member? I'm so confused!

Vicky xxx

pretend you don't know anything??? (j/k)

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Benjamin Franklin wrote that the two certain things in life are death and taxes! With this in mind, you will need to register as self employed and pay your taxes - trust me, they will find you sooner or later if you don't and they will be able to tell from your spending records exactly how much you owe.

As a general rule of thumb, if you are earning less than about £40,000 a year, you will need to keep about 25% of this for the Inland Revenue. Anything above £40,000 (not sure of the exact figure) is chargable at about 40% tax.

One way of 'slightly' reducing the amount of tax you pay is to register yourself as the director of a Private Limited Company (LTD) and pay yourself shareholder dividends every quarter. However, the downside of this is that you have to then submit annual returns and annual accounts - ie, EVERY PENNY has to be accounted for. This also means that you will need to hire an accountant to manage everything. You'll also then have the additional headaches of applying for VAT registration and doing monthly or quarterly VAT returns (sometimes the VAT man will refund money to you though).

Tax is one of those tricky subjects that is impossible to sum up in a post like this. But all you need to remember is that the tax man is ruthless and doesn't accept sob stories or pleas of ignorance.

My advice - speak to an accountant immediately.

Speak to an accountant. You have three months from beginning to be employed to registering as self employed but be careful since Equity records cna be checked by the taxman and if your proof for membership proves you have been working before you registered (remember equity should only be for "paid performances") then you could be in trouble.

I unfortunately got done over last year, my circus contract was buggered up and instead of being employed by the company, they forgot to tell me i would be freelance. Hence when I did go to register taxman kicked off and fined me £200. Bastards...

Grr this year's accounts are still staring me in the face...

vicxx

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I am starting to get asked to do paid gigs and as such have arranged to chat to my Accounts manager at work about the tax implications in the new year! I am also starting to make and sell fans so all this needs to be taken into consideration! So far in my working life I have avoided having to fill in a tax return. . . I think that will change from next year :-( But I can say I think burlesque is worth the pain of having to fill one in :-)

I think the figure for 40% is about £34,000?

When I have had a chat with him I will let you guys no the outcome.

Miss Blush x

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The big question is are you actually making any money? If you are making a profit after paying for costumes, travel, promotion, advertising etc then you will have to worry about tax. If you are making a couple of hundred a year I wouldn't worry about it - but I would keep a record of all expenditure and earnings as the tax office can go back 7 years if they decide to investigate.

Once you register as self employed you will have to fill in a tax return at the end of every year. The current year ends in April 07 and so you file your accounts for up to April and have to pay the following January (this is where some people slip up - set up a high interest savings account and filter off your tax money into that monthly) There are lots of money websites that will calculate how much tax and ni you have to pay - you just type in how much you earn. Doing your own tax return is do-able - I did mine for years - but you do miss out on things normal people don't know (for example, if you have a home office you can claim back a certain amount of your bills, plus you can claim 40p per mile when driving to shows - or 20p per mile if cycling!) My boyfriend's basic accounts cost around £300 - and he always gets it back through savings.

If your turnover is more than around £60,000 per year you'll have to register for VAT. Hopefully you won't have to worry about that yet.

I wouldn't worry about setting up a limited company until you really have to (ie, you're putting your house on the line!) The only advantage you have with being a limited company is that you can pay yourself a certain amount in dividends and not pay national insurance on those - you still have to pay tax so you're only saving 11% or so, but will have to do lots of complicated form filling and probably involve an accountant.

Tax is a long and windy road. Even if you don't register now, do get into the habit of saving absolutely every receipt and keeping a record of how much you earn so when you do register you'll know exactly what you're letting yourself into!

Katie

hey my fav subject !!!




1 register self employed with the inland revenue nothing to do with equity.
2 keep all your invoices, receipts an bills in monthly envelopes.
3. add up all your ins and outs
4 call the IR get them to help you fill out the form.

DONE !!


if you earn under 15 000 per year and you are not married you could earn working tax credits - ask th IR for a form - i used to get £150 per month !!!!!!!

if you earn more than 5 grand profit after deductions you will have to pay tax - last year i paid £140 tax !!!

hope this helps

x x x
redsarah

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Get an accountant who specialises in theatrical accountancy - Equity will help you out with that.

And try to be happy to pay tax - Last year when my wife needed an ambulance it was my taxes that paid for it, so I never feel bad about paying it..

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A very good point that I often forget to take into consideration!

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Does anyone know of a good accountant?

Does one register as self employed even when working full time?

What about cash gigs?

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