You will have heard that when you start working for yourself in direct sales & network marketing (or earning money from anything you do) you need to register as self-employed?

To support you here is some useful information regarding working from home and you tax responsibility with your FM business (and any other work from home company). As with anyone who runs a self-employed business, as a business partner or a team leader you need to make sure that your business complies with tax and National Insurance requirements. Remember PROFIT from sales is INCOME.

Tax and your FM Business

FM World cannot give you independent financial advice. However HM Revenue and Customs has lots of information available via their website or helpline.

It’s a good idea to:
Keep all appropriate records regarding your accounts i.e. invoices, receipts, postage spend, fuel costs, stationery etc.

Filling in your own tax returns once a year are not as hard as you may think, just keep track of your income and expenditure, break it down into the 12 months (I use a pocket filing system and put all my receipts into 12 sections for the months) then create lists (stationary, postage, car etc) it becomes a much simpler process and less stressful than doing it all last minute! There are also lots of apps out there now that can scan your receipts for you and manage your income/expenditure. Tax isn’t as scary as you may think!

How to Register as Self Employed & complete your online assessment for your tax returns

To do this you can either contact your local Tax Office or call the HM Revenue & Customs Helpline for the newly self-employed on 08459 15 45 15 Open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week or visit their website www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed

Step 1

For those on the team that have not yet spoken to the HMR and registered as Self Employed, below is a list of things to do as and when you decide to get yourself a UTR Number and Gateway ID number so you can file your Self-Assessment tax returns online (or get an accountant to do it for you)

Call the self- employed helpline to register yourself as Self-employed on 0845 915 4515.

You will need:
National Insurance Number

Starting date of your business

Business name (optional –as you are a sole trader you can use your own name)

They are open 8am – 8pm Mon- Fri and 8am – 4 pm on Saturday

They will request a UTR Number for you which will take up to 6 weeks to come to you. (UTR=Unique Tax Reference)

They will also help you with setting up your National Insurance Contributions too (about £2.00 a week) you can pay monthly Direct Debit or Quarterly

Step 2

Go online to HERE and register for your Gateway User ID

This ID is needed for you to be able to use the Online Assessment forms so please remember the PASSWORD you chose when registering

They will send your Gateway User ID within 7-10 working days

Once you have BOTH numbers you can now go online to complete your self-assessment, Keep them in a very safe place as it will take weeks to get them again! And keep your password safe too.

Step 3

Go to https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return and begin filling in your online tax returns

You will need your Gateway ID number and your password you created in step 2

You will also need your UTR Number to confirm you are who you say you are.

You will then be emailed an Activation Pin Number to access your personal Online Self Assessment forms

You will need to call the online services Help desk if you have any issues at this point on 0845 605 5999

Once you are online and at the self- assessment form you can call 0845 900 0444 for one on one help and guidance for filling in the form (this is a great service and one I personally used when filling my 1st self-assessment form in online)

Are you currently receiving income benefits?

For more information on entitlements – please check out the website below and speak to a professional advisor, we are not experts on this subject but can only give you some advice on where to go from here – but the minute you earn an income you ARE earning and should be declaring all cash profits that go in your purse to protect yourself, please visit the TURN2US website HERE

**You have three months from starting your business to register as self-employed AND until you reach £1000 sales.

Did you find this article helpful, did you find it easy to register as self-employed?

For more tips on running a business at home, pop over to my Business Page on Facebook. I share many tips that can easily be transferred towards your own company

Have you started tracking your orders and accounts in my order books yet?