just wondering what to do at the moment with registering as self employed, i've well passed the 3 month period when i should have registered, but as i'm a student i never really thought i'd have to pay much just national insurance contributions. i've done a lot of cash in hand work before but now im getting money paid into me account throught wahat i believe is paye but i thought paye was supposed to deduct your tax. anyway just wanna know if anyone has felt the wrath of the taxman from not registering or do people usually slip trogh the cracks?
first off, don't panic, don't lose sleep over it. second if your payslips don't show a tax deduction then it's not PAYE; pretty unlikely anyway unless you're on a salary and have a contract. it's all a question of being honest up to a point and maybe an open forum like this is not the best place to discuss exactly what you can do or what others on here have done. If you're working more or less full time then you'll need to save about £15-£20 a week for tax and NI. tax offices have a lot of booklets and stuff which are helpful - just don't give your name or write anything down until you've taken some unofficial advice. and remember - when you get knocked off and an ambulance comes to take you to hospital it's taxes that pay for the whole thing so paying tax isn't much different from contributing to the LCEF. Except of course the LCEF don't waste loads of their money on nuclear weapons, illegal wars and so on and so on. At least, I think they don't.
Sign up for working tax credits. £50 a week, you don't have to prove your income for the first year until you do your first tax return. It's like a more respectable dole. They'll send you a booklet about what to do about tax when self employed. Wills right, don't panic. taxmen can smell fear.