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Hi, I'm a freelance journalist who registered as sole trader. When I registered to HMRC - and created my business -I described it as 'media and journalism'. I tried to remain quite broad as I wasn't too sure what different activities - always linked to the communication sector though - I could include. Today a small company would like me to help it translate its website from English into French (my mother tongue), rewriting that a bit. I would like to do it and would naturally invoice them and declare it to HMRC, there's no problem with that, right? And for the invoice, could I put this activity under the business ('journalism and communication') I already have (because I write stories in French about things that are hapenning in the UK, I already translate and write a lot) or do I have no other choice but to create another one (I'd rather not to be honest), more focused on translation only (but to be honest, this translation job could be a one-time thing)? To avoid creating a new business, could I in exchange modify - if needed - the description of my company into something more precise such as "journalism, communication, translation, photography" intead of "media adn journalism"? Many thanks,

Hi, sorry, I'm posting this message a second time since I didn't receive any reply to the first one. Many thanks, " I'm a French national living in the UK and a UK resident for tax purposes. I'm currently in the process of filling in a 2023-2024 tax return (as I'm normally partially self-employed) and I had questions about "royalties" I earned in France. In summer 2022, I worked there for 2 months. The employer was based in France and I worked there as an 'employee', it was not 'self-employment', I earned a proper wage...which I declared to HMRC in the 2022-2023 tax return. But, later in 2023 (after the 5th April), my French ex-employer paid me the equivalent of £149 (gross amount) in 'royalties', I believe (in French, they are called "droits d'auteur" but also "droits voisins", which are a bit similar, if I understood correctly... I hope the translation to English is alright...I worked as a journalist in summer 2022 in a local newspaper in Burgondy). Anyway, I was not certain about where to put that amount in my tax return. I decided to enter it in the 'income from overseas sources' section, more precisely in the 'overseas pensions, social security benefits and royalties' box (and I naturally put 'FRA' for France as the country of origin... and I believe I would also give some more explanations at the end, in the 'additionnal information' section). Have I done the right thing? I also thought of entering that amount in the 'employment' section as these royalties are connected to my job as an employee in a newspaper, I'm not completely sure but I suppose they reused some of the work I produced in summer later on... In that case, I would have counted that as an employment, entered the £149 in the 'pay from the employment' box. I would have given, of course, the name of my French employer and put '000/N' as the 'PAYE tax reference of the employer' (I'm not sure exactly what it means but I know an accountant I contracted last year for my foreign wage put that, probably to notify HMRC that the employer was not based in the UK) and then I thought of explaining this a bit again in the 'additional information'. Would this be preferible? Many thanks,

Hi, Sorry I'm contacting you because I might be doing a few things wrong and intend to sort it out. I'm self-employed and registered with HMRC as 'sole trader'. I don't earn much with this business, around £6,000 yearly or even less. I wanted to know whether it was legally expected, in this case, to bookkeep, keep records of all the transactions? I'm asking because I might not be doing the right thing : because the amounts I earn are not very high, I don't feel the need to record them in timesheet. What I do when I need to do my tax return is that I just go through my bank statements (and I actually only have one account, which I use for everything, personal and business things...I wonder if this would be an issue, as well, legally?) and note all the amounts... About the invoices, for my services (I write articles)... I suppose it's a legal obligation, even for a sole trader, right? Most of the time, I manage to invoice my clients but I remember that one of them wanted his freelancers, for a time, to fill in in his own form (which doesn't have all the elements indicated here : https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/invoices-what-they-must-include / actually it was only describing the service and the fee) so that I didn't invoice him properly...and I reckon that in some of my invoices, there's been some mistakes (one or two of them has the wrong date, I've just noticed that and about the 'unique identification numbers', invoices don't always follow each other (actually, are we supposed to start a new count : 'invoice 1, 2, 3..." for each new customer or is it supposed to be one single count from the beginning of our business...so for example : client 1 will have invoices 1, 2, 3 but then if I have another client, he will get invoice 4...etc ?) but the services (title of articles in my case), date of service and fee and name and address of both, myself and the client, are provided...and, most importanly, I'm certain the turnover amount I give to HMRC each year is accurate...but could I be in trouble (possible penalty?) with HMRC for not being perhaps more rigorous with my invoices...and/or bookeeping system if that's a legal obligation? Many thanks

Hi, I've got a question about reporting foreign dividends (dividends that have been earned from a foreign company and received on an bank account abroad) on a tax return. First, in which section of the return are we supposed to enter that amount? If we earned less than £2,000 of dividends, will the box 'foreign dividends (up to £2,000)' in the 'interests and dividends from UK banks and building societies' section be okay (instead of the foreign section?)? Secondly, what are we supposed to indicate in box 7 'tax taken off dividends', the equivalent of the income tax that has already been paid abroad only? What about 'social contributions' (the dividends in question are French and 2 kinds of taxes are automatically removed from them by the French authorities : income tax and social contributions... which one - or both - do we indicate in box 7?)? Many thanks,

Okay, I'm afraid I've made a mistake. A few years ago, when I arrived in the UK, I accepted to work 1 to 5 days per month as a receptionist at a venue for a time. But the problem was that the job wasn't declared or, at least, I'm not completely sure... I mean, to pay me, they were sending me £60 per day of work straight to my account...but I didn't sign any contract or nothing of the sort (I didn't get any receipt either)...to be honest, I thought it wasn't a lot of money, that the job was nice..and I was also not completely sure of how things worked and thought that I'd bother them if I asked them for a contract (it was a flexible job, the company was offering work whenever they had availabilities and I could say 'yes' or 'no', there was no committment on either side...What I did is that, as I was also self-employed, registered here in the UK (but for different things, I'm a freelancer in communication), I did add the money they were giving me to the business turn-over I was declaring to HMRC (but I admit that I didn't invoice them and it's true again the 'task' that was required of me didn't match the business description I first gave HMRC when I registered)... I thought that as long as I would declare the money I would be fine...but maybe not ? I talked about that with a friend and have a doubt now... Could I be in trouble ? Should I do something about it (and what?)? In any case, I would not have owed HMRC any money as I was below the personal allowance (even with this money as a receptionis). Sorry, I hope you can help

Hi, I'm a French national living in the UK and a UK resident for tax purposes. I'm currently in the process of filling in a 2023-2024 tax return (as I'm normally partially self-employed) and I had questions about "royalties" I earned in France. In summer 2022, I worked there for 2 months. The employer was based in France and I worked there as an 'employee', it was not 'self-employment', I earned a proper wage...which I declared to HMRC in the 2022-2023 tax return. But, later in 2023 (after the 5th April), my French ex-employer paid me the equivalent of £149 (gross amount) in 'royalties', I believe (in French, they are called "droits d'auteur" but also "droits voisins", which are a bit similar, if I understood correctly... I hope the translation to English is alright...I worked as a journalist in summer 2022 in a local newspaper in Burgondy). Anyway, I was not certain about where to put that amount in my tax return. I decided to enter it in the 'income from overseas sources' section, more precisely in the 'overseas pensions, social security benefits and royalties' box (and I naturally put 'FRA' for France as the country of origin... and I believe I would also give some more explanations at the end, in the 'additionnal information' section). Have I done the right thing? I also thought of entering that amount in the 'employment' section as these royalties are connected to my job as an employee in a newspaper, I'm not completely sure but I suppose they reused some of the work I produced in summer later on... In that case, I would have counted that as an employment, entered the £149 in the 'pay from the employment' box. I would have given, of course, the name of my French employer and put '000/N' as the 'PAYE tax reference of the employer' (I'm not sure exactly what it means but I know an accountant I contracted last year for my foreign wage put that, probably to notify HMRC that the employer was not based in the UK) and then I thought of explaining this a bit again in the 'additional information'. Would this be preferible? Many thanks,

I'm a French national living in the UK and I'm resident here for tax purposes. I'm currently in the process of filling in my tax return (I'm partially self-employed) for the 2023-2024 tax year... and had questions regarding interests I also earned on a French bank account. In December 2023, I received the equivalent of £71 on an account I still have in France (by the way, am I supposed to declare to HMRC this account more officially, in a particular section of the tax return...or this is actually the way of doing it ?) and I just wanted to make sure I was putting that amount in the right section. As these particular interests are not taxed in France and are below the £2,000, threesold, I thought I would enter the amount on the 'interests and dividends from UK banks' section, precisely in the box for 'untaxed foreign interest (up to £2,000)'... am I right ? Or should I fill in the 'foreign interests' box in the 'foreign' section? I don't know whether it makes a difference, actually... Thank you !

Hi, I 'm a French national living in the UK and I'm resident here for tax purposes. In the 2020-2021 tax year, I had to sell the shares that I had at my bank in France in order to gain some liquidity as Covid was happening. In total I received the equivalent of £9,000 following the disposal of the shares...an amount that was, at the time, below the annual exempt amount (of £12,300, if I'm not wrong : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-gains-tax-rates-and-allowances) for the capital gains tax. The problem being that I didn't declare it to HMRC (to be honest, I asked this forum at the time and I'm pretty sure I was told that, because I was below the thresold, I didn't need to do anything...) whereas I apparently should have. That's what I was told more recently. And now I'm a bit scared. Would I owe money to HMRC and how much (I need to be prepared) ? Would I have to pay tax on the £9,000 (even if they were below the annual exempt ?) and of how much ? Would I have to pay a penalty for not declaring the amount (even, again, it was below the thresold?) and of how much ? sorry, I'd just need to have an idea of what I would owe HMRC potentially, many thanks

Hi, Hi, I'm resident in the UK for tax purposes but went to work in France for a 2-month contract in summer 2022. I naturally declared this money to HMRC.... but now, in the year 2023, I received the equivalent of £150 of 'royalties' ("droits d'auteur" in French), that are connected to that job (I was working as a journalist so I supposed that my ex-employer reused some of my work in 2023 which is the reason why he paid me royalties...). I suppose I have to declare the amount to HMRC : but how and where (which section and page excatly) ? in the foreign section as 'employment'? many thanks

Hi, I'm resident in the UK for tax purposes but went to work in France for a 2-month contract. On top of my wage - which I know is supposed to be declared to HMRC -, I also earned some royalties which are linked to that job and were sent to my account a bit later? I suppose I have to declare the mount to HMRC : how and where (whic, section and page excatly) ? in the foreign section as 'employment'? many thanks