Sarah87

I can probably help you a bit with some of these! - Will I need to fill out two seperate self assessments? No, you don't fill out two assessments. When you get the form, you will see that there are spaces for you to declare each income stream (including your PAYE employer - more on that in a minute). - How do expenses vs income work when it comes to taxation. If I have spent far more than I have earned, will I still be hit with a tax bill? There is a space on the form where you declare your business expenses. These expenses are deducted from your taxable profit, so no, you won't pay tax if you've spent more than you've earned. https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed - I'm also on full time PAYE for my main income, will this mean I have to submit differently, or will it affect my taxation overall? No, you won't submit differently. You will have to declare your employment on the self assessment, and provide the numbers from your P60, but it won't affect taxation in itself. It *might* contribute to you moving into a higher tax bracket if your combined income is over £50k, or however much the threshold is now. - Finally, do you have any advice on what is a good % of income to reserve to cover potential tax costs at the end of the year? The last thing I want to do is hit the new financial year and realise I've got a hefty bill that will bankrupt me! Haha, I empathise with the fear! You can do a back-of-the-envelope calculation yourself by figuring out how much income you're likely to be taxed on, then calculating the relevant % of that. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates Basically, you pay 20% tax on anything you earn over £12,571 up to £50,270 - but remember that you've already been taxed on some of your income through PAYE. Let's say for the sake of argument you earn £20000 per year with an employer. You pay 20% on everything over £12,571, so you pay 20% of £7429, which is £1485.80. Your employer should have managed that, so no worries there. Then let's say you earn another £1400 a year from your ceramics business, AFTER you've taken off expenses. You'll pay 20% on that, too, which is £280. So the actual tax bill you'll have to pay yourself, after you've submitted your Self Assessment, is £280. Another thing to bear in mind: your Self Assessment form will ask you if you *also* want to pay National Insurance Contributions on your self-employment income. As you already pay them through PAYE, you may choose not to, but that's up to you. For what it's worth, the form is quite helpful in terms of offering guidance on all the questions, so you'll probably find a lot of these questions get answered for you as you go. Good luck :)

I'm not with the HMRC but it doesn't sound like it, no. You could try this tool to make sure: https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return

Hi there, I'm a UK resident and I'm mainly employed by a UK company. Last year, I did a one-off piece of work with a company in Poland. This was all done remotely and I remained resident in the UK - I was paid into my UK bank account. My pay was taxed in Poland and I have a document from the Polish company that I think is the same as a P45. I just want to check that I'm declaring this income correctly... 1. Should I add the Polish company as an 'employer' on my tax return, where I declare my other UK employment (even though they don't have a PAYE tax reference?) 2. Could I check what I put in the 'Pay before tax taken off' box? My 'P45' from the company shows my total pay *before* Polish tax was deducted, in Zloty. I believe I should use a currency converter to calculate the pay in GBP, using the exchange rate at the time of payment, and declare that - is that correct? Or, do I show the pay I received *after* Polish tax was taken off (but before UK tax was taken, obviously)? 3. Am I right in thinking that it is the same number as in Question 2 that I then put in the 'Foreign Tax' section where it asks for 'Taxable amount'? ("Enter the gross amount of income, before any tax has been taken off, which you reported elsewhere and on which foreign tax has been paid.") 4. About currency conversion: what date do I use for the rates? The date it arrived in my bank account, or the date on the document from the company (which is several months after the payment was made), or something else? 5. About tax relief on the Polish tax paid: what date do I use for the currency conversion rates there? Any help much appreciated!