When Becoming Self Employed What Tax and Insurance Laws Must We Consider?
Written by Admin on February 8th, 2010In these difficult times of finding jobs, more folk are looking to work for themselves. If we are our own boss, we cannot be made redundant and are to some extent in charge of our own destiny. It is very easy to switch on your computer and see a vast array of Online Jobs, many giving the chance to Work From Home, setting up your own internet business.
Others may opt to retrain and run their venture from a van, eg dog grooming franchise, or burger van opportunity. Still more will pick the option of having their own business premises and possibly even taking on folk to work for them.
Whatever selection is made, there are certain rules – tax and government – regarding running your own business. There are different rules and regulations depending on how you set up your business. If you are a sole trader you will be required to abide by set of rules, if you start up a company and name yourself as an employee, there will be other laws. Usually for any person starting up a business, it would be good practice to gather advice from an expert and in almost all cases this is no doubt what happens.
The folk who will fall foul of these rules are those who Work From Home and are in all probability not aware that they must still follow these rules. In fact, there may be extra matters to be considered when opting to Work From Home. You may need permission to use your house as business premises, in particular if you will have business colleagues or similar in your house. For most Internet Business jobs, this would not occur, but you should be aware of this. There may be a requirement to pay business rates as the home is also business premises. However, it may also be possible to claim VAT on household bills for the area of the house used for business purposes, if you are VAT registered.
There will be employer and employee tax fees, along with National Insurance contributions. A good source of information for all these issues and help in starting up a business is Business Link, which can be found in most areas of the country, or indeed on the internet.
This may appear quite discouraging to anyone who believed that they would be able to do Online Jobs Work From Home without needing to be involved in tax, National Insurance, business insurance or any other laws surrounding the self employed, but it does not have to be so.
As I mentioned earlier, it is quite a straightforward matter to chat with Business Link and get their guidance on how to be certain you are staying within the law while setting up your own business. You can also get help from the government and HMRC web pages. If you are not confident in being able to sort things out by yourself, then it may be worthwhile paying for professional help with the financial side of things, until you gain confidence in your own ability to manage your business by yourself.
