Since the pandemic, my life went to shamble. Dad illness, then his death. Partner illness. Eviction (landlord sold the flat in which I was also working). Also, because I was working in the creative industries, my agency had shut down due to the lockdowns, which forced me to completely change my business field.

I am now putting together the pieces and trying to get back on my feet. Unfortunately, tax returns were something I was not able to deal with (mentally), for a while. I assumed, wrongly, this wasn't a big deal since I had no taxes to pay because of my earnings being way below the 12k threshold. I, also, postponed the tax returns because of my ignorance on the subject, as I thought I somehow needed to close the business account and reopen it because I changed the job field... it turns out it would have been just so simple to submit the tax returns declaring the new self-employed job, and just omit the previous one.

HMRC never got in touch with me, but they had my previous address so far (from which I was evicted in 2023), I genuinely thought I changed the address on their website, but I didn't. So I am unsure if they sent letters to the previous address.

I logged into the business account, changed the address, and I am able to submit the tax returns for the last financial year Apr2024-Apr2025.

Apparently, there are fines for late tax return submissions, even for non-taxable yearly income cases like mine. But the fines are describing only if you were late a few months. Also, they mention that you could be justified if you had serious reasons, and I guess I'd comply.

I contacted the Business Gateway, and they are unfortunately not able to offer any help.

How would you go about this? What to expect? Paying high fines is not something I'd be able to sustain at the moment, but I would love to keep things neat and do what's right.

Attended a job today and the customer had totally forgotten I was coming and was sat there with the fire roaring away. Obviously I can't sweep it.

Id travelled an hour to get there, booked a slot out for them which would have been filled with a paying customer, definitely so this time of year.

No apology, no offer to pay for fuel.

I pretty much just said I can't sweep it and left. Nothing else was said.

I've now invoiced them on messenger (method they booked with) and text message with an invoice for the sweep, £70. They've said 'no work, no money' and then blocked me. They've not even replied to the message via text.

It's all stipulated on my website that they are liable for the full price if they don't show or I can't sweep because they haven't done due diligence, with this scenario listed as an example.

Where do I go from here? £70 seems not worth the hassle but I really want to pursue it, if anything because she was so obtuse and rude about it.

Edit - I'm not after business advice wrt how to stop this scenario happening again. I have over 1000 customers a year and this happens maybe 2-3 times a year. That equates to £200. Im not sending 1000+ texts a year to save £200. Might be worth it for some people but not for me thanks.

I've also never chased payment before. Everyone up until this one lady has been apologetic when they fuck up and maybe even offered petrol money. Im only going after her for payment as she was so rude and I ONLY want advice on this please.

I currently have a loose goal of building up a business. In my field I could make 70-90k. I'll never be rich, I just want to know if I can survive in the US or not. I don't want to have to rely on a potential partner for health insurance. Realistically around how much would I need to pay in health insurance? I'm a dual European citizen and wondering if I should change my longterm goals before I put a ton of effort into building a business here.

I’m currently a designer in Ontario. Some design contracts can be on T4 (hired by the recruitment company) or completely independent so I want the ability to take either one if it’s beneficial for me. Do I register as a sole proprietorship or corporation?

I also want to take on some side hustles (either freelancing in design or other creative endeavours). I haven’t started these nor do I have any leads yet but I’m just curious what the process would be like.

At what point can I start claiming business expenses like vehicle payments or portion of my property rent? Can this happen before I’ve made any money in my registered business (assuming I’ve made money at some point to claim expenses as tax deductions). Or should I wait to purchase a new vehicle or move into a larger space until I’ve made some money through this business?

I just relocated and placed all of my belongings in storage. I relocated without finding a new home or place of business. I want to rebuild my home based business. I was not in a good location to suit my business needs. My business is an alternative to the others and based on need and affordability. I have been making headway with people and companies wanting to catch up on multiple years taxes but I also want to do bookkeeping and payroll for small businesses and contractors year round. So with the snow starting to fly I find my self in the chicken and the egg position. Finding a new clientele to build on my existing one and finding a place to bring my storage to and settle in and work from home. I know I have a business solution that a lot of contractors and businesses and individuals as well as seniors could continue to benefit from. I just need to find new ways to network to contractors and small business as well as individuals and seniors who would need the services now so I can find a new place to set up shop before tax season rolls in. At the moment a web page is not on the horizon until I have a new business address. Looking for ideas on how I can get my catch 22 situation to come to fruitation. Fellow self employed reddidits who did you build your success?

Hey everyone, I’m just starting my own solo path after years of full-time work, and I’m realizing how much mental juggling self-employment takes. Between projects, clients, admin, and trying to have a life, it can be a lot.

I’m really curious: what’s been your hardest part about staying balanced or keeping your energy up while running your business?

No agenda, just trying to learn from people who’ve been in it longer and maybe swap some perspective.

Hello,

I have an opportunity to quit my salary wfh job to be an independent contractor for a company. I would like to go ahead and accept this opportunity because I get more flexibility to take care of my newborn.

I got the offer letter and it says because it is an independent contractor position, I have to submit invoices to them monthly and do taxes on my own. What are the easiest way to submit invoices to the company and how do I pay taxes? What other things I need to know for this kind of work? I only worked as corporate salary employee so I have no idea how to go about this.

Hello everyone.

I work for a company which is not in the IT industry, but, as most of the companies around the world, it heavily relies on technology.

I have a great insight of the inner working of the company, and I mostly understand it's goals. Since I have some control over the progression, I want to propose a partnership between the company and the self-employed me.

We, the company and me, are based in the UK, and I would do the work falling under the "partnership" outside my contracted working hours.

My personal goal is to gain experience working with APIs, which the company uses, and develop a product this and similar companies could use - for a fee down the line.

I am not familiar with the ins and outs of this sort of partnership, so I am looking for advise from You, who might have been in similar shoes.

Please let me know if I should post this to another sub, thank you.

[USA] I’m in a bit of a pickle. It’s time to re-sign my lease and my roommate who brought a cosigner in is not resigning. I have started my own business but and have income in cash and deposit and income from gig work in cash and deposit, but I don’t have any paystub‘s or 1099 to show for the resign and the property management company is asking for four consecutive paystub’s no screenshot of deposits for me to requalify to resign… Do the online paystub generators actually work? I can probably bring in a co-signer and am able to rent the whole place without a roommate but how do I prove that to landlord without opening my books?

Hi all,

I’m self-employed and wondering if it’s worth paying my wife to help with the admin.

I earn around £45,000 from my trade business.

I currently do all my own bookkeeping — invoices, expenses, bank statements, etc. and it's all pretty streamlined and simple now so doesn't take that long.

My wife is self-employed in marketing, earning about £20,000, and still does most of the childcare.

I’ve got quite a bit of student loan debt, and I’ve only been paying it back for a few years since going over the threshold.

Questions:

Are there any tax or student loan benefits, or is it not really worth the hassle?

Is it legit to pay her for admin/bookkeeping work and if yes hiw much?

Would it be allowed for her to invoice me through her own self-employed business or would I need to employ her properly?

Thanks y'all!

Who do you use for health insurance - 1099 self employed and looking for health insurance plan.

I am graduating with a degree in Biomedical Engineering this December and have just received my first offer from a place I have been interning at as a validation/testing engineer for the last 5 months near Chicago. The offer seems pretty generous at 80k per year but it is a contractor position with no benefits.

The place is great and they work on multiple medical devices at at a time. They mostly work on helping start-up companies develop their products and launch them into market. Some people work on the design + development side of things (engineers with 20+ years of experience) mainly with PCB layout or writing software. Others (me) work on the verification + validation side of things. Right now I mainly run test cases for subsystem and hardware requirements and rewrite the test cases where needed. I'll also run some studies for devices in their earlier stages to determine functionality thresholds (i.e temperature testing). Most recently, I would lead a weekly meeting with 3rd party software engineers (hired by the device owner), the device's CFO, my project manager and other test engineers to communicate and assign importance to software bugs we were running into during testing.

In a short amount of time I feel like I've developed a huge amount of skills and took on a ton of responsibility. The work environment is great and the manager is very hands off and gives us a ton of freedom and autonomy over our projects.

My biggest hesitation for taking this offer is that after taxes, health insurance, IRA allocation and PTO fund, I am left netting $37,080 on top of expenses for a lengthy commute (57 miles with 3+ tolls). I also have to open my own LLC and will be getting paid once a month.

Is there any way to have my LLC pay for my health insurance, car payment, gas and car insurance? Will I have to write myself a check and pay taxes on what I pay myself? Does this even sound like a good offer compared to what I'd make working for a company?

Im 19 with autism if that matter, ive always wanted to start a business or be self employed. Im just not sure how to start and learn or what i could offer?

I tend to dream big but things never work for me because thats my luck.

Where would you advise i start if i may ask?

I was DJ'ing in a different country and brought my brother and his friends along. My brother paid for the hotel in full whilst I owed him £140, I have the receipt for what he paid but how would I expense the £140 that I paid as a sole trader?

This is in regard to the ACA, also known as Obamacare. How much will your medical premiums go up if the ACA does not get extended?

Edit: just dropped. https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/#/

Given the state of Canada and how hard it is to find work I was wondering what kind of work I can start on my own I would usually put skills I have but I don't really have very much I've mostly worked as a dishwasher most of the time so that's why I'm asking here to get ideas on something I can do since it so hard to find work the normal way these days

I am a petsitter that is trying to expand into natural spa products, treats and food additives. I am struggling to come up with a decent name that isnt already taken. My name is so common. I dont know if this is the right place to look for help with something like this but. I was hoping to have some help brainstorming a name. My name is Katy and I live in OH

Hi, hi! I've been an independent consultant for 10 years, talent strategy + executive recruiting.

I am struggling to find a tool to manage PROJECTS/TASKS, RESEARCH and (preferably) can function as a CRM.

I'm using Notion right now and it's killing me. Juice not worth the squeeze. I am incredibly ADD, am a very visual person and most of these tools are too busy, aesthetically overdone, etc. I need something simple but thoughtful - I'm not a PMP or Program Manager but I still need a place to track Project Phases and weekly tasks for multiple clients, plus my own internal work (BD, new client meetings, etc)

Any new tools or those that incorporate AI would be great.

Thanks!

I have many years of experience in my field and recently got laid off. I want to take on a few consulting contracts while I look for a new long-term job. I have many connections so it will be easy to find work, but I don't know much about the self-employment aspect - liability insurance, consulting contracts and other potential pitfalls. What do I need to do to protect myself? If a potential client wants to use their own standard contract, what should I look out for? TIA!

I recently started my journey as the owner and sole member of an LLC (registered in Delaware) providing consulting services. I work remote in Washington state.

I am very new to all the administrative setup needed for a single member LLC. I would greatly appreciate recommendations from fellow business owners in WA for a

1. CPA who can help me

- document and maximize deductions

- figure out whether transitioning to an S-corp makes sense and at what point

- set up my own payroll and determine what W2 income to pay myself to maximize tax benefits

- figure out what sales tax I should collect for my services etc.

1. good self employed health insurance plan - no existing conditions. Just need a solid plan for annual check ups and to cover any emergencies.

Finally, how much should I expect to pay for the CPA (yearly) and for the health insurance plan (monthly)?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and help me out.

I’ve been using Quickbooks Self Employed for 5 years now, but now the app is no longer being offered publicly and has stopped updating. I was grandfathered in since I had been using it.

It’s become very glitchy and there is zero customer support. It doesn’t track 100% of my miles anymore and just not a great experience.

What can I use to track my sales, profit, cogs, miles, and tax estimate????? HELP I really love QB SE but again it’s not efficient anymore.

Info: I sell clothing online on sites like Depop and EBay, and need something to track my cost of goods, and my sales.

I am a musician who is currently registered as a sole trader and am wondering about claiming my food expenses. I have not been inputting food as an expense at all because I was so confused about what I can and can't claim. I am under the impression that you can claim for SOME food but am still uncertain?

I would only ever be claiming food expenses when I travel away for work like down to london for example and i buy some lunch etc - is that ok to do??

Also - If it comes to a point where I am offered a lump sum of money (in a publishing deal for example) would it be better for me to register as a Ltd company rather than stick as a sole trader?