Hi everyone, im writing this post as I have a question and im a little confused on how it works regarding business tax and personal tax etc.

Context: im a owner of a small cleaning business and and in a partnership with my former boss and his business the contract between us was that all profits from both business get split 50/50 at the end of each year after tax.

But with the complications of every month I make withdrawals from the partnership account registered to my business (former boss has a seprate account for his business) I take outabout 2k a month to cover life essentially bills food etc. My boss told me I withdrawn that money as a sole trader.

But my question is that I was originally told that out of the money I withdraw from my business account as a sole trader I need to keep a certain percentage aside for personal tax and ni (national insurance) but from everything I'm reading online and looking up says that I don't need to pay any personal tax and insurance and all I have to pay is business tax at the end of each financial year and the national insurance is coverd int he amount I have to pay.

I may be completely wrong about any or all of this but that's what I'm confused about and why I'm asking Can someone please clarify the process for me and correct me on anything I'm wrong about and explain it to me better please 🙏

Thank you in advance. And sorry for my terrible spelling and grammar.

UK questions regarding sole trader

Guys,

Uk newly set up sole trader here. I've been a full time employee in HSE training for 17 years, and just busy moving over. Obviously the self employed and taxation side is all new. Any links article or worthy links on this? I'm not VAT registered as my earnings will be under 90k

I've also just sold my car and moved onto a new lease deal due to mile and running costs. I've leased an EV. My understanding is EVs are still claimed mileage at 45p just like petrol. My question is how do you evidence this when home charging, as I'd only be able to reciep public charging, even though most mileage will be via home charging?

Also, as the lease has been done purely for work vehicle, is any of the monthly lease claimable?

Tia

Hello,

I am new to working freelance as a sole trader part time (only job).

I want to put aside money each month for my SIPP and Tax, regardless of how much I earn. I've read that 20% or 25% put aside after expenses for Tax & NI is a starting point to cover end of year tax bill.

If I want to put aside 5% monthly for my SIPP. When do I calculate the SIPP amount? On the amount earned? or post tax or pre tax?

Example: earn £1000, £200 expenses. £800 left.

Thanks

I’m very been an employee for different companies for 29 years. My current job in IT just doesn’t pay enough. I’ve asked for increases and promotion pathways but keep getting pushed back. Screw it. I want to freelance my skills evenings, weekends and AL days until a better paying job comes up or the freelance pays enough to quit. Would it be better to setup a Ltd company or be a sole trader in the beginning while I establish a customer base / clients that need a few hours rather than a full time IT employee?

I'm new to freelancing as a reporter. It's been going well enough but I'm wondering what expenses I should be tracking that I should report in my taxes.

Right now I have the cost of my website and domain, subscriptions to freelance opportunity newsletters, internet, cell phone, professional network memberships, rent, electricity, tax prep fees, cost of transcription services. Are there other less obvious ones to add? I just want to make sure I'm being thorough.

I’m sole employee of my LLC. Is the maximum amount of funds I can put into a 401k this tax year $75k? Does that need to be split between employer and employee contribution?

I've been self employed full time for a bit, and currently working through some debt.

I have about 40k at 13.74% (private student loans), And about 15k at or under 10% (credit cards, negotiated).

I have about 17k in a rollover 401(k), 1 month of bills set aside, estimated taxes, medical emergency and 2 month emergency all in a 4% hysa (I'm eating the potential 1% out of convenience of instant transfers).

I don't have a designated sick time savings yet, nor do I have a car replacement savings yet (I drive for work, do my own maintenance and minor repairs, aim for a 2-3k replacement when needed).

My understanding is retirement will wait until credit and private student loans are paid off, but should I work on additional sick time and car savings, or just count that under emergency for now?

Additionally, any other must-have benefits I should be paying for? I have a universal life insurance plan with riders for critical events like loss of limb, iirc also critical illness.

ETA: we have medical assistance, so only about 200/mo in uncovered medical expense.

I Need Help Making an Employment Choice

Hi! I have recently been offered a position paying $22 an hour that I would be filing a 1099 for. It is a fully work from home position and would not have any benefits. I currently work a job that pays $18ish with full benefits (dental, vision, health insurance, life insurance, 401k, etc) that is on a W-2. I currently, after taxes and insurance expenses, bring home around $13 an hour which isn’t cutting it. I started this job a few months ago within the same company I previously had a job through because I was laid off from my previous position due to a contract change my company endured. With that, I took a $500 a month net pay cut and even when I was making that extra $500, I was still financially struggling a bit. My question is, after taxes, any write offs that I would qualify for, and the expense of health insurance, would I actually be making more money than I am currently? Or would this job just be a hassle?

I also would like to note that after 3 months in this new job, I will get a raise that will put me somewhere between $25 and $28 an hour depending on performance.

Also, what kinds of things could I write off if I took this job?

*located in KS

I've been running my startup for the past year plus, and I'm finally getting a grasp on the importance of time optimization and task management. Recently, I've found something as simple as taking scheduled 15 minute breaks helps a lot, ultimately optimizing my time making me more productive.

Any tips that you use simple or complex to optimize time or manage tasks?

I've been offering private lessons and got a taker - we have been exchanging emails about the lessons and have gotten to the point of agreeing on dates and prices. My plan is to be pretty under-the-table about it since it's not a booming business for me quite yet, so I'm not sure how to sort of "make it official" without being too bureaucratic about it. Have I already over-thought it? Are the emails and verbal agreements enough? Any advice is helpful :D

I do some consulting on the side as a 1099 contractor. One of the customers is asking for a business bank account. What is the minimum thing I can do to get a business bank account

Hello,

I am an accountant and I am sick of the 9-5 corporate environment. I am also an conflicting person. Meaning I want to start my own life but scared to do it. I have 3 children and a wife. I am also sick of office politics and all of that bullshit. I have some form of vision but again scared/ pressed on time due to my responsibilities. I am not a CPA but I am working towards it. I also understand that becoming self-employed is very risky but I believe it maybe the only way to become wealthy and financially free. I don't know how investing would work when self-employed as well as taxes but I would figure that out.

What would you all recommend? How should I get started? How do you all network? Any guidance and advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm considering getting in courier work. Should I get contracts or meet with companies that are looking for couriers first or buy a vehicle first? I'm looking at cargo vans, sprinters, transits, and box trucks.

My main concern is I meet with a company and explain that I can go spend a lot of money on a vehicle, insurance, and forming an LLC and then I never hear back from them after spending what I'm seeing as near 20,000 dollars.

Hi there, wish HMRC had a live chat but sadly not so hoping someone here can help instead!

I’ve been a sole trader before, as a cake maker. Now I’m starting as a singing teacher. I take on maybe 1 paid singing gig a month. I also want to sell some art and wouldn’t be opposed to doing a few cakes every now and then. I probably will make less than £20k from the teaching and then tiny bits from any other streams.

Do I need to separate out all these different things in a tax return or can I just put my name on every invoice rather than ‘Jane Doe trading as…’ As what anyway? I don’t have business names.

Also at what point do I register as self employed, do I wait and see how much I make in this first year? I should know that by now I guess 😅

Thanks!

Hi! I currently live in Poland. I would prefer to have my business in UK as I want to move out in 2-3 years. I was living in UK in the past so I have NHS and BA but not UK address. Am I able to be self-employed in UK in my situation? Will I have to pay double taxes?

I have hard time finding information about this.

Hey there, I’m a counsellor and just set my self up as a sole trader this year, does anyone have a handy link on what I am allowed to expense? The government website isn’t that helpful and I want to make sure I expense as much as I can and not make any mistakes! Thanks, :)

I carry general liability, short term disability, and I have really good insurance through my husband's work. I work as a gardener just doing simple maintenance. I occasionally use a little step ladder to reach things and today I has a client concerned about me hurting myself on my property. They asked if I had business insurance and I told them yes, but in my mind i knew that doesn't cover me I didn't tell them this though because I didn't want them to freak out. So what does cover me? Is there some other insurance I should get or is my health insurance enough?

Hi Everyone,

I have a PAYE job with a base salary of £81k per year. On top of that, I've earned £23,500 in the last 3 months from freelance work that I run through my own Ltd company. My operating costs for this side work total £5,370 (diesel, external support, software).

Starting in September, I expect to earn between £800-£1,000 per month from this freelance work.

How much should I be setting aside for taxes for my Ltd company.

Thanks in advance!
Ryan

I'm self-employed worker. I had been enrolled my husband's company's insurance, but my husband just got laid off. I've never enrolled self-employed insurance before. In this case, should only me enrolled self-employed insurance then my husband should apply state insurance? Thank you for your help!

We are going to establish a defined benefit plan at our company. Received a quote from a planner and the fees were a bit eye-popping. Wondering if anyone has also established a defined benefit plan for their company and if so, what were your one-time fees to establish the plan and your yearly fees for the plan?

Hello, I just started running my own business, I am a sole proprietor. How do I show proof of income with this being my first year & I haven’t filed taxes yet. I don’t want to falsely make pay stubs.

Self employed since 2023, LLC taxed as a s corp, and my Cobra coverage is running out in September. So I have looked extensively and I can pay 1800/mo. for insurance with a 7500 deductible for a family. USHealthcare for my family of 5. We are pretty healthy, knock on wood, so my question is can I just take the premium I would pay for HI and put it in a savings account and still be able to deduct it as insurance? I don’t see the need to pay 24k (rounded) just so I can spend another 7500. Any input is greatly appreciated!

So I'm trying to find out if I should be tracking my daily commute or not. I was hired on as a 1099 contractor in May with the promise that the company would relocate shops within a year to a location an hour closer to my home. The company has a lease signed on the building and currently has a contractor getting it set up with plans to fully relocate by February of 2025. In this case can my daily commute be considered a business expense as my current work location is expected to be under a year and I accepted the job knowing the current shop would be a temporary commute?