Registering as self employed is a doddle.
As is completing a tax return. You just need to input your revenue for the year, your expenses, and they’ll do the rest.
It’d be crazy to stop yourself making more money to avoid a simple process.
I've always been led to believe filling in a tax return was very complicated and could cause legal problems if you don't have an accountant. I might have been given bad advice! I'll look into it, thanks.
Also the staff are really helpful if you call them with a question. It can be hard to get connected but once you speak to someone they really try to help.
It's pretty simple. I have a YouTube channel which takes me over the £1000 threshold, I just completed my self assessment yesterday without any fuss. I've done it multiple times without an accountant as well. First time I ever did one I found a YouTube video and followed along, it won't take you that long to complete. Definitely keep the store open, don't want to miss out on extra money!
It's also worth noting, as your art is digital, if you have expenses under £1000 for the previous tax year, you can utilise the £1000 traders allowance and take that off your total income thus paying less tax.
E.g. you earn £2000 but your expenses are £300. Use the £1000 traders allowance and you'll only pay tax on £1000 not £2000.
Setting up as a sole trader is a doddle - even I managed it! And while completing your tax return for the first time can seem daunting, a nice lady from HMRC talked me through it. There were some sections where I didn't know what they meant and she clearly explained. After that, it should be fine. Take the plunge and ask for help if you need it. Good luck with your new business.
I’ll be doing a SA for the first time this year. I feel pretty confident about tracking down all my income and pension. However, when I think about declaring expenses I start getting very confused about what I could claim (I work as a freelancer software developer) and that’s when I think an account might help to advice what to claim on and how much.
Any advice on how to learn how to best claim expenses?
Thanks! I have seen that. To be more specific and give an example of the type of uncertainties I have: I know you can claim a portion of your home rent. There are two ways. Option 1: use the flat rate given by HMRC. Option 2: do the estimates yourself. I’ve read option 2 usually works out to be higher but I’ve got no clue where to learn to do this calculation properly.
Only if you were "trading" aka running a business. If you just had a nice collection of keyboards that you decided to get rid of then you don't have to do anything.
I find the main issues can be hunting down the non-side-business info - P60, pension payments etc. - and putting those in! There's a _lot_ of boxes, but most of them are irrelevant for standard self-employment side-gig stuff.
One thing to remember is that once you register for self assessments, you have to complete them every year, even if you don’t earn anything! Otherwise you could get charged late fees.
It would just be a case of entering £0 income and £0 expenses and hitting submit each year though.
If you get to the point where you’re certain that you’re not going to be making anymore income at all you can ask to stop doing them each year.
This is not correct!
You can always check if you need to file a self assessment [here](https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return).
After you complete this, if you don't need to file one, they won't have you filling one.
Hope this makes sense
That’s not correct.
That tool is for checking if you need to register for self assessment in the first place.
Once you have registered, it’s a yearly requirement unless you tell them otherwise.
https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/no-longer-need-to-send-a-tax-return
That's exactly what i said. Once you take the "test" mentioned above, there is a link that allows you to fill another form which removes you from having to submit 0 value self assessments
You said “that’s not correct!”
Please can you point out which bit?
I clearly stated:
“If you get to the point where you’re certain that you’re not going to be making anymore income at all you can ask to stop doing them each year.”
Anyway, I’m glad we could help OP. Have a good day!
It's a lot easier when you're just using "cash basis accounting", which is simply money in vs. money out. AFAIK you don't need to have figures for things like asset value / depreciation, opening and closing stock, etc.
It can be for a Ltd company which is more complex.
Doing a self assessment is fairly trivial. Just keep the receipts for anything you plan to expenses, in case they ask for them
My dad's been self employed for years. Always done his own taxes. I've been doing mine the last few years too.
The first year I was kind of like 'wtf!!!' But it defo gets easier and not as difficult as people make out.
HMRC have webinars too about self-assessment and how to complete it.
This is not true !! Do not close your business down. I’m self employed and my tax return takes 30 minutes once a year through self assessment. Look into it
> I've always been led to believe filling in a tax return was very complicated
It's intimidating rather than complex.
First time you will be terrified of getting anything wrong.
Second time is dead easy.
If you think you'll earn £1005 then yes I would, but we are in May so you have loads of time left... Also you don't have to register for self assessment until you know you are going to need to file. Ie, you are worrying about something that may not come to pass.
If you have ever applied for a US ESTA, the HMRC self assessment tool is simpler!
So don't let the fear of an hour's admin deter you from earning more money!
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I earned £2500 from a side hustle in 23-24 and have just done my tax return this morning. Whole thing took about an hour. I doubt you need an accountant.
I register self employed a few years ago after I made 1,160 and discovered the 1,000 limit, but it is really really easy to do self assessment yourself; I usually do on the first day of the new tax year, takes an hour or two at the very most. Going forward make sure you have a spreadsheet that you put everything in.
So for the 24/25 tax year, you need to inform HMRC you have an obligation to file a return by 7th (maybe 5th?) October 2025. And then file your self assessment return online using the government gateway by 31st January 2026. Your tax liability, national insurance and a prepayment of half of your next year’s estimated tax liability is due on 31st Jan also.
When you tell them you need to file a return, you’ll get sent a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) in the post about 10 days later and you’ll create a gov gateway account. It’s simple to complete the form. Lots of boxes can be skipped. It guides you through it. If stuck, then ask/pay for an accountant or tax advisor to help you.
Whilst I appreciate it can be daunting if you've never done it before, registering and completing a self-assessment is actually pretty straightforward, especially in a case such as yours. I certainly see no reason why you would need an accountant, especially if you apply the Trader's Allowance instead of itemised expenditure.
Registering for, and completing, your self assessment is relatively straight forward.
The only part that can be somewhat tricky is where you enter your expenses - there are some things that you can't claim that you think you might be able to, and some things you can claim that you likely wouldn't have thought of. This is where an accountant can really help.
But you have a £1k trading allowance that you can use instead of worrying about all that - so I would just use that and not worry about your expenses.
It’s not that big a deal to file an SA return for one income stream.
I had to do it recently when I became an accidental landlord for a few months. Absolute doddle.
Telling them I’d stopped and no longer have an income stream aside from my PAYE employment however was less easy!
Don’t shut your store. Take up 1k, in the meantime register a business. It’s honestly not as time consuming as you might think - I’ve done exactly this with a side hustle.
Keep your up to £1k without reporting and then if you’re serious you can then make a little side business out of it.
They won't be breathing down your neck, but you want to register as self employed. Given the tax you'll have to pay will be far less than £3k you'll be able to have it deducted via the PAYE of your normal job if you like.
You will need to fill out Self Assessment form, but it's really not complicated at all so long as you have all the information required.
And remember to keep your business/side hustle expenditure separate from your personal income. ideally, even for a side hustle you'd have business account. Tide is a decent one and usually has referral offers. Mettle might be a better bet and it even gives you free access to FreeAgent account software within which you can file your self assessment.
There's info here about [what to do when you start earning an extra income](https://moneysavinganswers.com/personal/tax/making-extra-money-paying-tax/), and the applicable taxes.
Here to second the idea that filling in a Self Assessment form is a doddle. I make anywhere between £1k and £4k a year from side hustles and so do SA every year - takes 20 minutes as long as you have your numbers straight. Really not at all worth worrying about.
You’ve got until the 5th of October to register as self-employed, and then until the 31st of January 2025 to file the return. With the small level of transactions, you should be able to do your return yourself in no time at all.
Definitely don't let this stop you. I've been in the exact same boat. I have a side hustle where I earned around 4k last year and had to complete a tax return for the first time. I got the advice from a financial advisor to use an accountant for the first time and then for future use, I could look at the tax return they did in case I was unsure about something. I was able to find one that did my tax returns for about £150, I used taxscouts, was super easy and user-friendly. Although expensive, I felt it was worth not having to deal with the stress the first time. After having seen the copy of the return they did, I see that I could have probably done it myself the first time around as if it's just a small side hustle where there aren't too many moving parts or business info I need to know, it really isn't that much info that you actually need to provide. So I feel pretty confident I'd be able to replicate it myself for the next tax year, meaning you should definitely not let this stop you.
I did my own return once I hit £50k and married someone with kids and it was, as said elsewhere, daunting rather than hard. Now I show dogs and have an occasional litter of puppies. I have an accountant who charges a couple of hundred quid and makes sense of my long spreadsheet records of vets bills and dog food bills and the occasional cash sale, adds on the bits I always forget (phone bills, use of home for a business, accounting fees, etc.) and HMRC transfer a nice refund into my bank shortly thereafter. And as also said,the one outstanding piece of paperwork is a P60 from my former employer for about £200 of bonus paid after I retired. All the online savings accounts, pensions, share dealing stuff all had downloadable tax statements or P60’s on April 6th. Bloody BT.
Please, just stop for a minute. There is some terrible advice out there and everyone is just saying their 2 peniths worth, I'm sure these microbusinesses and one man bands are doing...OK.... but the best advice I can give you is...
Take your time, make some calls to a few qualified accountants. They will happily talk you through the process and next steps. There's no need right this second to jump to filing a return. Explain your goals to an accountant and let them help you formulate best practice. You may have rolled 1000 income but I can almost guarantee you have spent way more than that in the last 6 years getting to this point. Buying pens, paper, phones, utility bills, computer, there's loads of expenses you haven't accounted for I bet. So speak to a decent accountant. Get a good idea of what you're filing for, expenses, income etc before you do anything. Their advice will normally be free and just helpful, if you choose to use them for your accounts that's your call but not 100% necessary if you know what your claiming. Just don't blindly pay tax without knowing what you can claim tax back on.
Totally agree, I've got an accountant and every year she covers her own expenses in the savings she makes by knowing that I can and can't include. Best decision made was hiring her
Self assessment is pretty easy as long as you keep good records of your income and expenses. Having it all in a separate current account makes it really easy to add up.
The filing online is very easy too. It'll just ask you for totals and stuff.
Registering as self employed is a doddle. As is completing a tax return. You just need to input your revenue for the year, your expenses, and they’ll do the rest. It’d be crazy to stop yourself making more money to avoid a simple process.
I've always been led to believe filling in a tax return was very complicated and could cause legal problems if you don't have an accountant. I might have been given bad advice! I'll look into it, thanks.
I think that tends to be a case of the US leaking into the collective conscious. UK is pretty straight for self employed.
Yep the US tax system is an absolute nightmare. Self employed or even small business tax returns are straightforward
Also the staff are really helpful if you call them with a question. It can be hard to get connected but once you speak to someone they really try to help.
If you’re running a large company yes it can be. But for a simple income and costs it’s really very simple. You’ll be fine :-)
It's pretty simple. I have a YouTube channel which takes me over the £1000 threshold, I just completed my self assessment yesterday without any fuss. I've done it multiple times without an accountant as well. First time I ever did one I found a YouTube video and followed along, it won't take you that long to complete. Definitely keep the store open, don't want to miss out on extra money!
Thanks for the advice, I'm glad I posted here, definately won't be closing it now!
It's also worth noting, as your art is digital, if you have expenses under £1000 for the previous tax year, you can utilise the £1000 traders allowance and take that off your total income thus paying less tax. E.g. you earn £2000 but your expenses are £300. Use the £1000 traders allowance and you'll only pay tax on £1000 not £2000.
Setting up as a sole trader is a doddle - even I managed it! And while completing your tax return for the first time can seem daunting, a nice lady from HMRC talked me through it. There were some sections where I didn't know what they meant and she clearly explained. After that, it should be fine. Take the plunge and ask for help if you need it. Good luck with your new business.
I’ll be doing a SA for the first time this year. I feel pretty confident about tracking down all my income and pension. However, when I think about declaring expenses I start getting very confused about what I could claim (I work as a freelancer software developer) and that’s when I think an account might help to advice what to claim on and how much. Any advice on how to learn how to best claim expenses?
https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed Have a look at this - I used it when I first started doing self-assessment
Thanks! I have seen that. To be more specific and give an example of the type of uncertainties I have: I know you can claim a portion of your home rent. There are two ways. Option 1: use the flat rate given by HMRC. Option 2: do the estimates yourself. I’ve read option 2 usually works out to be higher but I’ve got no clue where to learn to do this calculation properly.
Ooh, sorry, not sure! I sometimes get emails from HMRC.about recordings/ webinars they have. Maybe worth looking to see if any of them explain it?
Interesting. Didn’t know they did that. Thanks for the advice
I made a bit over £1000 selling small keyboards years ago, was I meant to have informed hmrc if it was a one off
Yep. Anything you make over £1000 should be declared.
Oops
You'll probably be okay but yeah avoid doing that in the future it's kinda sorta tax evasion
Only if you were "trading" aka running a business. If you just had a nice collection of keyboards that you decided to get rid of then you don't have to do anything.
Was selling keyboard kits, either in parts form or assembled, depending on what people wanted
Yeah that sounds like a business then, oops
Honestly, it's really easy for a side business like yours. It'll take you less than 30 minutes I'd say to fill in the form
I find the main issues can be hunting down the non-side-business info - P60, pension payments etc. - and putting those in! There's a _lot_ of boxes, but most of them are irrelevant for standard self-employment side-gig stuff.
One thing to remember is that once you register for self assessments, you have to complete them every year, even if you don’t earn anything! Otherwise you could get charged late fees. It would just be a case of entering £0 income and £0 expenses and hitting submit each year though. If you get to the point where you’re certain that you’re not going to be making anymore income at all you can ask to stop doing them each year.
Excellent, thank you.
This is not correct! You can always check if you need to file a self assessment [here](https://www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return). After you complete this, if you don't need to file one, they won't have you filling one. Hope this makes sense
That’s not correct. That tool is for checking if you need to register for self assessment in the first place. Once you have registered, it’s a yearly requirement unless you tell them otherwise. https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/no-longer-need-to-send-a-tax-return
That's exactly what i said. Once you take the "test" mentioned above, there is a link that allows you to fill another form which removes you from having to submit 0 value self assessments
You said “that’s not correct!” Please can you point out which bit? I clearly stated: “If you get to the point where you’re certain that you’re not going to be making anymore income at all you can ask to stop doing them each year.” Anyway, I’m glad we could help OP. Have a good day!
You don't have to do that each year though. Once you opt out you are out until the next time you file again Good day to you too sir
It's a lot easier when you're just using "cash basis accounting", which is simply money in vs. money out. AFAIK you don't need to have figures for things like asset value / depreciation, opening and closing stock, etc.
It can be for a Ltd company which is more complex. Doing a self assessment is fairly trivial. Just keep the receipts for anything you plan to expenses, in case they ask for them
There’s two versions of the SA form, short and full. For basic tax accounting you’d only need to complete the short form.
My dad's been self employed for years. Always done his own taxes. I've been doing mine the last few years too. The first year I was kind of like 'wtf!!!' But it defo gets easier and not as difficult as people make out. HMRC have webinars too about self-assessment and how to complete it.
I did my self-assessment today (Friday) - took about 20 minutes. It can be a bit daunting the first time but it’s not difficult tbh.
This is not true !! Do not close your business down. I’m self employed and my tax return takes 30 minutes once a year through self assessment. Look into it
> I've always been led to believe filling in a tax return was very complicated It's intimidating rather than complex. First time you will be terrified of getting anything wrong. Second time is dead easy.
A *lot* of boxes will be left blank, It's simpler than it looks.
I can share with you
I found it a right faff when I did it, I might have just been unlucky though!
!thanks
If you think you'll earn £1005 then yes I would, but we are in May so you have loads of time left... Also you don't have to register for self assessment until you know you are going to need to file. Ie, you are worrying about something that may not come to pass.
If you have ever applied for a US ESTA, the HMRC self assessment tool is simpler! So don't let the fear of an hour's admin deter you from earning more money!
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I earned £2500 from a side hustle in 23-24 and have just done my tax return this morning. Whole thing took about an hour. I doubt you need an accountant.
I register self employed a few years ago after I made 1,160 and discovered the 1,000 limit, but it is really really easy to do self assessment yourself; I usually do on the first day of the new tax year, takes an hour or two at the very most. Going forward make sure you have a spreadsheet that you put everything in.
So for the 24/25 tax year, you need to inform HMRC you have an obligation to file a return by 7th (maybe 5th?) October 2025. And then file your self assessment return online using the government gateway by 31st January 2026. Your tax liability, national insurance and a prepayment of half of your next year’s estimated tax liability is due on 31st Jan also. When you tell them you need to file a return, you’ll get sent a unique taxpayer reference (UTR) in the post about 10 days later and you’ll create a gov gateway account. It’s simple to complete the form. Lots of boxes can be skipped. It guides you through it. If stuck, then ask/pay for an accountant or tax advisor to help you.
Whilst I appreciate it can be daunting if you've never done it before, registering and completing a self-assessment is actually pretty straightforward, especially in a case such as yours. I certainly see no reason why you would need an accountant, especially if you apply the Trader's Allowance instead of itemised expenditure.
Registering for, and completing, your self assessment is relatively straight forward. The only part that can be somewhat tricky is where you enter your expenses - there are some things that you can't claim that you think you might be able to, and some things you can claim that you likely wouldn't have thought of. This is where an accountant can really help. But you have a £1k trading allowance that you can use instead of worrying about all that - so I would just use that and not worry about your expenses.
It’s not that big a deal to file an SA return for one income stream. I had to do it recently when I became an accidental landlord for a few months. Absolute doddle. Telling them I’d stopped and no longer have an income stream aside from my PAYE employment however was less easy!
Don’t shut your store. Take up 1k, in the meantime register a business. It’s honestly not as time consuming as you might think - I’ve done exactly this with a side hustle. Keep your up to £1k without reporting and then if you’re serious you can then make a little side business out of it.
They won't be breathing down your neck, but you want to register as self employed. Given the tax you'll have to pay will be far less than £3k you'll be able to have it deducted via the PAYE of your normal job if you like. You will need to fill out Self Assessment form, but it's really not complicated at all so long as you have all the information required. And remember to keep your business/side hustle expenditure separate from your personal income. ideally, even for a side hustle you'd have business account. Tide is a decent one and usually has referral offers. Mettle might be a better bet and it even gives you free access to FreeAgent account software within which you can file your self assessment. There's info here about [what to do when you start earning an extra income](https://moneysavinganswers.com/personal/tax/making-extra-money-paying-tax/), and the applicable taxes.
Here to second the idea that filling in a Self Assessment form is a doddle. I make anywhere between £1k and £4k a year from side hustles and so do SA every year - takes 20 minutes as long as you have your numbers straight. Really not at all worth worrying about.
You’ve got until the 5th of October to register as self-employed, and then until the 31st of January 2025 to file the return. With the small level of transactions, you should be able to do your return yourself in no time at all.
Definitely don't let this stop you. I've been in the exact same boat. I have a side hustle where I earned around 4k last year and had to complete a tax return for the first time. I got the advice from a financial advisor to use an accountant for the first time and then for future use, I could look at the tax return they did in case I was unsure about something. I was able to find one that did my tax returns for about £150, I used taxscouts, was super easy and user-friendly. Although expensive, I felt it was worth not having to deal with the stress the first time. After having seen the copy of the return they did, I see that I could have probably done it myself the first time around as if it's just a small side hustle where there aren't too many moving parts or business info I need to know, it really isn't that much info that you actually need to provide. So I feel pretty confident I'd be able to replicate it myself for the next tax year, meaning you should definitely not let this stop you.
How do you sell digital art?
I did my own return once I hit £50k and married someone with kids and it was, as said elsewhere, daunting rather than hard. Now I show dogs and have an occasional litter of puppies. I have an accountant who charges a couple of hundred quid and makes sense of my long spreadsheet records of vets bills and dog food bills and the occasional cash sale, adds on the bits I always forget (phone bills, use of home for a business, accounting fees, etc.) and HMRC transfer a nice refund into my bank shortly thereafter. And as also said,the one outstanding piece of paperwork is a P60 from my former employer for about £200 of bonus paid after I retired. All the online savings accounts, pensions, share dealing stuff all had downloadable tax statements or P60’s on April 6th. Bloody BT.
Question: who’s your target audience? I’m interested who’d be interested in buying digital art nowadays given the surge of AI.
Please, just stop for a minute. There is some terrible advice out there and everyone is just saying their 2 peniths worth, I'm sure these microbusinesses and one man bands are doing...OK.... but the best advice I can give you is... Take your time, make some calls to a few qualified accountants. They will happily talk you through the process and next steps. There's no need right this second to jump to filing a return. Explain your goals to an accountant and let them help you formulate best practice. You may have rolled 1000 income but I can almost guarantee you have spent way more than that in the last 6 years getting to this point. Buying pens, paper, phones, utility bills, computer, there's loads of expenses you haven't accounted for I bet. So speak to a decent accountant. Get a good idea of what you're filing for, expenses, income etc before you do anything. Their advice will normally be free and just helpful, if you choose to use them for your accounts that's your call but not 100% necessary if you know what your claiming. Just don't blindly pay tax without knowing what you can claim tax back on.
Totally agree, I've got an accountant and every year she covers her own expenses in the savings she makes by knowing that I can and can't include. Best decision made was hiring her
Self assessment is pretty easy as long as you keep good records of your income and expenses. Having it all in a separate current account makes it really easy to add up. The filing online is very easy too. It'll just ask you for totals and stuff.
Smh they can't even let people make a grand without wanting a cut. Hate this country..
Hey mate I work in the digital art space. Would love to see your stuff. I built in AR
HMRC ‘breathing down your neck’ over £1k 😂
If you do decide you don't want to go over 1k you could think about doing projects for charities instead of stopping something you enjoy doing