Two certain things in life: Death and Taxes

I went to a free course today at the City Business Library on being newly self-employed. It was a two our seminar run by HM Revenue and Customs.

I got there a little early, and sat in the library for a twenty minutes. Did you know the library is free and you don't need to register. They can help you compile B2B (business to business) mailing lists, research other companies or just general business research. What a great resource.

I won't go over every detail, but the course covered a lot! It was a whirlwind two hours, but I came away feeling much more confident about knowing my responsibilities regarding tax.

It covered:

• When is the tax year, the financial year and your accounting period
• How and when to register as self-employed and what that means
• What is the difference between class 2 and class 4 National Insurance contributions and when you have to pay each
• What National Insurance counts towards (it doesn't go towards the NHS!)
• How National Insurance affects your pension
• Income tax, what is your personal allowance and what are the 3 different rates
• What is a tax return - what does it look like and how do you fill it out
• What are the important dates in the tax calendar
• How to keep your records
• What can you claim as expenses and how do you claim them
• What is your Annual Investment Allowance, your Writing Down Allowance and your Capital Allowance
• When do you need to register for VAT

If you read that list and felt confused or overwhelmed, I would suggest you attending one of the seminars. They put them on regularly, and the speaker from HMRC said that they run regular free sessions too.