Careers advice for the self-employed

This document, published by HMRC, gives advice and highlights resources available to the self-employed in the UK.

Take a look at HM Revenue and Customs guidance and support to help people in business get their tax affairs right.  Unlike traditional classroom learning, you can access this modern, simplistic education at a time convenient to you, either from the comfort of your own home or on the move.  You won’t have the stress of worrying about running late or finding a parking space – you can access all this information at your fingertips from the internet at home, at work or anywhere and you can revisit this learning as many times as you need. HMRC’s aim is to build your confidence on tax matters by providing easily accessible support in a variety of different formats.  Look below now to find one that suits you.

E-Learning

HMRC have some fantastic e-learning products. Access the links here to the most popular titles:

Starting Your Own Business  

Social Enterprise  

Tax Advice for Music Tutors and Coaches                    

Becoming an Employer

They contain everything you need to know about being self employed and employing someone. You can work through this at your own pace and dip in and out to suit your own needs. Thousands of businesses have already used these and found they are a great way of learning. Why not give it a try now?

Webinars

HMRC run a wide variety of webinars (online presentations) which will help you get things right from the start. Webinars last less than an hour and you can either choose between a pre recorded webinar available at any time or a live and interactive webinar where you also get the opportunity to ask questions. Take a look at the link for all the webinars here:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/webinars/index.htm

and try one for yourself.

Emails Sign up for HMRC’s free email service. Receive a series of tax related emails at specific times to let you know what you need to do to keep your tax affairs in order. These emails remind you when you need to make payments to HMRC and what records you need to keep. To sign up, click here:

https://public-online.hmrc.gov.uk/business-emails

Record Keeping Mobile Apps

There are a range of Smart phone Record Keeping Apps supplied by third parties to help you run your business. Take a look at what’s available here:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/softwaredevelopers/mobile-apps/record-keeping.htm

Tax Help Fact Sheets

Have a look at HMRC’s Tax Help Fact Sheets. They cover a range of subjects such as Self-Assessment, Expenses and Allowances for the Self-Employed, Employing someone for the first time, VAT and Limited Companies to name a few. Take a look here to see what’s available:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/thelibrary/tax-help.htm

If you are looking for ‘bite-sized- chunks of information on a range of tax matters, why not access HMRC’s YouTube channel. There are numerous YouTube clips to help you, some lasting for less than one minute! Take a look here to see what’s available:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HMRCgovuk