Self employed or freelance

**Hobosapien** · 7 November 2018, 12:10

Freelance is self employed if not using a Ltd. What am I missing?

**pscont** · 7 November 2018, 12:16

Originally posted by Hobosapien View Post

Freelance is self employed if not using a Ltd. What am I missing?

For one thing, one reports income from freelance in the 'other income' in SATR, not in SE section.
Missing other things regarding LTD too, but anyway.....

**northernladuk** · 7 November 2018, 12:38

Originally posted by pscont View Post

Hi

which one is better: self employed or freelance for ad-hoc work, totaling less than £6000 in the personal tax year (but more then £1000). So no NIC to pay.
Whole picture: Employed, no SATR to fill now due to PAYE.
With the new income SATR must be filled. I tend to think freelance will be better due to not having to inform HMRC that one is SE and informing them when the SE ends.
Also the £1000 income allowance is there for both SE and FL.
What do you think?

I think it depends....

**Lance** · 7 November 2018, 13:13

Originally posted by Hobosapien View Post

Freelance is self employed if not using a Ltd. What am I missing?

You’re quite correct.
You can be employed, self-employed or a company director (which counts as employed for a lot of things.

A freelance could be two of those. Or all three if part time.

You missed who the OP is I think.

**northernladuk** · 7 November 2018, 13:43

Originally posted by pscont View Post

Whole picture: Employed, no SATR to fill now due to PAYE.

How can this be the whole picture? Weren't you messing about with dividends to pay off a DL less than a month ago? How can you have gone from that to full employed with no SATR to fill in in that time?

**pscont** · 7 November 2018, 15:39

I dont think FL == SE.
Do you pay NIC on FL income when report it in the 'other income' section of SART?
Also as FL do you have allowable expenses as you do as SE?
Thinking about it ,these two are the main differences if either of the above answers is no.

**kaiser78** · 7 November 2018, 15:59

I'm lost on this one. Too many acronyms...

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 7 November 2018, 16:51

Originally posted by pscont View Post

For one thing, one reports income from freelance in the 'other income' in SATR, not in SE section.
Missing other things regarding LTD too, but anyway.....

It's not really something you can choose, it depends on the actual facts.

The 'Other Income' box is suitable for reporting miscellaneous income and one off or very occasional pieces of freelance work, however if you are doing freelance work on a regular basis (even if it's not a huge amount) and could be considered "trading" then really, you should probably be submitting the self-employed sheet. "Freelance" doesn't really have any special meaning in terms of tax legislation, it's just a word HMRC happen to use in their guidance for what could go in the 'Other Income' box.

This is what HMRC actually say:

Box 17 Other taxable income
This includes:
• miscellaneous income from casual earnings,
commission or freelance income (not exempted
by the trading income allowance)

[snip lots of irrelevant examples]

Personally, if it was just a few bits of work and was under the Class 2 NIC threshold for self employment then I'd probably just stick it in "Other Income" because the outcome is the same, tax-wise. If you were earning enough to be over the Class 2 NIC threshold then you may want to consider more carefully as you may end up underpaying NIC if HMRC deem the freelance income to be self-employment.

**TheCyclingProgrammer** · 7 November 2018, 16:54

Originally posted by pscont View Post

I dont think FL == SE.
Do you pay NIC on FL income when report it in the 'other income' section of SART?
Also as FL do you have allowable expenses as you do as SE?
Thinking about it ,these two are the main differences if either of the above answers is no.

I don't think any NIC is due on 'Other Income'; you are able to claim some expenses against it.

Self employed or freelance