Hi Everyone,

So the thing is that before I start to do a thing I would like to know how does it go down tax wide...do I have to be self-employed and if yes then should I do it from the beginning or wait until the first income?

I am a hobby writer initially but I was thinking that I would try online publishing - amazon or something similar, I am not expecting to be anywhere near of top100, I was even thinking of free publishing - blog, website...etc. - but I was considering maybe a donation button on the site so I could buy a cover maybe and afford a proofreader.

So as you can see I am not exactly financially driven, but I would like to share and if I do I would like to do in the right, legal way but it is hard to find specific answer to this question online...so, please if you could recommend a link or something I would be really glad.

Happy Eastern and thank you for your help in advance.

Kind Regards,
Koreny

You probably need to ask the Inland Revenue and also find out about European VAT regs and register at MOSS if you are going to sell any digital product directly from your own site. ( That may also apply if you sell through Amazon etc I am not entirely sure)
It would pay to talk to an accountant about setting up a business and bank accounts etc - I would be very careful about just plowing ahead and I think you are right to ask this there is no threshold income exactly now in UK/ Europe re VAT which isn't the same with Tax ( this will depend on individual member  states) and I think both are changing - there is a Facebook group about Digital Vat which also sometimes covers UK Tax but to be absolutely sure you are legal and have correct advice phone IR direct for advice.  Sorry  it isn't a more magic wand comment - I am having to research this for my self now too as having been self employed and run my own business I must admit the VAT regs particularly made me sit up and look. Best Wishes MC
Edited by Alex29 at 08:56:00 on 28 March 2016
Edited by Alex29 at 08:57:00 on 28 March 2016
Edited by Alex29 at 08:59:00 on 28 March 2016
Edited by Alex29 at 09:00:00 on 28 March 2016

when I first enquired about all this sort of thing, the tax people told me that I needed to register with them as soon as I am doing something that could potentially bring in money. So as soon as you are ready to actually offer something for sale, you need to be registered with them as self-employed. You don't have to do anything official, just let them know that you will be needing a self-evaluation tax form to fill in when the time comes. Even if you earn nothing at all - or make a loss - you still need to fill it in, although you won't pay anything.  It can be quite useful because if, say, you have some savings interest that you have been taxed on, once you're in the system and you're declaring your earnings (or lack of), if you're below the threshold, they will actually be refunding you money!

If you're found to be making money that you haven't declared (even if it's well below the tax threshold) you can be fined £100

P.S I know nothing about VAT - that's a whole lot more complicated!

Hi Freebird,

Thank you for the reply. I was afraid of that I have a full-time job and it will make things complicated. Plus in the UK, it is really hard to undo self-employment if you have a change of heart. It's good though that I can deduct all of my work related expenses.

Anyway, thank you for your reply again.

Best Wishes,
Koreny

Hi MC,

Thank you for the reply, well VAT is tough especially if you selling internationally although Amazon is quiet helpful about that it shows you the VAT rates applied...etc. But ultimately you are right about getting an accountant before things get complicated but it does again mean that I have to delay to save some money for these stuff and open a business bank account.

So frustrating the book is almost ready to go and I have to postponed another year. Well, that is life :)

Thank you again.

Best Wishes,
Koreny

having a full time job shouldn't make it too much more complicated - you just fill in all your income from both self-employment and other employment, and they will work out what you owe them, what they owe you and everything else