Being self employed, is it worth it?
There's no incentive to run a small business or be self employed is there? My monthly earnings are probably less than the national minimum wage and I quite often work longer hours than a great deal of people; 80 to 90 hours a week isn't unusual for me. Although the time is spent at a computer and it's not physically demanding, it leaves very little time to get out and about and enjoy life. I'm not complaining about the hours I work, because I really enjoy what I do and don't consider it work as such. Besides, it was my choice to take this on and leave the security of a 9 to 5 so I've made my bed so to speak.
What I am complaining about is the lack of tax breaks for small businesses like mine that are struggling to survive. You would think that the government would do everything they can to help the little man in the street with a view to reaping the benefits of more tax as the business grows. Apparently not though, because we're milked just as hard as the rest of the herd.
Believe me, the whole 10p tax thing is going to hit me very hard indeed. I'm not one for dodging my tax and national insurance responsibilities but it does seem that have to pay rather a lot. It's almost not worth trying to run a business at this level. I'm sure I'd be okay if I was raking in more than 10 grand a year but I'm not. I live very frugally and as my business is less than two years old I haven't been able to put much money aside for the tax man. If I had, I'd have been in the red a long time ago with banks and credit card companies knocking on my door. As it is, I'm sailing very close to the wind.
Having submitted my tax return this year (no, I don't cook the books - too honest), I've been landed a bill that I will struggle to pay. In fact I will probably have to use a credit card to do it and I'm going to have to seek some extra employment to be able to pay that off.
The reason my tax bill is so high is because the class 4 National Insurance portion is much higher than expected. I had calculated my tax and knew what to expect. It was always going to be tough but I thought I could manage that, however I had no idea that the NI contributions were going to be as high (how do they calculate class 4 NI contributions anyway?). Furthermore, the Inland Revenue wish to charge me an estimate (approximately the same again) for next year's tax bill. How thoughtful of them. Basically my tax bill is going to be 2 or 3 times what I earn on any given month.
What do I do? Should I just jack the whole self employed thing in and claim benefits whilst looking for a nine to five? I'm sure I'd be much better off, there again there's not much work around at the moment, especially as we're heading for (or in) a recession. Workers are being laid off left right and centre.
I really do think that the personal allowance should be raised to something reasonable. The current level is way too low and it doesn't really give self employed people at the very bottom much of a fighting chance. As someone once said - at least Dick Turpin wore a mask before he robbed you!
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As a self employed person fro the last 12 years it does feel like you are working for the inland revenue as yet another VAT bill becomes due. If it's not VAT that's due, it's income tax, or PAYE & NIC for your staff. In these difficult financial times, I look around my local town and wonder if it's worth it. Local businesses closing down at an alarming rate, an increase in £1 shops & charity shops, reduced margins.My job satisfaction has long gone.
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Like the man said though, is your business profitable enough to carry on with?
The worst thing you can do, is pay your bills with a credit card!
You may as well go bankrupt now and save yourself the grief, if you go down that road!!
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MrCoffee: Yes, I'll carry on. Got a sniff of a job here and there at the moment so I'll take a bit of that if I can get it to boost the empty buffer zone (you know, the pot of money you keep just in case). Things are actually looking up a bit at the moment. All set to make almost double what I did in December (a very poor month at the best of times).
Here's to hangin' there... whatever you're doing.
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This injustice and ruthless exploitation is being practised against each end of the generational range - via tuition fees and student debt and via twisted rules exploiting the elderely. I too was in debt - as students are -actually to around £50,000! On top of this cynical campaigns seem to be run to set the young against the old - a political trick! Its sick!!!
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I get taxed double that PAYE a month.
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Thank you for your kind comments. My income is very low, but it's mostly profit because I have very little expenses. I work from home and I claim my internet connection and any computer related stuff that I buy. Unfortunately not much in the last year or so of that, a desk and a chair totalling £40. My broadband is business grade so I claim 100% of that obviously, hosting fees etc. Anything the missus bought computer related, DVD's etc. claimed (again, not much). I also claimed a portion of heat/light, again - not sure what the portion you can get away with is so I just made it reasonable and tried not to take the p**s.
I filed my return myself and I don't have an accountant because I couldn't afford one. I doubt he'd be able to save me enough money to pay his £400.
Things really are tight and on the edge. My tax bill for the year was around £350 so that ought to give you an idea how little I earn. MrCoffee says my business isn't profitable. Actually it is, because it's mostly profit, just not much of it. I spend long hours in front of a computer, but as I said before it isn't really work to me and I get paid enough to live on (just about).
I'll stick with the self employment thing Phil because as you pointed out, one of 3% is quite an achievement and I have the satisfaction of knowing I'm making my own roads which one day may lead to a more comfortable income. Who knows, might be able to afford an accountant one day!
By the way, thanks for the info on Class 4 - I must have completely missed that. I was probably to fixated on the whole tax thing and assumed the NI wasn't a big deal. There you go, I've learned something else!
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What is class 4? From http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/: "Class 4 National Insurance contributions (NICs) are payable at 8 per cent on profits between £5,435 and £40,040 for 2008/09, plus 1 per cent on any profit over that amount. " So if you have a total profit of £40,000 then the Class 4 demand will be £2765 for that alone! It is penury. It should be reduced.
What to do? I would stick with the self-employment (you're one of the 3% - only 3% of people are business owners) and get an accountant.
Your class 4 might have been too high because you posted too much profit because you didn't claim enough expenses. Are you sure you claimed every single itty bitty expense you're allowed to claim? Right down to shares of household bills and even all your 20p pay-and-display parking tickets?
If you did all this without an accountant, well done you. You saved about £400 compared to having an accountant - you earned it.
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I surf the net for jobs but I'm lucky to get a reply to 1 in 10 applications. That leaves me thinking that it's better to be self-employed with a trade I can take anywhere. Today more than ever I think we have to think out of the box to have even moderate success in our choice of work or career.
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