The best advice is always to get an accountant to steer you through these unfamiliar waters, making sure you fulfil your obligations and don’t incur fines for late or incorrect tax submissions. Even better, an accountant can ensure you keep as much of your hard-earned money as possible by claiming for allowances and applying for grants you may not even know about.

But if you’re going it alone (or have an accountant but want to understand more about this side of your business yourself), then HMRC provides a wealth of information to help.

Find out about:

Starting out in self-employment

HMRC’s helpful online guide, Starting Your Own Business, contains information on:

• Choosing the right structure for your business, explaining your options for the legal structure of your business and what constitutes ‘self-employment’
• How to inform HMRC about your self-employment, including information on tax registration
• Keeping business records and claiming expenses – what records you need to keep and your options for how to do this
• Filing your tax returns and sending HMRC payments, including understanding your tax bill

There is also a series of videos about starting your own business on HMRC’s YouTube channel.

Business expenses

Also on HMRC’s YouTube channel, you’ll find a series of recorded webinars on Business Expenses for the Self-Employed, beginning with Part 1: What are allowable business expenses?

If you would rather join a live webinar and get some of your questions answered via on on-screen text box, there is a webinar on 24^th July, 11.00 PM to 12.00 PM. about Capital Allowances for the self-employed.

This webinar is aimed at those who use traditional accounting, showing them how to claim for longer life items they buy for their business such as vans, tools or machinery.

Record keeping, tax and self assessment

Another useful upcoming webinar is Record Keeping for the Self-Employed, taking place on Thursday 5^th July, 11.00 AM – 12.00 PM and Wednesday 18^th July, 4.00 PM – 5.00 PM. This is aimed at sole traders and partnerships (but not LLPs nor limited companies) and will give you an introduction to the basic principles of keeping good business records, what HMRC expects from you, how you can get into good habits from the start and about the recording keeping apps available for mobile devices.

If your Self Assessment tax bill is causing you concern, then HMRC’s video, Paying your Self Assessment Tax Bill, might be helpful. There’s also a host of other videos about self assessment, tax, deadlines and payment.

The Government’s website has a self-employment page with numerous links to guides on working for yourself, setting up a business, handling the financial side of your business and sources of further support and information. So start reading (or watching!) and get better informed about running your business – whether that’s founding a business empire or organising yourself and your freelancing. Let us know how you get on!

The post HMRC’s Helpful Hints for Freelancers & Entrepreneurs appeared first on The Cheap Accountants.

This is your chance to get your information straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were, but you must register and login at least 5 minutes before the webinar start time to take part. The links below will take you straight to the relevant registration page.

On 12^th December, 2-3pm, there will be a live webinar on ‘Getting Payroll Information Right: how to give accurate information to HMRC’, which aims to help you avoid making common mistakes when completing your payroll.

There is also a series of webinars entitled ‘Cutting Your Risk’, the first of which can be accessed on the dates and times below. HMRC says the series ‘will cover the essentials you need to know on national minimum wage and national living wage and the common errors made by employers, concentrating on working time and deductions.’

– 30^th November 2016, 1pm to 2pm

– 6^th  December 2016, 11am to midday

– 8^th  December 2016, 11am to midday

Over the next few weeks, there are also many other upcoming webinars on:

– Getting Started as an Employer

– Using Basic PAYE Tools for the First Time

– Expenses and Benefits

– How To Avoid in year Penalties

– Company Directors – Payroll and You

– HMRC and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) working together for you – growing your business

– Statutory Sick Pay

– Statutory Shared Parental Pay and Leave

You can find links to register for all the webinars above here, together with useful videos and previously recorded webinars on a range of employment and tax topics.

If you want to stay up-to date with new information from HMRC and be informed about new issues of the Employer Bulletin, you can register for HMRC’s employer email alert service. You can also register to receive regular business help and education emails from HMRC.

The post Helpful Webinars from HMRC: Payroll, Minimum and National Living Wage and Employer Responsibilities appeared first on The Cheap Accountants.

A small number of businesses and individuals intentionally defraud the taxation system, with some of those being involved in falsely claiming repayments and other organised criminal activities. As part of the enforcement strategy of HMRC, criminal investigations are carried out, sometimes resulting in prosecution.

Who at HMRC has the powers to conduct criminal investigations?

There are three business departments that are authorised to conduct criminal investigations: Specialist Investigations, Risk and Intelligence Service, and Criminal Investigation.

Specialist Investigations have a Road Fuel Testing Unit, which has the authority to check and seize vehicles that misuse fuel for vehicles. Criminal Investigations will deal with some aspects of tax avoidance and evasion, as deemed appropriate, while the Risk and Intelligence Service deals with intelligence and profiling work.

What authority does HMRC have?

In order to deal with criminals and those involved in organised crime, HMRC has to have powers that are similar to those in other agencies dealing with law enforcement. These criminal investigation powers include:

• Being able to apply for a search warrant when necessary
• Making arrests
• The searching of premises or individuals following arrests
• Applying for production orders, so that information has to be produced

Only officers in HMRC who have the necessary authorisation can use criminal investigation powers. These officers are given appropriate training and are engaged with specific duties in one of the above directorates. Some powers need authorisation from an officer of a higher grade before they can be used.

The levels of authority that are set for officers at HMRC are based on those of the police ranks. Some officers at HMRC have the authority to make arrests, with some 1,570 staff in Criminal Investigations and 118 in the Road Fuel Testing Unit.

Powers used when fighting serious crime

HMRC has powers of surveillance that are intrusive, but can only be used when dealing with serious crime. The officers can intercept mail and telephone calls, property interference and carry out intrusive surveillance. However, strict regulations have to be adhered to when using these powers, with approval from the Home Secretary being required.

Criminal investigation powers are not used in civil inquiries, like tax return inspections or routine business record checks. If you become the subject of any investigation by HMRC, you may want to consult a professional for advice.

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