Freelancer- form a co. or not?

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bizstartup

Guest
Hi all -

Bit of background - I'm working full-time, but have been approached to do some freelance work in my spare time. This work is likely to start next month and it will not be regular or guarenteed. It will be done on a job by job basis, and each job will be for a different individual or company possibly. So for example I might get 10 jobs a year, ranging in value from €300 - €700. Again this will never be anything other than part time / nixer work for me. Finally, the work I am doing is not critical to people, as in I won't get su'ed if it doesn't work out. The best sort of example to think of would be say graphic design, where people pay me to do 1 off jobs for them and thats it.

Some of the people I do work for will be naturally looking for receipts and VAT information etc. With this in mind my question is would I be better just working as an individual, sole-trader OR forming a company?

My concern is that with this being a very limited amount of income (maybe 5k a year MAX!) if it was a company and therefore needed company accounts that could wipe out a decent % of that.

As far as I can see ST or Co. are the only routes I can go. If you were me which would you go?

Thanks
 
sorry 1 other point - is would it be easier to keep this extra work from my current employer if it was a co. I had formed? Is nothing bad, like not a competing service with work or anything, just would prefer if they did not know.

In this case - would being a ST or co. help to keep this information less public? Wouldn't like my extra earnings to show up on my P60 / tax certs or something yknow?
 
Sole trader seems to be the easiest option here, you dont need the hassle of cro compliance for something so small
 
aye - another question. How would being a sole trader affect me visibility wise with my current employer? Like if I was VAT registered etc, would they ever see my years earnings on my P60 including this, or is that a different thing? Like is it up to me in 2010 to go to my accountant with my P60 for PAYE and all my sole trader stuff and sort the balance with revenue just?
 
bizstartup said:
aye - another question. How would being a sole trader affect me visibility wise with my current employer? Like if I was VAT registered etc, would they ever see my years earnings on my P60 including this, or is that a different thing? Like is it up to me in 2010 to go to my accountant with my P60 for PAYE and all my sole trader stuff and sort the balance with revenue just?
Click to expand...

No one, but you and Revenue will see your self-employed details. Your employer has no connection with it. You take your accounting records and P60 to your accountant and they file for you. Likewise the VAT threshold relates to the self-employed earnings only, it has no relevance or connection with your PAYE earnings.
 
great - my contract doens't state that I can't do things like this, I just simply would prefer that they did not know. It won't affect my work, mainly be weekends and would prefer to keep them seperate.

About the VAT - I DEFO won't earn above the VAT threshold self-employed, but if I don't register for it what happens if people ask for EX VAT price etc. For most part companies I deal with may not know my size and may be surprised if they were to find out I was not vAT reg'ed.

So say price is €500, they may expect me to charge VAT ontop of that etc
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top