Advice on PAYE & Self Employed & Maternity Benefit

I was made redundant over a year ago and I went on social welfare for about a month then shortly after I discovered the BTWEA and set up as a sole trader business and registered with the revenue etc.. etc.. The business is a very small business that suits me as I can work around my daughter in the evenings etc.. and my husband works full time so the balance worked for us with childcare costs etc.. I have been trying to slowly build it up over the past year and a bit, it suited me when I was receiving the BTWEA as I was able to spend the time creating a website, etc.. and still was receiving the equivalent to the dole every week. I am now due baby no2 and when my BTWEA was nearly up at the beginning of this year I knew I would not be able to live off the business as I was only making on average 100euro or less a week from the business so I got a full time contract job for six months. I am now finishing up the full time contract soon as I am due a baby. My question is..I called the maternity benefit section to find out if I am going to be eligible for maternity benefit and I gave them my pps number. They looked back to two years to when I was in full time employment and said I had enough stamps and then they could see that I was employed and paying prsi this year so they said that I was eligible. I didn't mention to them that I am also have a company as I am afraid that this will effect me getting them MB. It's very hard to find any information on how this works. The business is actually slowly starting to take off now and I am just wondering could anyone advise me as to what the situation is. I am just afraid that I will receive Maternity B for 6 months and go to do my tax return in October that I will have to pay it back. I also recently read that the BTWEA ia taxable so now I am worried about that too. I know I need to seek advice from an accountant and I will be getting help with my tax return in October etc..but as my business is so small I have been able to manage the accounts myself up to now. Any advise or anyone who has been in a similar position to this before I would love to hear of your experience.Many thanks

I was talking to the maternity benefit people recently about a similar situation (history of PAYE employment, then jobseekers benefit, then self-employed, then paye + self employed) They told me you can qualify for the MB in two ways (as long as you have the right history of stamps - which you have ).

1. If you are a paye worker on a contract (whether or not you are also self-employed) you can apply for MB to start the day after your employment finishes, so long as you are at least 24 weeks pregnant at that stage.

2. If you are self-employed you can also qualify if you are earning enough from the business to be liable for a prsi contribution the year you are taking maternity leave. I think this means you are earning over €5000 in reckonable income. They will take your word for it that this is the case, then check the following year when you make your tax return and if you shouldn't have got the MB, you will be asked to repay it.

In your case it seems quite straightforward- you can qualify in the basis of your PAYE work as you were told.

MB is taxable from 1st July this year so as far as I understand it you will be taxed on a combination of your PAYE earnings, income from your own business and the MB you receive.

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