I keep answering questions on Forrst from people who are taking on some freelance work for the first time, or starting a business, so rather than keep writing the same responses there I thought I’d write up my suggestions here. This is obviously UK specific advice and I am not an accountant, I’m just someone who deals with this stuff myself. You should always get professional advice if you are unsure. The HMRC are also generally very helpful if you call with specific questions and can point you to the right information on their website.

我一直在回答那些第一次从事自由职业或创业的人关于Forrst的问题，所以与其在那儿继续写同样的回答，我不认为我会在这里写下我的建议。 这显然是针对英国的建议，我不是会计师，我只是一个自己处理这些问题的人。 如果不确定，您应该始终获得专业建议。 如果您提出具体问题，并且您可以在其网站上找到正确的信息， HMRC通常也非常有用。

我已经同意为某人建立一个网站-我需要注册为自由职业者吗？ (I have agreed to build a website for someone – do I need to register as freelance?)

Whether you are officially starting a business as your fulltime occupation or are taking on a few freelance projects in addition to your day job or studies, you need to tell the tax man (HMRC) that you are earning money on a self-employed basis. By doing this you let them know that you need to complete a tax return at the end of the year. You can register online on the HMRC website.

无论您是正式从事全职工作，还是在从事日常工作或学习之外还从事一些自由职业项目，都需要告诉税务员（ HMRC ），您是自雇人士。 这样，您可以让他们知道您需要在年底完成纳税申报表。 您可以在HMRC网站上在线注册 。

You will also become liable to pay Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance contributions depending on the amount of profit you make in your business or freelance work. Class 2 contributions are currently charged at a flat rate of £2.50 per week which generally you will pay by direct debit. You will be liable to pay these from the time you register as self-employed unless your earnings fall below the lower limit and you have applied for small earnings exemption (see below). If you don’t set up a direct debit you will be sent a bill for these every 6 months. Class 4 contributions are based on your profits – so these are worked out as part of your tax return at the end of the financial year.

您还将有责任根据您在企业或自由职业中赚取的利润额支付2级和4级国民保险金。 目前，第2类供款按每周£2.50的固定费率收取，通常您将通过直接借记支付。 除非您的收入低于下限并且您已申请了小额收入豁免（请参阅下文），否则您将有责任自注册为自雇人士起支付这些费用。 如果您未设置直接付款，则会每6个月收到一张帐单。 第4类的供款取决于您的利润-因此，这些要作为财政年度结束时纳税申报表的一部分进行计算。

There is a useful guide to the basics available from Freelance Advisor.

Freelance Advisor提供了有用的基础指南。

我只能从中赚取少量的钱–我还应该注册吗？ (I will only earn a small amount of money from this – should I still register?)

You still need to register, however if you know that your earnings will be low you can register to be excepted from class 2 contributions. You must register, otherwise you will be billed for them. So if, for example, you know you are only going to take on a couple of freelance logo design jobs while you are a student you could safely register for the exception.

您仍然需要注册，但是，如果您知道自己的收入会很低，则可以注册以将其排除在第2类供款之外。 您必须注册，否则将向他们收费。 因此，举例来说，如果您知道当您还是一名学生时只打算从事一些自由徽标设计工作，则可以安全地注册例外。

我是学生，我需要纳税吗？ (I’m a student do I need to pay tax?)

Yes. If your income from all your employment and self-employment goes over your personal allowance. So if you have a summer or part time job, and do freelance work, all of this will be taken into account when you do your tax return. You will pay tax on the amount that goes over your personal allowance.

是。 如果您从所有就业和自谋职业中获得的收入超过了您的个人津贴。 因此，如果您有暑假或兼职工作，并从事自由职业，那么在进行纳税申报时，所有这些都将被考虑在内。 您将对超出您个人免税额的金额纳税。

我需要保留哪些记录？ (What records do I need to keep?)

Keeping records is the most important thing you can do. If you have organised records then even if you struggle with your tax return someone will be able to help you out. You need to keep details of any money you earn through your freelance work – so if you send invoices this is easy. Just keep a copy of all invoices sent. You should also keep details of any money you spend that directly relates to the business. For example, if you buy fonts, stock photography, sub-contract some work to someone. This can all be deducted from the profit that you make on a job. You only pay tax and NI on profit, so you want to make sure that you are recording things that legitimately reduce your profit.

保持记录是您最重要的事情。 如果您有条理的记录，那么即使您在纳税申报表方面遇到困难，也可以有人帮助您。 您需要保留通过自由职业获得的任何收入的详细信息-因此，如果您发送发票，这很容易。 只需保留所有已发送发票的副本即可。 您还应该保留与业务直接相关的所有花费的详细信息。 例如，如果您购买字体，股票摄影，则将某些工作分包给某人。 所有这些都可以从您在工作中获得的利润中扣除。 您只需为利润缴纳税款和NI，因此您要确保记录的事情正当地减少了利润。

There are lots of online bookkeeping applications which make keeping records easy. I love Xero, and I also hear good things about Free Agent. You can do your invoicing, record expenses and keep tabs on profit and loss right from within these applications.

有许多在线簿记应用程序，使记录保存变得容易。 我爱Xero ，我也听说过关于自由球员的好消息 。 您可以直接在这些应用程序中开票，记录费用并保持损益表。

I would also suggest having a separate bank account for the business and transferring money as drawings to your own account. This just helps keep things simple and easy to reconcile.

我还建议您为公司建立一个单独的银行帐户，然后将资金作为图纸转入您自己的帐户。 这只会使事情变得简单易调。

增值税呢？ (What about VAT?)

You don’t have to register for VAT until your sales (not profit) reaches £73,000 in a 12 month period. However you can register voluntarily. Once you are VAT registered you need to charge VAT on all of your invoices, and submit a VAT return detailing how much VAT you have collected – you then pay this amount. However before paying your VAT you deduct any VAT you have paid. This means that VAT makes your invoices more expensive, but this only matters if you are dealing with people who are not VAT registered.

在12个月内销售额（非盈利）达到£73,000之前，您无需注册增值税 。 但是，您可以自愿注册。 注册增值税后，您需要对所有发票收取增值税 ，并提交增值税申报表，其中详细说明了您已收取的增值税 –然后，您需要支付这笔款项。 但是，在支付增值税之前，您要扣除已支付的任何增值税 。 这意味着增值税会使您的发票价格更高，但这仅在您与未注册增值税的人员打交道时才重要。

So, if you provide services to businesses who are VAT registered, registering for VAT yourself will not make a lot of difference to them, and you can then claim back the VAT on anything you buy for your business. If you provide services to end users, who are not VAT registered then all your invoices are 20% more expensive once you have registered and they cannot claim this back.

所以，如果你的企业谁是增值税提供服务注册，注册增值税自己不会做出很大的差异给他们，然后你就可以申请在任何你买为您的企业增值税 。 如果您向未注册增值税的最终用户提供服务，则您注册后所有发票的价格都要贵20％，他们无法索回。

Registering for VAT will also greatly increase the amount of admin you have to deal with – so you should factor this in to your decision to register voluntarily.

注册增值税也将大大增加您必须处理的管理员数量-因此您应将此作为自愿注册的决定因素。

我需要注册为公司吗？ 有限责任公司与从事自由职业有什么区别？ (Do I need to register as a company? What is the difference between a limited company and just doing freelance work?)

Once you have registered with HMRC as self-employed you become what is known as a sole trader. Some freelancers and small business incorporate as a Limited company. This makes a difference in terms of how your profits are taxed. You can make some savings on tax as a Limited company but it comes at a cost of more admin – and probably an accountants fee. Therefore generally, for a small amount of freelance income, you should stay as a sole trader as your tax is kept simple. If you are considering becoming a Limited company you will need to advice of an accountant to make sure that you are paying tax in the correct way.

在HMRC上注册为自雇人士后，您将成为所谓的个体商人。 一些自由职业者和小型企业合并为有限公司。 这对您的利润征税方式有所不同。 作为有限公司，您可以节省一些税款，但这需要更多的管理费用，甚至还可能需要支付会计师费用。 因此，通常来说，对于少量的自由职业者而言，由于您的税款保持简单，因此您应继续作为个体商人。 如果您正在考虑成为一家有限公司，则需要向会计师咨询，以确保您以正确的方式纳税。

我需要会计师吗？ (Do I need an accountant?)

If you are simply sending a few invoices and claiming some small expenses against those earnings then you should be able to complete your tax return yourself without the need for an accountant. Tax returns can now be completed online and HMRC will calculate how much tax you owe. So all you need to do is complete the form accurately from your records. This isn’t hard – the important thing is having all the records to hand.

如果您只是发送几张发票，并针对这些收入要求一些小额支出，那么您应该能够自己完成纳税申报表，而无需会计师。 现在可以在线填写纳税申报表， HMRC将计算您欠的税款。 因此，您所需要做的就是从记录中准确填写表格。 这并不难–重要的是要掌握所有记录。

An accountant becomes more useful if you are running a business as your fulltime job and have a large number of invoices and expenses to sort out – and especially if you are VAT registered, a Limited company, or employ people. An accountant will know what you may and may not claim against, and be able to let you know of any changing legislation that effects you and your business so is a worthwhile investment. I still do all the bookkeeping for edgeofmyseat.com however the accountant does our end of year return, making sure I’ve not done anything silly, and also lets me know if anything changes that I need to be aware of.

如果您将业务作为自己的全职工作，并且要处理大量的发票和费用，特别是如果您是增值税注册，有限责任公司或雇员，那么会计师会变得更加有用。 会计师将知道您可能会或可能不会索赔的内容，并且能够让您知道影响您和您的业务的任何不断变化的立法，因此这是一笔值得的投资。 我仍然为edgeofmyseat.com进行所有簿记工作，但是会计师会在年底退货，以确保我没有做任何愚蠢的事情，并且还让我知道是否需要任何更改。

我该如何缴税？ (How do I pay my tax?)

The deadline for filing your tax return is 31st of January. You can file it any time after the end of the tax year at the beginning of April, you will then know how much you need to pay. You need to pay this amount by the 31st January. So it is worthwhile doing your return as soon as possible as you then know how much you will need to pay. If you know that you are earning over your personal allowance you should put aside in a savings account enough money to pay your tax bill.

提交纳税申报表的截止日期是1月31日。 您可以在4月初的纳税年度结束后的任何时间提交该文件，然后您将知道需要支付多少费用。 您需要在1月31日之前支付这笔款项。 因此，值得的是，尽快知道您需要支付多少费用，尽快退货。 如果您知道自己的收入超出了个人津贴，则应在储蓄帐户中留出足够的钱来支付税单。

It is worth filing your return early as you may also be asked to make a payment on account – money towards the next years bill. This can come as a shock if you were not expecting it, so filing early will give you time to have the money available. If you are earning enough to be asked to make payments on account, you will make a payment on account on 31st January, then one 31st of July and the final payment the next January will make up the full amount of your bill – when you will also make a payment on account for the next year.

值得提早提交申报表，因为可能还会要求您用帐户付款-支付下一年的账单。 如果您不期望这样做，可能会感到震惊，因此提早提交将给您时间来腾出可用的资金。 如果您的收入足以让您用帐户付款，那么您将在1月31日，7月31日和7月31日以及下一年一月的最终付款中使用帐户付款-还需要在下一年付款。

结语 (Wrapping up)

Registering as self employed and keeping accounts can seem a bit daunting however it really is quite straightforward once you know where to look. My top tips are to keep good records, put money aside for your bill, ask about anything you are not sure of and file your tax return as soon after the end of the tax year as possible. If you have any other tips please post them in the comments.

注册为自营职业者和保持帐户看似有些艰巨，但是一旦知道要去哪里，这确实非常简单。 我最重要的秘诀是保持良好的记录，为您的账单预留钱，询问您不确定的任何事情并在纳税年度结束后尽快提交纳税申报表。 如果您还有其他提示，请在评论中发布。