Do I have to register second self-employment?

by **elzbieta** on Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:29 pm

Year and a half ago I have become self-employed and registered with HMRC as a graphic designer. Since then the character of my job widened and I started to deliver art & design private tuitions on the top of designing. Do I have to register second self-employment with HMRC and calculate education services separately on my self assessment or can I calculate it together treating it as one freelance as I'm already registered as self-employed?

by **mullet** on Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:05 pm

You have to register only once, to trigger the issue of tax returns etc and the collection of Class 2 NICs. If you have two businesses, you simply complete two separate self employment pages. On the face of it your two activities are probably a single business, so just put it all together. If both sources produce profit then there is no difference in terms of tax anyway.

by **elzbieta** on Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:07 pm

Thank you for your answer.

mullet wrote: If both sources produce profit then there is no difference in terms of tax anyway.

Is there also no difference, if so far only one brings profit and second one loss?

by **mullet** on Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:36 pm

Is there also no difference, if so far only one brings profit and second one loss?

This is where it starts to get complicated. If both trades are conducted on a commercial basis and with a view to the realisation of profits, then there is indeed no difference. But if one source is non-commercial, there might be an argument from HMRC that the losses can only be carried forward (as opposed to used "sideways" against the other source) against future profits from the loss-making source.

Bottom line is that you need to carefully consider whether this is one business or two. To be honest, I'm not sure ...