go self employed offered

[tersita]

Hi
I'm a graphic designer working on a company for £22.000 a year before tax, a client offered me a self employed position working for him on a payment of £18.000 a year and said that I will pay less taxes as self employed and I will take more net money home that in my current work, but I will have to do my own taxes etc. I'm maybe naive but doesn't look right to me. Any advise?

sorry my English but I'm from Latin America holding UK citizen

[mullet]

Whether you are employed or self employed is not a matter of choice; it can only be decided when the working conditions are fully considered. In simple terms, working for one person and being paid an annual salary would more likely be employment than self employment. But it can't be decided in a forum like this.

There is not a vast difference betwen tax/NIC liabilities for the employed and self employed; the main "benefit" of being self employed is a more generous expenses regime (and being able to employ a non-working spouse). But if you are working for one person in one place then you won't be able to claim many (if any) expenses anyway. And comparing £22,000 to £18,000 and saying the net amount will be the same is misleading - what about holiday pay, sick pay, job security etc?

[tersita]

Thank you very much for your time and answer
It doesn't look like a good deal to me anyway I just wanted to hear if I was missing something that I didn't know about the benefits to be selfemployed
thanks

[JRG]

As msp pointed out, by going self-employed you would lose a host of employee's benefits and job security.

The following will clarify your net income:
Employed: Salary £22,000, less personal allowance £6,475, leaves £15,525 taxable, at 20% income tax = £3,105. Net income = £18,895.
Self-employed: Salary £18,000, less personal allowance £6,475, leaves £11,525 taxable, at 20% income tax = £2,305. Net income = £15,695.

Therefore, you would be £3,200 worse off going self-employed.