Sole trader, tax?

curlzy

Hey All,

I would really really appreciate some information from you. I have a full time 9 to 5 job for my bread and butter, completely unrelated to my question. Now, I have been doing a particular hobby for the last few years. Last year I started teaching this hobby and to say my classes have taken off is a major understatement. When I started teaching it was really for the love of my hobby and promoting it and the classes really just paid for the venue. However I'm inundated with requests for more lessons and I see that I will be making 1-2k every couple of months from this hobby. I won't be making any money per say. I will be putting the money I make teaching back into equipment and also into going to conventions to learn more myself (training). The idea being that my hobby would finance itself.

So here's my question, if I register as a sole trader and I put every penny into either equipment or training, do I need to file tax returns etc and is there any tax to consider?

People have advised that I just say nothing and continue as I am but it doesn't feel right to me, I really just want to do things the right way.

Thanks very much.
Curlzy

relax carry on

You will need to register as self assessed and file annual returns with Revenue. You will need to keep accurate accounts and receipts to back up your accounts. Just because it appears there is no profit does not mean that there MAY not be some sort of liability, either tax, USC or PRSI on the income. This is a common misconception.

The link below will provide you with further information.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/self-assessment.html


The advice of saying nothing is encouraging tax evasion. You might want to pass that onto the people who gave you that "advice" as Revenue now receives information from several different sources and are getting better at uncovering all levels of evasion. What might have been a small tax liability turns into a large bill when interest and penalties are added to it.

curlzy

Thanks for the reply relax carry on, yeah it didn't quite sit right with me that I say nothing and just carry on. I'd really rather do it all above board. I'll check that link.

Thanks again.
C