Self employment

Littlecar

Hi anyone know what self employment entails. How does one go about it?

OMM 0000

Do you mean being self-employed? As in, being a sole trader or running a business?

Littlecar

OMM 0000 wrote: »

Do you mean being self-employed? As in, being a sole trader or running a business?

Actually it’s sub contracting painting work

OMM 0000

I work in the software industry and it's fairly common for software engineers to be contractors. That means they come work for us for a bit, but they're not technically an employee. Usually it's on a job per job basis.

My feeling is this is quite similar to your situation?

So what this means is you are responsible for your own tax, etc.

Either you can do this as a sole trader (easiest) or as a limited company (harder, but with more benefits).

If there is any sort of risk you could be sued, or if you can imagine having a lot of expenses which could be written off as business expenses, you should go down the limited company route.

Note everything I said above is based on things I've read over the years. I am not an expert at all on this topic.

Dr Strange

Up to a certain amount is tax free I think (just above €3000 but that may have changed) but if you earn more than you would need to set up, as has been mentioned before, as either a sole trader or limited company. You can do the sole trader online and it makes sense if you have low risk and don't earn above a certain amount each year (rough rule of thumb if you earn below €30,000 go for sole-tradership, above you may benefit from being a limited company as you can charge for VAT).

Note you will have to file tax returns every year even if you haven't earned anything as long as you are registered as a ST or LTD.

Setting it up is not expensive. Have a look here:

How to register for tax as a sole trader: https://www.revenue.ie/en/starting-a-business/registering-for-tax/how-to-register-for-tax-as-a-sole-trader.aspx

Becoming self-employed: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/types_of_employment/self_employment/self_employment_as_an_individual.html

Also some info on relevant contract tx as a sub-contractor: https://www.revenue.ie/en/self-assessment-and-self-employment/rct/index.aspx

Best of luck!

StupidLikeAFox

Dr Strange wrote: »

rough rule of thumb if you earn below €30,000 go for sole-tradership, above you may benefit from being a limited company as you can charge for VAT).

You can still register for VAT if you are a sole trader.

There is an income limit where you must register for VAT if you are over €35k for services or €70k for goods (something like that)