Annual Expenses

[Louise85]

I'm new to this whole self-employed thing and am not happy with the way I've been keeping track of my money. Really want to start budgeting and planning for expenses so I don't get caught off gaurd. I've included in my annual savings my NCMA membership & insurance, but not sure, do we pay Ofsted every year??And should I be saving for tax? Does anyone have a good website they can suggest for organising this sort of thing? The plan, I think is to take income less expenses less savings for annual things and then pay me a 'salary' but am so confused...trying to keep tax down but profits up at the same time...am i looking into this too deeply? Sorry if this doesn't make sense- perhaps I should just hire an accountant?? thanks for listening

[christine e]

You would have paid a fee to Ofsted when you registered and thereafter is an annual fee currently £35. It is very difficult to budget for expenses but if you look in free resources at the top of this page then go into downloads there is a list in the tax section of things we can put down as expenses. If you have a net income that exceeds £7475 then you will have to pay tax at 20% and also you will be liable to pay Class 4 national insurance at 8%. If you have been employed during the tax year 2011 - 2012 you will have to take your earnings from employment into account too. I don't see how you can set aside an amount as a salary as some weeks/months you have more outgoings than others
what is left at the end of each month is yours

Cx

[aly]

you dont pau yourself a salary...what is left over from expenses is yours to keep.

a lot of people put 10-20% of their income away each month to save for the tax and insurance.