I have a full time job, and on the side, I shall become a sales agent for someone.
The product is going to be imported in, paid for by the company, I’m just more dealing with customer queries, and order taking, then getting paid commision on it.
Also attending shows, sponsorship that type of thing.

Question is, would I need to register (tax wise) as a sole trader? I dont want to be penalised later for commision earnt.

Cheers,
Travis

Depends how you’ll be getting paid for the second job.
You’d only be a sole trader if you were invoicing the company for what work you do, and then you’d have to complete a tax return each year followed by paying whatever tax was due (easy option is just stick 25% into a savings account, then any left over from paying the tax bill is a yearly bonus).

If they were paying you, I’d think it would fall under PAYE, at which point IIRC the second job would have to have tax deducted at emergency rate (or whatever they call it now), and then whatever overpayment there was, refunded at the end of the tax year. This should avoid the need for a tax return.

Cheers for that.

Any other advice on where I should look?

The hmrc website is actually pretty good. Some fairly simple guides written in plain English.

The HMRC site is surprisingly.

It’s probably worth bumping this thread during office hours, as I’m sure there are some accountant types about, who’ll know more.

One thing to mention from my first reply, was 25% savings should be fine if you’ll only be paying basic rate tax. If it’ll bump you into the higher tax band, then you’ll want to stick over 40% in.

IIRC, you would only need to register as self-employed if that was your only job. This is to ensure NI payments can be made.

You will, though, need to register for self-assessment. This will allow you to pay any tax and NI on the income you have received from your second job.

Also, it would be advisable to open a separate bank account to pay the income from your second job into. Leave at least 35%-ish in the account to cover tax and NI payments (or more if you think you’ll be paying tax at a higher rate) so there are no nasty surprises when it’s time to pay HMRC.

Like MC says, if you invoice the second company for your hours (I think technically you’d also invoice them for commission earned too) then you would register as a Sole Trader. If you are employed by the second company then I’d imagine both go through PAYE and you get a different tax code (you would have to let the first company know this too). Even as a Sole Trader for a second job I had to adjust the tax code for the first.

I don’t understand what you mean by being penalized later on commission earned, you have to pay tax on this too.

It also depends where the companies are based, all of the above assumes UK.

Along similar lines ..
I’m self employed but with time on my hands and was thinking of doing some voluntary work which doesn’t pay a salary ..but reimburses expenses .
I’m assuming that there is no taxable element to this?

No, not for expenses as the net total is £0

There are some rules on expenses too, if you are travelling to another office so regularly that it becomes your place of work you can’t claim travel expenses tax free. HRMC site does explain it.

Expenses are taxed over certain limits as well. SO for mileage iirc the revenue assume 44p per mile, and anything over this is taxable. In most circumstances home to work mileage is always taxable (but it can get very confusing defining where ‘work’ is if you move to many different offices)

ALso worth remembering that there is no tac free allowance for the second job (unless your first doesn’t pay enough to use it already). So if you’re a 40% tax payer, everything you earn from the second job will be taxed at 40% (assuming PAYE).

Volunteering expenses are not taxed

Volunteering expenses are not taxed

As long as they are expenses. From https://www.gov.uk/volunteering/pay-and-expenses:

You aren’t paid for your time as a volunteer, but you may get money to cover expenses. This is usually limited to food, drink, travel or any equipment you need to buy.

You might be classed as an employee or worker rather than a volunteer if you get any other payment, reward or benefit in kind. This includes any promise of a contract or paid work in the future.

Yeah, penalised I meant tax.
I would be working on Commission only at first, and I’d be part of their USA branch.

As already said above, it depends on how you are being paid.Either way you are required to pay tax on commissions as that is counted as salary. You will need to let your other employer know about it as well to avoid massive tax confusion at a later date.
It being a second job doesn’t make any difference other than needing to remember that it’s total income that is taxed.