In addition to the day job, I’m increasingly being asked to write and say things. This involves payment ranging from a few hundred to a fair bit more.

Accountants/sole traders/anyone, any tips or advice on setting up as a sole trader, especially on invoicing and interacting with organisations that want to pay me, and how best to manage tax, all with minimal fuss?

register as self employed with hmrc, fill out self assessment for pervious year. Choose to have a tax bill or your tax code adjusted. Easy.

IF you need a ltd company a bit more hassle but not awful for a one man band however stay as a sole trader unless you need the separation or you will be earning ~> 50K from it

No, sole trader will do it. Glad to hear not a nightmare – I had visions of days wasted going down HRMC rabbit-holes.

yeah admin is admin (i.e. shit) but its not hard, especially if you are not buying loads of stuff that you have to keep on top of the receipts. You probably need to register for vat as well but that will just be flat rate so again the simplest. https://www.gov.uk/vat-flat-rate-scheme

Sole trader is very easy. Only complication might be how it interacts with the day job paperwork but the HMRC side is straight forward. Tell them your money in and money out, then pay tax on the difference. I keep all the info in a spreadsheet, then copy the totals onto the online self assessment once a year. For invoicing just send a headed letter with amount and bank details. My standard one is pretty basic but it still gets paid, just need to make sure it goes to the right person and reference whatever system the company uses, usually a purchase order number. Finally, as a sole trader you can have a trading name so you sound more official but you should still put your own name on the invoice somewhere eg “Joe Bloggs trading as Mega-Saxabar-Co”

If you’re going to be doing lots of stuff where you won’t need to buy much (i.e. writing, compared to retail), it might be worth investigating registering for VAT anyway, under one of the reduced VAT (flat rate) schemes. It will enable you to claim back all the VAT you’ve paid for purchases (e.g. if you need a new laptop for work) but you only have to pay a lower rate of VAT on the money you receive.
https://www.gov.uk/vat-flat-rate-scheme/how-much-you-pay
IANATaxAdviser, but as far as I know there’s no lower limit on how much you need to earn through self employment to become VAT registered, but it does become mandatory if you earn above a certain amount.

You probably need to register for vat as well

Only if you’re invoicing more than £85k per year. Otherwise probably a good idea to stay well clear of it (unless your customers can reclaim VAT on your invoices and you have significant expenses to reclaim VAT on).

Pierre – flat rate scheme generally means you don’t reclaim VAT on your expenses! You just don’t pay the full 20% on your sales.

You probably need to register for vat as well

you probably don’t need to and it’s not advantageous if your clients aren’t generally vat registered themselves as they’ll pay more than they need to for your services

get yourself something like Xero to manage all the invoicing and book keeping (and expense tracking etc). will be well worth it in saving on time spent on admin.

I would consider setting up a Ltd co.
1. There’s little extra admin involved.
2. If what you write and say is advice, then consider if that leaves you exposed from a legal perspective. It may not, but if it does, then a Ltd co puts an extra step between the disgruntled and you losing your house if being sued.
3. The image of a Ltd co is useful for some clients – some of my clients won’t contract with a sole trader / someone who isn’t registered for VAT.
And if you are providing advice, consider what insurance you might need.

If you are getting pulled in by corporates to essentially endorse a strategy or vendor disguised as consultancy or thought leadership make sure you do your due dil on products. What seems meaningless today can trip you up in the future. Especially if you on the AI / data side if your in tech.

Worth requiring / requesting a purchase order prior to invoicing so you can reference the PO numbers on your invoices or you end up waiting months to get paid.

Sole trader is fine if you have terms with a disclaimer on.

@NewRetroTom, good job I’m not a tax adviser! My business is retail so VAT in and out is 20%, I haven’t had to dabble in this stuff but have heard of it from freelance friends (developers, writers, etc.)

But:

Example

You bill a customer for £1,000, adding VAT at 20% to make £1,200 in total.

You’re a photographer, so the VAT flat rate for your business is 11%.

Your flat rate payment will be 11% of £1,200, or £132.

As I understand the flat rate scheme, in the above example you’d bill for £200 VAT but only have to pay £132 of it. Granted that’s not the same as I thought it was when I wrote my previous message.

Yep that’s correct, but the flat rate being lower than the full rate of VAT (1/6 of gross or 16.67%) is because it’s intended to take into account your inputs (with the exception that you can still reclaim VAT on capital goods over £2k).

Thanks all, and do keep it coming. Income will deffo be less than £85k, more likely in the region of £20k annual. I was wondering about the likes of Xero, but in reality there will likely be 10 or so speaking gigs of a few hundred pound each, plus a report or two. Good point about corporate endorsement, but it isn’t that sort of thing (more along the lines of forecasting tech issues, harms, ethical matters, and how to address these if possible).

On the VAT side, steering clear looks good!