Piano teacher and Income Tax

[Barrie Heaton]

Quite a lot of Folk who work for the Inland Rev play the piano and have lessons remember that when you start to fiddle.

There are certain jobs that the Tax office look at with suspicion Window Cleaners are one . Why ! Because they deal in small amounts of money like Piano Teachers and get paid in cash, most of the time. I was informed by one of my clients that the Tax office fraud section is not that interested in you if you turn over less that 15K your not worth the paper work but don’t take that as gospel

To become self Employed in the UK just phone up your local Tax office they are very helpful

As to how much Tax you pay all depend on your income less your expenses you can do a self assessment tax return at the end of the year those who do a self assessment tax return are more likely to be audited but that is slim as the tax office is short staffed

You would think that the Tax office is one department that would be fully staffed as that is where the money comes in

Barrie,

[Gill the Piano]

If you keep records scrupulously, you can do your tax returns yourself, without needing an accountant. That said, a good accountant is worth their weight in gold, because they know the sort of things you can claim for - stationery, telephone, petrol (if you teach in pupils' houses),piano tuning, etc. Be careful about claiming for use of one room in your home for business, because if you sell your house there's some question of capital gains tax or something. I'm not sure of the details - that's why I employ an excellent accountant! It's not worth the risk to dodge tax; if we live here, we ought to pay our dues!