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Declaring Earnings

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi,

A couple of weeks ago I did a freelance project, I told the woman in the JobCentre and she gave me some forms that I filled in. I charged the client £75.00 for 15hrs work to develop a basic website. Now the woman in the jobcentre said I would be contacted and she put the forms to one side but a couple of weeks later I have heard nothing back, so I take it, the job did not affect my entitlement to benefits but I still thought I would have heard something back ?

Now a couple of days ago the client come back to me and asked to change some things to the original project and he gave me an extra £15.00 and payed me a cheque for the total project including the £75.00 from the original.
Now this second part of the job only took me 30-45mins to complete since I already had most of the code required from my Uni days.

So what do I tell the jobcentre, do I put the whole project through as one, or do I do the second part seperate(i.e. £15.00), I didn't expect the client to come back to me with extra work ?
The whole project only took about 15hrs 45mins. I created a new invoice for the whole project and the ammendments and have the cheque waiting to be cashed ?

Any help would be much appreciated since I don't usually do all this, do you think I should get a VAT number in case I get any more freelance work, this project only come about through a friend of a friend.

Regards

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't know about VAT but you should be fine to declare the second part of the project as separate earnings.

    If in doubt ask at the job centre.
  • Olly_BOlly_B Posts: 222 Trailblazer
    Hi MrShyDrops,

    As Piccolo says, it's worth double-checking with the JobCentre staff exactly what the rules are.

    As for registering for VAT, it's not a requirement until you are getting an income of over £68,000. As long as you are paying the VAT on the products you are purchasing there isn't a requirement for you to register to pay VAT at this stage. There's more details here: http://www.thesite.org/workandstudy/working/selfemployed/vatinvestigated

    Olly
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    VAT / JobCentreStaff

    Hi Olly_B,

    Thanks for the advice, I knew about the VAT since I checked out businesslink's website. This thread is starting to go into another one of my threads entitled JobCentreStaff.

    I declared it to the woman on thursday and she gave me the form, and told me to go away and fill it in, yet when I originally filled in the form the woman told me I couldn't go away and fill it in and had to fill it in then and their, Does this make a difference or is it just a case of conveniance(sorry bad spelling) ?

    Also who do I contact to see about past declarations I have made to see if they will make an impact, I made it like 4 weeks ago now and heard nothing back, is it my local jobcentre or DWP ?


    Regards...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It depends on whether you are on income-based JSA or contributions-based JSA. If you are on the latter (because you've been working for the last three years) then it will not affect your JSA providing that you do not work more than 16 hours in any one week. If you are on the former (where the amount you get depends on your income) then it will affect your entitlement; you are entitled to keep the first £10 you earn but after that every pound you earn takes one pound off your JSA. For most people this means you wouldn't get any JSA for that one week as your earnings (after the deduction) exceed the applicable amount (which is about £48 for under-25s and about £65 for over-25s).

    It would be a good idea for you to chase this up as you may have been overpaid benefit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hi Artic Roll,

    Well 4(21/4/2011) weeks I go I made the declaration of earnings(£75.00) for 15hrs work to a staff member in the JobCentre. She gave me some forms to fill in and I filled them in and she said I would recieve an acknowledgement in a couple of days/weeks.

    So today because I want to cash the cheque, also because I also have another declaration to make and also I have recieved another installment of JSA money I decided to phone them up to see what was happening so the person in their Glassgow office told me he had not recieved any information what so ever about my original declaration.

    So then I tell my mum whats going since she usually deals with these things and helps with form filling. She then decides to ring through to my local jobcentre, gets in an argument and apparently cannot act on my behalf for some reason, and apparently they have been logged in the computer and that they could have got lost in the post.

    So he arranged for me to go in on Monday and sort it out and re-fill the forms in again. So on monday we are going to the Jobcentre to re-fill in the forms and hopefully it can all be sorted, I thought the incentive of being able to do self-employed work or one of projects was the fact that it's simple and easy to do yet all this form filling, waiting for ackowledgements, waiting to cash cheques, etc etc.

    I just want to make sure I am not overclaiming benefits etc, etc..
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you declare it and they lose the declaration then the overpayment's not recoverable; it's their error. You need to keep a copy of the declaration though.

    There's nothing wrong with cashing the giro, just be aware that they may deduct it later so keep the money to one side.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You need to keep a copy of the declaration though

    Thats the problem she didn't give me a copy of the declaration, she just took a copy of my Invoice to put with the declaration forms.

    But the guy I spoke to from the JobCentre on the phone said that he had a copy of it logged on the computer. It's nothing major I would just like to know where I stand thats all...
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