May

10

taxing plonkee

Filed Under tax | Leave a Comment

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a little while may have noticed that I’ve added some adverts to the site. They’re adsense ads from Google, and I don’t think that they detract too much.

When you sign up for adsense you have to make a declaration regarding tax. As Google is a US company, this is declaration concerns US Federal Tax. As a non-resident of the US without any business interests in the States, the declaration that I made basically means that any earnings from adsense will not be reported to the IRS. Of course, for me, this is a good and logical thing as I can see no reason why I should pay income tax to a country with which I have no connection other than the location of my debtor and hosting server. I’m glad that the IRS agree with my position as in general tax authorities can be a law unto themselves.

However, I think that this means that I will need to file a tax return to HMRCS for this financial year. Some web advice on Ebay sellers suggested that if the amount earned is not much then its probably ok to put it down as casual earnings. On the other hand if it gets to be a more substantial amount (unlikely but plausible) then I’d need to register as self-employed. I think I might need to contact the tax men (or women) themselves to find out for sure. In any case, I plan to save at least half the earnings in a high interest account and keep proper records to ensure that I don’t get in any trouble.

Aah the joys of generating additional income.

Mar

26

the battered red briefcase

Filed Under tax | Leave a Comment

So, last week Gordon Brown delivered what is widely touted as his last budget before becoming Prime Minister. And as I’m sure all interested parties have heard, he left a stonking great big change until the end of his speech. The basic rate of tax has been lowered by 2p in the pound to 20%. Hooray!

Well, all the commentators pointed out that we’ll be paying for this with the abolition of the 10% tax band. Still for people in my income bracket (earning between about £18,000 and £33,000) we’ll be better off than before. For those paying income tax, but earning less than about £18,000 you’ll lose out and be slightly worse off than before. Earning between £33,000 and £39,000 will see you worse off due to changes in NI bands, and earning between £39,000 and £43,000 will see you better off as the higher rate tax threshold has been raised. Earning above £43,000 and paying higher rate tax should see you paying close to the same amount in tax and National Insurance combined.

I’m not sure that I see the point of this tax change, even though it makes me better off. Its not a Robin Hood style tax cut (taking from the rich to give to the poor) as the benefits are unevenly distributed. I guess the tax-cutting headlines look good though. It certainly seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the Conservatives, which is probably the main target.