ricardocabellov5.5

A couple of (spanish) friends already asked me the same question, so I guess this information may be interesting.

Some of you probably already know that some months ago I left the "rat's race" and started my own business. By now I didn't do too much but I hope to go quite far with all this.

So, to be honest, it's really easy and cheap. I think in Spain you have to pay something like 300€ each month, in UK It's £2.10 (Class 2, National Insurance Contributions) a month. This depends of how much do you earn, but for the basic stuff that's what you will have to pay. Also if your income is higher than £61,000 a year then you should also charge VAT.

The only thing you have to do is call to the HM Revenue & Customs Self-Employed Help Line, from there you just have to let them know that you want to register as a self-employed, I think you need to have a National Insurance Number ready (as they will ask you for this), and also, you need to know the name you want to use (in my case Mr.doob ;) The process may take something like 10minutes, no more!

Here you'll find the number you need to call to and also A LOT of information/check lists and stuff.

Then, you'll have to wait meanwhile they setup everything and in a couple of weeks you'll receive the information you need. At the end of the day what you're after doing all this is for your TAX reference. So in each invoice you send to your clients you need to put your name and this TAX reference.

And that's it. Let's say that in a day of work you can earn at least £240, so having said that, I think paying £2.10 a week is really a good deal. Isn't it?

The only thing you need now is clients! :D