Here are a few links I found useful, when signing up as a self-employed sole-trader.
It seems the UKRC is a mass of information but the search engine it uses is useless, unless you know the exact name of the form you are after, so hopefully this list of links will save you time in the future.
So first off the HMRC website has the basic info on what to do first - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm advice from a couple of financial bods told me the form used to be a self-assessment and a separate self-employment one, now the form is a single dual-use one, called CWF1, however you can now do this online - Complete an online registration form for Self Assessment
If you are in full time employment on a payroll and you want to do extra work as freelance, you still have to sign up as self employed.

According to HMRC you can be employed and self employed at the same time.
If you plan on only earning under £5,315 a year, then you also need to fill in a - CF10 Self-employed people with small earnings to be exempt from paying National Insurance Contributions.

So, once you’re registered, how on earth do you figure out paying the correct tax and/or NI? Well, here a great illustration to get you going - http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/index/information-and-services/money-tax-and-...

Then once your calculator and brain have been fried to a crisp, sign yourself upto one of the sessions the HMRC run to learn more from them about what to do and not to do. Bookings can be made for a variety of things here - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/bst/advice-teams-area/northtraining.htm (this is for the North of England, however removing that portion of the link, will get you to the sections homepage).

Here’s some useful links to get you thinking about what you want to do for self-employment work…
Links and descriptions of type of self-employment from the OU - http://www.open.ac.uk/careers/self-employment.php#l2
Checklist from Prospects - http://www.prospects.ac.uk/self_employment_checklist.htm
Freelance UK - http://www.freelanceuk.com/
Citizen Advice Beureau FAQ - http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/employment/self-employmen...
Creative Pool - http://www.creativepool.co.uk/employee/careeradvice.php
Freelancer Start-up Guide - http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/24/24_6/freelancer-startup-guide.shtml

Interestingly the most common sectors for self-employment is IT, Visual Arts, Health and Excersize, Media, Performing arts, and Business and Law.

Tweet