One-off freelance work - best invoice/payment approach?

Hey all,

My girlfriend has recently embarked (and mostly completed) some freelance graphic design work. However she's in full-time PAYE employment and this is completely unrelated, and she is also NOT going to pursue any further freelance work in the future. This is literally a one-off.

What's the best way for her to go about receiving payment for this? We're only talking 15-20 hours of chargable work. I imagine the cost and hassle of establishing a company would outweigh any benefits. Should we attempt to 'become' an employee of another company (I know a number of contractors with companies I could *possibly* lean on), or utilise an umbrella service for this work?

Cheers,

- J

 

Personally I would put in an invoice, take the money and worry about it if anyone ever knocked on my door. No point registering as self employed or forming a company etc.

If you have mates with a company they could invoice on behalf of your girlfriend but she would still have to invoice them to extract the cash so is no different.

Also have a look at:
http://forums.freelanceuk.com/general-forum/35-one-off-freelance-project-tax-implications.html

 

If you want to be up and above board about it I think you need to fill in a tax return and declare the income as a one-off payment. Might be worth ringing HMRC to discuss a 'hypothetical' situation where you planned to do some work outside of your employment. I imagine their website also has details about this. You certainly wouldn't need to set up a company or declare yourself self-employed. You've got ages to fill out a return BTW.

Another way of doing it is to ask the company she's done the work for if they will deduct tax and NI from the fee. I've done freelance work in the past where the company did all that for you (you had to specifically tell them you were freelance if you wanted to work out your own tax etc) and then sent you a proper payslip. Then you don't have to bother Mr Taxman at all.