Newly self employed

Ellabobbin

A colleague at work has asked me a few questions regarding tax/NI for her newly self employed husband and I'd be really grateful if you could check my answers/fill in a few blanks....

Firstly, as I understand it the self employed trading profits are likely to be low this tax year (he started trading in september) but he also works in part time employment. is the small earnings exemption limit applicable to just his self employment earnings or would his employment income come into the equation in determining whether earnings have exceeded the £5315 threshold?

The first payment of class 2 NI would have been due 31.01.2012 and has not been made. As far as I am aware they have not applied for a certificate of exemption, will there be a penalty if a payment was due, and if an exemption was appropriate would this be backdated?

As far as income tax is concerned, for this tax year he will be assessed on trading profits from start up to 05.04.2012. Going forward it is obviously best to have a year end of 05.04 (or 31.03) to avoid overlap payments. I am fairly sure that it is permissible to have a shorter/longer accounting period for the first set of accounts - which would be better?

Many thanks for any help given :001_smile: