Can a Physician Assistant be self employed?

Registering with HMRC as self-employed Admin Assistant!?

• Basically, for the tax year just gone 08/09 I was employed (via an employment agency) for 2.5 months (August - October), and paid full taxes. I also began a part time casual job for as elf-employed photographer and was told (later on) that I was being employed on a self-employed basis (all the while i thought that i was employed!). This job earns me £60 per week and work is not guaranteed every month. For instance, I did not work for all this month as the lady was on holiday! Anyway, as of yesterday I registered with HMRC as a self-employed person so that whatever little money I earn is on record. The thing is, i would like to reclaim the tax I paid from the time I was in employment (Aug. - Oct 08) as I was well within my tax-free allowance. HMRC have told me that a refund cannot be paid until I fill out a self assessment form detailing all of my earnings (from employment and self-employment) from the previous tax year just gone. Before I registered as self-employed I had already sent a letter requesting the reclaim with the original parts 2 & 3 of my P45, though I had not specified that I was self-employed (as I didn't understand I was at the time). The PAYE department wrote to me requesting my current employer's tax reference number, which I now know would have to be my unique taxpayer reference number. The UTR number, I am told, would be allocated within 2 - 6 weeks. Do I request that the parts 2 & 3 of my P45 be returned to enable me complete the self-assessment forms? Would HMRC be unable to pay my tax reclaim without my UTR number? Very long post, I know, but i'm so confused as I didn't deliberately set out to be self-employed!

• Answer:

  I don't think you are actually self employed, you are actually employed on a casual basis. See the HMRC guidance here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/working/work-out-emp-self-emp.htm I suspect your employer has said this because they do not want the hassle and cost of running a payroll just to pay you. They don't actually have to though because you earn less that that the PAYE NI threshold. You don't need to go self employed just declare your annual earnings. UPDATE: There is no tax to pay here so it shouldn't really be a problem. I think you need to tell your tax office that you are not self employed but you have earned £x in casual wages on top of the job you did in the year. You could just do a tax return but this is a little bit complicated for the amounts you have earned. If you are classed as self employed you will always have to do a tax return but if you are classed as employed you won't.