Anyone an IT contractor?

A good agency/accountant should explain your responsibilities.

HMRC will happily do it for free if you contact us to arrange an educational visit.

Bear in mind that when you are self-employed this means you will be on self assessment. The crucial thing to know about that is that the forms have to reach us by 31st January - if its late it will be you who gets the penalty levied. Equally you have 30 days to notify us of starting work as self-employed - again if youre late it is you who pays the penalty.

A good agency will be on top of all that and you would only need to ask "have you done this? do I need to do anything" kind of questions. However, maybe its because of my experience of accountants who have not notified their clients of exceeding the VAT threshold I have an inherent distrust to rely wholly on them. If you exceed £60k, you have to register. If you are late, its you who pays a penalty. There are so many penalties for lateness that I would be constantly at them to check theyve done things theyre supposed to do.

Particularly a good agency will be typically large and trying to do lots of self-assessments before 31st Jan for ALL their clients means the pressure is on and mistakes could be made.

But if you want HMRC to confirm your responsibilities contact hmrc. Details can be found on www.hmrc.gov.uk. Get an educational visit so if all else fails you could do the returns yourself or at least understand whats going on with your money youre earning.

Cheers Lynw! This is exactly the sort of info I'm after!