It is surprisingly easy to register as self-employed. Do a search on registering as self employed in the UK and it should take you to the relevant Government web sites. There are free courses run by the Government on keeping records and doing tax returns I would recommend these. You can always be employed and self employed at the same time. Do keep good records for tax purposes pay your national insurance and make sure you have appropriate professional and public liability insurance (not cheap but necessary)
I have clients who insist on seeing a tax reference number and evidence of insurance before taking me on. It takes about five weeks after registering before you get your number. You can take on self-employed work at any time but you must register for tax within three months of taking it on.
Getting paid on time is a real problem so do have something in reserve before you go down this route.
If you have clients lined up then best of luck but keep all your options open. There are many self-employed archaeologists out there and competition is tough.
Do take up the government training schemes as there is a lot you can off set against tax and they will help you with this.
Tax returns and the associated records are the difficult bit.
You are unlikely turn over enough to need to register for VAT but do look into this so as not to get caught out.
Personally I aim for employment with a company or organisation so they deal with all the tax issues etc, but I do keep the self-employment option open for the occasional bit of freelance work It means I have to fill in my own tax return but this has not been too much of a problem so far.
Best of luck, becoming self-employed is the easy bit finding the work and getting paid is the difficult bit.
Do try and save something and remember to keep your prices as high as you can to cover all the hidden costs (BAJR guide lines are good).
I get very ...... of with hobby archaeologists who undercut and are virtually doing the work for free
If you have been unemployed for sometime there may even be Government financial help available to get you started
I have clients who insist on seeing a tax reference number and evidence of insurance before taking me on. It takes about five weeks after registering before you get your number. You can take on self-employed work at any time but you must register for tax within three months of taking it on.
Getting paid on time is a real problem so do have something in reserve before you go down this route.
If you have clients lined up then best of luck but keep all your options open. There are many self-employed archaeologists out there and competition is tough.
Do take up the government training schemes as there is a lot you can off set against tax and they will help you with this.
Tax returns and the associated records are the difficult bit.
You are unlikely turn over enough to need to register for VAT but do look into this so as not to get caught out.
Personally I aim for employment with a company or organisation so they deal with all the tax issues etc, but I do keep the self-employment option open for the occasional bit of freelance work It means I have to fill in my own tax return but this has not been too much of a problem so far.
Best of luck, becoming self-employed is the easy bit finding the work and getting paid is the difficult bit.
Do try and save something and remember to keep your prices as high as you can to cover all the hidden costs (BAJR guide lines are good).
I get very ...... of with hobby archaeologists who undercut and are virtually doing the work for free
If you have been unemployed for sometime there may even be Government financial help available to get you started