Going freelance - your status

Whether you fall into the categories of employed or self-employed is down to the circumstances of your working situation. According to the Inland Revenue you are self-employed when you can answer yes to each of the following questions:

• Do you have the final say in how your business is run?
• Do you risk your own cash in the business?
• Are you responsible for meeting the losses as well as taking the profits from the business?
• Do you provide the main items of equipment needed to do the job?
• Are you free to hire other people on your own terms to do the work you have taken on? If so, do you pay them out of your own pocket?
• Do you also have to correct unsatisfactory work in your own time and at your own expense?

As a self-employed person you are classed as a sole trader. It is easy to get going - you simply start working.

More on going freelance.