Contracting in my spare time while working full time PAYE

[angryInch]

Hi,
I am a software engineer and I'm working full-time.
However I have been offered some contract work with another company I worked with before, and I am going to take them up on it.
I ran it by the boss in the company I am working for, in case they had any problem with me moonlighting, but he said it was fine.

Now, my question is, how do expenses etc work when you are contracting part-time like this. Can you still claim pone costs, broadband costs, 1/6 of house hold bill's for a home office etc?

Also, the work is coming in the form of 30-60 hour small contracts that I can deliver in my own time, can I just bill for this work in my own name without an umbrella company or setting up a limited company? I don't mind doing the end of year accounts, as I have to do them anyway because of rental accommodation, but was wondering if there were any other implications of just billing them as a sole-trader?

Any advice gratefully accepted!

 

[podowd]

If your clients have no problem dealing direct with a sole trader (if you are sourcing contracting work through recruitment agencies you may be required to use a limited company/umbrella company) then yes, you can certainly do this in your own name as a sole trader and keep your costs to a minimum.

You don't need to have a Limited Company to offset expenses against taxable income - as a sole trader any expenses that are incurred for the purposes of the trade would be allowable. This will obviously depend on the costs you are incurring but yes, the typical allowable costs would include the business element of your phone, broadband and home office expenses.

Regards

podowd
www.prima.ie

 

[angryInch]

Thanks for the info, looks like there is no difference between what is claimable as a sole-trader vs a limited company. Thats good to hear.

What I was wondering about was the part-time nature of the work, would that change anything, considering I'm working a full-time job as well? Or when totting up expenses can I just think of it as if I was doing it full time. I'm specifically thinking of the home office part of the work here, where you can claim a sixth of household bills for a home office.