Idiot's guide to leaving the military and paying tax.

[Al R]

Leaving the military and don't have a clue about tax? This simple on-line tutorial from HMRC might help. Although it starts from the premise that you want to work for yourself, there's also lots of useful stuff in there for most other people.

Starting your own business (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/courses/syob2/mod/index.htm)

[A and C]

It will not cost you much to hire an accountant to review your tax issues and keep you on the right side of the law while making sure that you only pay the taxes that are due.

I have worked with a lot of ex-RAF guys most of who did not want to pay an accountant, a few saved themselfs the accountants fees and were sucsessful in reducing their tax bills most spent a lot of time and effort and got it wrong.

My accountant has never cost me more than he has saved me in terms of money, and in terms of lifestyle he has saved me from hours of investigation of tax law that is tedious in the extreme, quite frankly my time is far to valuable to spend hours doing what a good accountant can do in seconds.

If you are thinking of going into business try to get an accountant who knows that area of business, my accountant is a music business expert but his area has a lot of crossover with contract pilots, the problems of working for different companies, moving around the world and short term contracts are remarkably similar for pilots and musicians !

[Stn120]

As A&C said an accountant is worth it. A few friends and colleagues of mine have fallen foul of the taxman, some who thought their personal allowance would automatically be taken from only 1 source of income when in fact the pension provider gave them relief on the allowance and so did their employer which meant that some years later HMRC caught up with them and they got stung quite badly. An accountant of course can give some good advice and make all kinds of savings. Mine saved me more that his fees particularly when conducting some of my work abroad.

[teeteringhead]

Other than if you have a very simple single source of income, deffo go for the accountant.

Can easily make you more than they cost.