Electric Trainer

How to work out your price

New freelancers and sole traders often ask me how much they should charge. The short answer is to look at the existing market and see what people like you are normally paid.

On a similar topic I came across this episode of the BBC's Bottom Line programme. It looks at how certain businesses charge for their time in different ways. Evan Davis talks to an online estate agent, a lawyer and someone from a big advertising agency.

It's a fun listen, and here are a couple of ways of getting to it:

• BBC Bottom Line programme page
• Download the episode via iTunes (mp3)

 

Getting tax back

I meet quite a few people on business skills courses who have been through a redundancy process and are receiving a payout as a result. 

Redundancy payments greater than £30,000 are taxed at source, so I'm often asked how you get the tax back if you've been taxed too much for that financial year.

I'm no tax advisor, but this link might help:
www.gov.uk/claim-tax-refund/youve-stopped-work

It's part of the new-look GOV.UK site, where HMRC has been migrating lots of useful guidance.

A few years ago I also ranted slightly about a related issue.