Activity

I’ve just been completing my Tax Return for 2017/18, due in online by 31 January, 2019 and found a very welcome ‘tax break’ for new authors with not too many sales.

I published my first (and only, so far) book in 2016/17. I had to declare the additional income from the sales as ‘self-employment’ income. Lots of stuff to fill in and quite a hassle for a fairly meagre ‘income’. I wasn’t worried about having to may tax on it because I had kept careful records of my expenses accrued over the time of writing the novel, which included a trip to Ireland for research and another to launch the book. So all in all, my expenses well outweighed my income and I filed a ‘loss’ against my self-employment entry. This loss could be carried forward to subsequent years to off-set against future sales, too. But, as I said, it was all a bit of a hassle.

This year, however, from 2017/18, HMRC have introduced a ‘Trading Allowance’ of £1000. The self-employed now pay no tax on the first £1000 of their income from self-employment! And, what is more, if their income, after expenses, is less than £1000 they don’t even have to declare it on their Tax Return!!

This is good news, indeed, for new authors – particularly indie-authors. While it would be lovely for our first book to make over £1000 and to have all the fun of adding the details to our Tax Return, it’s really helpful (for most of us whose net income is nowhere near that figure) no longer to have to bother the tax man at all with our writerly excursions.

So, just to repeat: if you had less that £1000 net income from your book sales in 2017/18 you do not have to declare it on your tax return.