Paid in Linz blog:
Just spoke to Holger (thanks H if you are reading this!).. money was paid in yesterday!! Hoorah – more than I thought too, so massive sighs of relief all round. That means on Tuesday next week (perhaps Monday?) I shall be rich! Beyond my wildest dreams. Well, actually I will be buying my sister a really nice 30th birthday present and squirreling away a large amount for my tax bill in 2010! There is enough materials money to make a decent edition of the ‘Grau/Gelb’ book too, which is very exciting. I don’t think I can finish it while I am here unfortunately (a prototype but not a finished edition).. that will involve at least a weeks (maybe two if I make a hardback..) full time work in the print studio and on assembly. But it will be done!! I need another month here! I wish I could have stayed for six infact. That would change everything and it’s interesting (and useless) to think about how the work would continue to develop. I suspect it will be hard to hold onto in the same way when I get back to Liverpool and am in the midst of many stressful workshops for YSP in Wakefield.
Tax blog:
I was just messenging Dan about getting money and he piped up with tax worries.. YSP (the next project) involves a £10,000 bursary, but it is a charity and should be tax free say HMRC, although they won’t say one way or another over the phone until I file it! This is because it is for career development/ training rather than paying a proper rate. It includes 100 days work – £100 per day, but travel, materials and accomodation while in Wakefield are not included, so the actual amount includes a lot of living costs rather than payment. Linz is definately taxable as it is a fee for work done, although I have some confusion about earning the money in Austria rather than the UK (when working in Japan I opted to pay NI, but didn’t have to). But I will declare it of course.. infact earning more on paper is really important this year as I’m sure we will want to try and buy a house at some point in the next few years…. At least that is for next year’s taxes.. I still have to do this years, although they are very simple as I earned bugger all!
Next year’s tax form will involve this ever-increasing pile of receipts/travel costs and much more complicated things. I would like an accountant, but not sure my earnings are going to be enough to warrant it. Liverpool Council/ACME offer free accounts/tax training to self employed types, and so do Train 2000 infact. I shall be going down that route first. This may just give me a true idea of how little I know and lead me to an accountant!
Right, enough tax chat.. more glue guns and cardboard.
