[NBwcs]

My wife is already registered as self employed (not window cleaning), she earns over the ni limited but under the tax threshold. Im a sole trader and  the wife's work circumstances may be changing  so i'm thinking of paying her (say £75 per week) to come out one day a week to make up for the loss of earnings in her existing self employment. This would bring her annual pay to pretty much the same as it is now ie under the tax threshold but over the ni limit. Idealy i would like her just to declare this as self employment income as she does now and down in my accounts as an expense. For those who employ their spouse ,can i please ask,  is this possible or do i have to go down the route of paye? I will of course contact Hmrc but not contactable today and there's a lot contradictory advise out there on line, cheers in advance.

[Smudger]

yes I see no problem working for you as self employed as long as you follow the guidelines - ie.. has other work (not just with you) can refuse to work ie.. not set days/hours and she pays taxes etc...   she will just need to provide an invoice each week/month

Darran

[KS Cleaning]

It may be worth paying her more than £75 per week depending on how much she earns in her other job. As long as you stay under the NI threshold you will be saving 9% of whatever you pay her. As an example you pay her £100, your wife will pay 20% tax on the £100 and no NI, whereas if the £100 was taxable in your business it would be 20% tax ( assuming you pay basic rate )+ 9% NI………..with NI contributions set to rise the savings will soon be even bigger.

[JandS]

Don't forget if she is under the tax threshold you can claim some of that for yourself......think it's about £1200.

[windowswashed]

Worth considering topping up her pension contributions for tax reasons

[AuRavelling79]

My wife has her own work and she does my books and occasionally helps me on certain jobs.

I pay her about £500/£600 a month and her own earnings take her into the 20% tax bracket.

It generally makes sense your wife has paid up n.i. contributions.

[Ascjim]

Are you really going to make her come out with you?

I would just pay her the £75 and not clean windows.

[KS Cleaning]

Are you really going to make her come out with you?

I would just pay her the £75 and not clean windows.

If I had the choice of paying my wife £75 to come out with me or £150 not to come out with me I would be paying her £150😆

[EandM]

My wife used to work for me and we eventually entered into a partnership. Combined tax allowances gave us nearly £20k a year tax free with reduced expenses., I rather enjoyed working with her too.