…have been published by HMRC over the summer.

At present the self-employed pay two different types of National Insurance:

Class 2 – a fixed weekly amount that is collected directly during the year, plus

Class 4 – based on profits, and charged with the tax liability at the 31st January pay date.

HMRC is looking into whether it would be easier to include the Class 2 contributions along with the tax and Class 4 contributions at the year-end.

There will be no change to the amount collected, only when the payments are made.

It would reduce the paperwork for the self-employed, so I am in favour of this going ahead. It may also save HMRC money, as they will not have separate collection costs to incur going forwards.

The consultation runs until the 9th October 2013, and I will be reporting back once we have the results.