Don’t panic!
Tax probably does have to be taxing, but it doesn’t have to be frightening.
Whether you’re confused, frustrated, disorganized, or just scared witless about tax, this site is designed to help you take charge of your tax affairs. And if you decide you need professional help we having a growing directory of accountants, Accountants4escorts, who are experienced in handling the tax affairs of escorts.
The site is primarily aimed at UK escorts but you will also find advice for girls working through parlours and maids, together with a few thoughts on pole dancers and chimney sweeps. And almost everything here applies equally to male as well as female escorts.
It is not my intention to encourage anyone to take up escorting. Frankly I think you’d get less grief, less stress and be a lot safer with any number of other jobs. But if that’s what you’ve decided to do I hope this site will help you achieve your financial goals, help you pay no more than your fair share of tax, and help you sleep at night.
I’ve tried to write in clear plain English and you’ll also find practical tips and FUCQ’s (frequently uncontemplated questions) liberally sprinkled throughout the site. But if anything is unclear let me know and I’ll attempt to fix it.
What’s here?
There is a lot of material here which we’ve tried to group into sensible sections to make it easy to find your way round. We’ve aimed to give you a broad understanding of the tax system that confronts escorts operating in the UK.
If you simply want a quick run-down of how you are affected by the UK tax regime, a good place to start is our Quick Guide.
We’ve included sections on the basics of the tax system, DIY guidance to help you deal with your tax yourself, more detailed background information on some of the relevant tax issues, a look at tax nightmares and how to avoid them, a reference section including a jargon-buster and the latest tax rates, and links to the escorts book-keeping system “what we wrote” the TaxRelief Diary.
The section on accountants gives guidance on finding and choosing an accountant, how to work with them, and equally importantly advice for accountants on how they should work with you.
The Stuff section includes a number of resources including a tax calculator which you can use to estimate how much of your income to set aside each month towards your tax, and there is also a page showing all the key tax rates and allowances.
And finally there’s a blog.
Almost every page has scope for comments to be added which hopefully will mean the site answers the questions escorts are really asking, and not just the ones we think you should be asking.
What’s not here?
Judging by the number of emails we get there are a lot of escort agency owners (as well as people who have a ‘friend’ who is thinking of setting up an escort agency) all looking for tax advice. We have no interest in providing that advice.
The focus of this site is on providing ‘tax relief’ for individual escorts and other individual sex workers.
A brief word about the law
The same tax laws apply throughout the UK. The Scottish parliament does have some power to vary income tax, but so far it hasn’t done so. All the main taxes (income tax, NI and VAT) are set by the Westminster parliament, administered by HMRC and apply throughout the UK.
However the laws about prostitution are not the same. Readers in Scotland and N Ireland have their own laws which don’t always correspond to those in England and Wales.
