In need of tax relief?
TaxRelief4escorts provides practical no-nonsense tax guidance for UK sex workers including escorts, professional mistresses and individuals selling everything from video clips to used panties. There’s also some 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, female and TS workers.
But you won’t find very much that’s relevant to escort agency owners, web-masters or assorted pimps. And while you’re welcome to look, I don’t think you will find any porn or get much help if you want to know about taxes outside the UK.
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 try to fix it.
It is not my intention to encourage anyone to take up sex work. But if that’s what you’ve decided to do I hope TaxRelief4escorts can help you achieve your financial goals, help you pay no more than your fair share of tax, and help you sleep at night.
Jolyon
Whether you’re confused, frustrated, disorganized, or just scared witless about tax, TaxRelief4escorts is here to help you take charge of your tax affairs. And if you decide you need professional help we have a directory of Accountants4escorts, all experienced in handling the tax affairs of people providing adult services.
Our most recent stuff
Making tax digital diabolical
Fans of horror movies might care to view this innocent looking trailer from HMRC for something called ‘Making Tax Digital’ (MTD for short), which promises to make tax simpler and free us all from the annual stress of getting our tax returns completed and filed by 31 January. The government have said that freeing businesses … Read more
I’d like to ask for your help
I’d very much like to talk to one or two professional mistresses or dominants. Let me explain why. When I wrote the first chunks of what is now TaxRelief4escorts, some 13 years ago, it was aimed very specifically at independent escorts because those were the clients I’d worked with and I had a pretty good … Read more
Sex Workers’ Opera
I’m supporting the Sex Workers’ Opera, and I think you should too. But before I explain why let me say a bit about a completely different opera. Because while I’m not really qualified to write about sex work I do know a little bit about opera. Today the most widely performed mainstream opera is Verdi’s … Read more
How much should you set aside each month for tax?
It’s all very easy if you’re in a regular job. Tax and national insurance get taken off your pay before you see any of it; And what you’re left with is yours to manage and share out between all the other demands of housing, food, transport and personal expenditure, without having to worry about an … Read more
If you’re simply after a quick run-down of how you are affected by the UK tax regime, this is a good place to start.
The blog is mostly about tax but I also write about some of the wider issues affecting providers of adult services, as well as occasional book reviews and anything else that catches my eye.
Here you’ll find a straightforward explanation of the key tax issues that affect you including: is it taxable? how is my tax calculated? what expenses can I claim for? what about VAT?
DIY Tax
According to the delightful Moira Stewart: tax doesn’t need to be taxing. The sad truth is that most of us find it is.
However if you are careful and organised, and if your financial affairs are not complicated, it is still perfectly possible to deal with your own taxes. This section is designed as a step-by-step guide to doing it yourself.
If your books are disorganised, full of gaps or non-existent, you are likely to find it much more difficult and stressful to fill in your tax return; and much more expensive if you pay an accountant to sort it out for you.
And you’ll probably pay more tax than you need to.
So in this section there’s advice on low-stress bookkeeping and details of the simple but very effective TaxRelief Diary bookkeeping system ‘what I wrote.’
If you’ve ever wanted a way of estimating your tax bills – or just wondered which way up to hold a calculator – look no further.
This section contains a tax calculator to estimate your tax, as well a list of all the current tax rates and allowances, a jargon-buster, and some other stuff we thought you might find useful.
Tricky technical bits
This section gives some of the background to the tax system’s treatment of escorts and other sex workers. It includes the significant legal cases as well as other relevant, or merely entertaining, material.
Some of the stuff here is quite complicated, or just bizarre. In fact it may make more sense if you read it while standing on your head.
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.
Plus a link to our directory of Accountants4escorts.
How to avoid finding yourself in a tax nightmare, and what to do when it all goes horribly wrong.
Plus a look at common problems and why the consequences are probably not as bad as your darkest fears.
About
If you’re wondering who we are and what else, if anything, we also do, this section won’t tell you much.
It is very well written though; with one or two finely crafted sentences.
Bits of it are true. Slightly.
Doing the Business
Coming soon: some thoughts on the business of sex work.
A very wise and experienced escort recently said to me “Unless and until you have walked a mile in my thigh high PVC boots, do be quiet.”
But what the heck …
Dominatrices
Coming soon: tax advice to meet the specific needs of professional mistresses and providers of fetish services.
Including the tax aspects of Financial Domination, the purchase of dungeon equipment and avoiding the VAT trap.
And no, the VAT trap is not some esoteric fetish – so far as I know.
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 exactly correspond to those in England and Wales.
Disclaimer
And finally
The people depicted in the pictures are models. So far as I know none of them provide escorting or similar services and I strongly suspect that not one of them is an accountant. Nearly all the pictures are Royalty Free Stock Photos purchased from Fotolia.