So, we’re approaching the 31st of January.
The time that, at the latest, people have to have submitted their tax returns and payments for the previous tax year (if they are required to).
I’ve been self employed for all but three years of my adult life.
So have had to do quite a few of these bad boys.
When I first became self employed I heard that “Self-employed people pay less tax”
I believed it to be true initially.
It sounded great.
Until I soon realised it wasn’t the case.
Self employed people should pay exactly the same tax as employed people, all else being equal.
What normally happens is one of two things.
‘Self-employed Steve’ has more work related outgoings then his mate ‘Employed Edward’.
So even though they may ‘earn’ the same amount, Steve actually takes home less after costs are deducted so pays less tax on that lesser amount.
Or Steve just tweaks the numbers on his tax return so that he doesn’t pay what he should as he either doesn’t want to or hasn’t saved up enough (or both).
Rather common in the fitness industry sadly 🙁
And, as the average Fit:Pro doesn’t earn a great deal, they are unlikely to be audited by HMRC.
——– As a side note, we’ve been told more than once of FitPros who record half their revenue as membership and half as supplements and put it through two separate companies so as to keep under the VAT threshold for each even though that’s illegal and they still charge their members VAT. Naughty! ————-
Anyway, the main point here is that when people think that self employed people pay less tax, it’s because they’re not realising some or all of those ‘outgoings’.
And it’s kinda the same when people think that someone else has a better metabolism then them.
You know – that person who seems to be able to eat whatever they like and not gain weight.
How much energy our body uses is determined primarily by what it’s made up of and how much stuff it does.
Two people of the same weight don’t necessarily have the same BMR (amount of energy needed at rest) due to variations in how said body is made up of organs (24.4 cals per lb of bodyweight per day), muscle (6 cals), fat (2 cals), bones (1 cal), etc.
————- Only 11 days now to the find out more meeting for the February programme. Check myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting (or send a friend there) if you like the sound an approach that is actually based on science rather than just “what worked for me” ——————-
And those two people probably don’t have exactly the same activity levels.
If that person genuinely is eating more and not gaining weight it will be some combination of that higher BMR and / or higher activity levels.
Those extra outgoings.
And they may not, on average be eating as much as we might think.
And we might, on average, be having more than we realise.
Ultimately, just like self employed people don’t pay less tax (or shouldn’t, at least)…………..
People don’t really have ‘better’ or ‘worse’ metabolisms.
When tightly controlled experiments are conducted where energy in and out can be controlled as accurately as 20 cals per day, this has been shown time and time again.
And telling ourselves otherwise just holds us back.
At most we will just have lower energy requirements for a reason.
And need to eat accordingly to not gain or to lose weight.
Much love,
Jon ‘My wife works in Corporate Tax and when she sends me a text saying “Taxi” I send one back saying “Fitnessi”‘ Hall and Matt ‘Credits’ Nicholson
