The Legalities of Working as a Private Tutor Most tutors start out as sole traders and keep their own financial records. A simple income and expenditure spreadsheet should be fine to help you keep track of your earnings. As a sole trader, you need to complete a self-assessment tax return every year after the 5th April and the easiest way to do this is online. You have 3 months from when you begin your self-employment to inform HMRC of your status and obtain your Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number.
As your business expands, you may wish to consider hiring other people to work for you or you may want to set up your own tuition agency, in which case you'll need to change your legal structure and become a Limited Company. You'll also need to adhere to employment agency law and should seek appropriate advice from relevant qualified bodies. Insurance for Private Tutors As with any self-employed occupation, it’s important to know what your options are when it comes to insurance. Despite your best intentions, insurance claims can arise from the most unlikely of circumstances and at the most unexpected moments. Should such a claim occur, a good insurance policy can save you a significant amount of money in the long-term. We should say that The Tutor Website isn’t affiliated with any insurance providers and tutors should always shop around for quotes from a variety of providers. Generally speaking, there are two types of insurance that tutors tend to have: 1. Public liability insurance 2. Professional indemnity insurance Now, there’s no legal obligation for you to have insurance as a tutor and a lot don’t. However, far from it being our job to scaremonger tutors, if you plan to make a fulltime career out of the profession, we’d suggest that it’s worth thinking about. Public Liability Insurance for Private Tutors Whether you tutor at your home or at the homes of students, public liability insurance protects you against legal liability following an injury to a student (through a trip or fall, for example) or damage to third party property (spilt coffee on a laptop, for example). If an incident does occur and you find yourself subject to a claim for compensation, public liability insurance would cover the costs in defending these
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