Hi there, and thanks very much for landing on this page.  

I've written a book called The Singing Accountant's Guide to Tax and Accounts, everything a performer needs to know to keep the tax man happy.  

New actors, singers, dancers, musicians and others come into the Music, Arts & Entertainment as self employed people. We constantly hear that they don't know what to do in terms of tax and accounts and often think that they don't have to do anything for a few years and then start to worry about it then HMRC catch up with them. They get confused and fearful, and "Anna" is a typical example. 

'Anna' is a classical musician, she plays the violin but she is confused. She went to music college. They taught her brilliantly in what they're supposed to do as a musician. Absolutely fantastic education. Anna left college, straight in as a freelance orchestral player. But she doesn't really understand what she's supposed to do with her tax and accounts. Nobody explained things at college according to her. Friends and the man in the pub give conflicting advice. And she just does not have time to research what's it all about.  

This is why we wrote the book - for people like Anna. The book shows you how to set up with HMRC as a sole trader or self employed person. It looks at your basic bookkeeping and the most important chapter people go for are allowable expenses. We even touch at a high level on what you do in your self assessment tax return. Of course, we don't want to give everything away - how would we sell our training courses and accounting services! This is what one of our readers has said about the book.  

"The book is written as if someone is talking to you and explaining things to you as if you were going through the process at the same time. It acknowledges that “doing the books” and tax returns is a bore and a pain but does not dodge from the fact that those things absolutely have to be done. It isn’t a book just giving you enough information to be dangerous or not quite enough so that you have to go to the author and pay for their services – as it were. The author genuinely wants you to be able to do these things for yourself."  

Now here you can see one of the most popular chapters I've already mentioned. This is your tax deductible expenses for actors, musicians and other performers.  

Chapter 11: Tax deductible expenses for actors, musicians and performers . 89 Agents and promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90 Research and training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Outfits and equipment required for performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Travel expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..98 Office equipment and costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Accountancy, banking and legal costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Employee costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Other costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106  

I bet you'll be surprised at how many expenses you may not have been claiming and hopefully not too shocked at things you have been claiming for but should not have been. Oops.

Having read through this, Anna's quite happy. She's registered with HMRC, she's now keeping the correct receipts and funny enough she's actually updating her records most of the time.