Declaring Additional Income Help!!!

A question about : Declaring Additional Income Help!!!

I'm really struggling with this.

Have a full time job where I PAYE. I write articles in my spare time and have started being paid for them. My first payment was on 30.01.2015 and I'm getting regular work. We're talking about Ј200 per month here.

How do I go about registering for self assessment and paying tax on this? I've done some research but it's all complicated and some things have been contradictory.

How do I do it? When do I need to do a tax return? Total beginner and really floundering! Thanks in advance.

P.S - They should really teach this stuff in schools!!

Best answers:

• If you intend to carry on with writing and hope to make a decent income from it, then registering with HMRC as a Sole Trader is the next step.
  https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader/register
  Your first tax return will cover 2014/15 and can be submitted any time between April 6th 2015 and Jan 31st 2016.
• Am I right in thinking that if the additional income is less that the PAYE, then one can always declare it as "Other Income" in the self-assessment form, regardless of whether it is regular or occasional? At the end of the day what the HMRC are interested in is that you pay your tax.
• See, this is where I get confused. I think registering as a Sole Trader is the advice I've read about most, but this 'other income' thing is new information to me. I also had a friend suggesting I set myself up as a limited company because it's easier to offset more expenses on tax?
  Why is it not simple?!
  Any other help, anyone??
  I intend to write regularly and I expect to earn Ј3k per year in total from freelance work. My full time job pays 19k and I pay tax via PAYE.
• https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4896060
• Thank you - I didn't realise there was a better board for this!
• No problem, and good luck :P