How much does a child earn before paying tax?

A question about : How much does a child earn before paying tax?

My 12 year old son is a budding photographer and has built a website to sell his pictures. How much can he earn before we have to start to declare his earnings and pay tax??

Best answers:

• He will get his own personal allowance the same as anyone else does. So this year he has to be paid over Ј6475 after his expenses.
  I will move this to the employment board for you
• Would he have to register as self employed ? I'd phone HMRC on Monday as if he doesn't do it quickly there is a fine.
• Thanks for your replies I will phone HMRC on Monday to check about registering. This may be all a little premature as he has not sold anything yet..... But don't want to get the wrong side of the Tax man/woman...
• No, he does not register as self employed unless it looks as if his profits will exceed Ј6475 for the year. On no account get him into the SA system for no reason as its impossible to get out of.
• You have to register as self employed or you get fined even if you are only making Ј10 a year !! I wasn't sure if he would need to register as he is under 16.
  Heres a link to HMRC which tells you how to do and who to phone.
  https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/se1.pdf
• I'm afraid that dawn is incorrect - you only register as self employed if you are going to be liable to tax and NIC. A 12 year old does not pay NIC, so there is no point in registering for that. Tax starts at Ј6475, so you register once it looks as if he will hit that profit level.
  HMRC does not want their system clogged up with people who dont pay tax and you dont want to get into a system which is a nightmare to get out of.
• Thanks Fengirl. I would love for him to earn that kind of money from a hobby, but I think that is a long long way away.
  It will be a good eye opener for him to do his own accounts and he has started writting out all his expenditure etc.
  Good life lessons!!!!
  Thanks again to all who replied.