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Maternity benefit as a small business owner

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  • 04-10-2016 10:04pm
    #1
    lolly_83
    Registered Users Posts: 7 ✭


    Hi folks, looking for some advice here..

    I run my own small online business from home and have applied for 16 weeks Maternity Benefit from welfare for when baby is born early next year. I pretty much currently do everything business related myself but my husband will be taking over managing website sales which will have to remain ongoing while I am on maternity leave (taking the website down for 16 weeks is out of the question).

    So basically while I will not be working as such during my maternity leave (just throwing a watchful eye over it), my business will continue to generate an income (as another business owner might have staff left in charge, or a partner. In this case my husband will be voluntarily helping it to tick over - I'll not be paying him - he already works FT).

    Can I continue to draw an income from my business (necessary to cover creche fees for toddler etc) whilst not physically working?

    In terms of tax and self assessment do I just declare all income as normal at the end of the tax year regardless of when it came in? OR will be maternity Benefit be magically withdrawn if welfare finds I have replied to a customer email or updated a product quantity on my website?

    Mothers in receipt of continuing company salaries / topped up maternity Benefit continue to 'earn' while not working so can this be the same when self employed? The maternity benefit alone would not be enough for me to survive on, but with a newborn continued FT work as a business owner isn't an option either. Help!


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    #2
    spottybananas
    Registered Users Posts: 1,832 ✭✭✭spottybananas


    I'm a self employed home based business owner, I didn't take any income while getting the maternity benefit, then included it in yearly income for revenue. I still replied to emails, met the odd client and took deposits for work commencing after I returned, because if I didn't I'd have been doing myself out of another 6-9 months work. But I did no actual physical work during leave, this obviously applies to my specific business yours is probably different. If revenue checked they would see I did no work and generated no income from working during that time, any deposits were paid for work yet to be done.

    Hope this helps some bit!


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