Like you, at first I did not know whether my idea of freelance work would come to anything. I recently talked to HMRC and discussed with them what to put down as a start date and the date was over 3 months ago. But I am on PAYE with pension income, and you are in f/t employmenmt. I wonder if the rule is intended for people who start to make a living self employed so they do not escape from the tax system? Are people who make a bit of casual extra money really "self employed" in the usual sense of the term?