Start working as self employed as a foreigner

[Alessio]

I am a software developer living in Italy, about to move to London to start a new life there with my girlfriend; I'll be moving to London the next month. The company I currenlty work for asked me to keep working for them, and made me a very good economical offer, which I gladly accepted. Therefore I decided to start working as self employed in UK, and pay taxes in UK since I'll be living there. I opened a Revolut bank account from here to start, but I'm willing to open a normal bank account after moving to London.
I was told that I should register as self employed to start my activity, but in order to do that I need a National Insurance Number.
I don't have a NIN yet, and I'll be living in an Airbnb to begin with, so I don't think they'll just assign me a NIN because I need it to register as a self employed.
So my question is, how can I start issue invoices to my clients if I don't have a NIN and I'm not registered as self employed?
How should I proceed? What options have I got?
Thank you

 

[Mr D]

Apply for a NI number.
British people get assigned them soon after birth, takes usually a week or two to come through.
You will need to register as self employed - the issuing of invoices doesn't in itself depend on the NI number (mine have never shown it) or registration.

 

[Alessio]

So, can I just start working without being registered as a self employed and without a NI number as well? I can apply for a NI but, in order to obtain it, I need to show them some proof of my residence I think; like an Internet bill, a house renting contract, a job contract... But I don't have ant of these yet.
And if I start issuing invoices to my clients, how much time have I got bofore I must register as self employed?

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

@Alessio the gov.uk website has a lot of useful information. Here are some links which should help

https://www.gov.uk/apply-national-insurance-number

https://www.gov.uk/working-for-yourself

 

[Alessio]

@Alessio the gov.uk website has a lot of useful information. Here are some links which should help

@MyAccountantOnline thank you. I already checked the governative site, but It didn't really clear my mind about what I asked above. I even downloaded the gov app and started to register as self employed, but at some point it asked me to provide a NI number, so I got stuck

 

[OldWelshGuy]

This looks more like it. https://www.gov.uk/tax-come-to-uk

 

[Mr D]

@MyAccountantOnline thank you. I already checked the governative site, but It didn't really clear my mind about what I asked above. I even downloaded the gov app and started to register as self employed, but at some point it asked me to provide a NI number, so I got stuck

Get the NI number before registering as self employed

 

[MJ Holohan]

How much will you be earning? It might be worth setting up a limited company once you have your NI number.

 

[Alessio]

Get the NI number before registering as self employed

Thank you. I would gladly do it but how can I obtain my NI number if I don't still have a rental contract (I live in an airbnb)? They will ask me some kind of document to be sure I permanently live in UK. I have a business bank account on Revolut, whould this be enough to obtain a NI number?

 

[Alessio]

How much will you be earning? It might be worth setting up a limited company once you have your NI number.

I'll be earning about 60,000 £ per year to begin with

 

[HomeWrking]

You will need an NI number to keep all boxes checked. Are you paying NI in Italy? Brexit probably changes things but you did not need one before all the kerfuffle...

 

[Alessio]

You will need an NI number to keep all boxes checked. Are you paying NI in Italy? Brexit probably changes things but you did not need one before all the kerfuffle...

In italy I used to pay taxes which include the national healtcare, but I resigned from my job now.
But I'm not concerned about health in this moment, just about business
Sure I will need a NI number, for many things. What is not clear to me is: can I start my business without a NI number for the first, let's say couple of months?
My idea is to issue invoices to my customers and after a couple of months use those invoices as a proof to obtain my NI number, because I don't have a rental contract yet. After obtaining my NI number I would immediately register as self employed at HMRC. Would this work or not?
Thank you

 

[Mr D]

In italy I used to pay taxes which include the national healtcare, but I resigned from my job now.
But I'm not concerned about health in this moment, just about business
Sure I will need a NI number, for many things. What is not clear to me is: can I start my business without a NI number for the first, let's say couple of months?
My idea is to issue invoices to my customers and after a couple of months use those invoices as a proof to obtain my NI number, because I don't have a rental contract yet. After obtaining my NI number I would immediately register as self employed at HMRC. Would this work or not?
Thank you

Yes.

 

[Alessio]

Thank you for your help!