A STRUGGLING actor now claims to earn £100k per year from voice overs thanks to an app which markets his skills to the world.
Christopher Tester had to put up with zero hours catering jobs in-between occasional acting gigs to pay the bills.
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The Lincolnshire-born actor credits his increased earning power to freelance services app that a friend had told him about called Fiverr.
He signed up in 2016 and now credits the app with transforming his career.
He said he was paid a whopping £25,000 fee for a BMW campaign in Asia.
Christopher completed a course which taught him how to record at home. He then had to spend around £150 on a mic.
Speaking to the Mirror, Christopher explained after a first job which paid £20 for ten minutes work, his earnings increased.
He claimed his biggest job so far was for a BMW campaign in Asia where he was paid £25,000.
He had trained at the Central School for Speech and Drama so had an existing background in the field. But Christopher was new to working from home.
He advised budding voice over actors to do their research first. He said: “You should really look into the types of work you want to do like do you want to focus on audiobooks, video games or corporate narration?
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“All of these are completely different so you should know the path you wanna take at first.
“You should also bear in mind the cost too like the investment you need to make to get you started.
“I put in a few hundred quid to get me going and I needed to do that because now I have a £12,000 studio which has allowed me to do more work because there are less concerns around the quality of my recordings.”
Anyone who earns through Fiverr does so as a freelancers so they have to pay their own tax.
Christopher told the Mirror that he had earned around £40k so far this year which put him course to take home £100k after 12 months.
He said that he aspired to become the next David Attenborough.
He added: “I mean there’s only one of him but that would be lovely.”
Tax rules for freelancers
One of the first things to do when you are self-employed is to fill out the HMRC self-assessment form.
By registering for self-assessment on the HMRC website the taxman knows you are self-employed.
A letter should then arrive within 10 days containing your 10-digit unique taxpayer reference (UTR) number.
HMRC will set up your online self-assessment account so you are ready to file your tax return when the time comes.
Freelancers will also have to register for VAT. You will be sent a certificate confirming your VAT number and key dates for when you need to submit your first return and payment.
Even if you don’t have to register for VAT, it can still be a good idea in terms of credibility and professionalism.
You are also able to reclaim VAT on goods and services your business buys.
Freelancers, instead, pay estimated taxes twice a year, known as “payments on account”.
Tax payments for the self-employed are based on “profit”, which is total income minus expenses.
Freelance or employed, are allowed to earn a certain amount before we have to pay tax.
This is known as the personal allowance, currently set at £12,570 for the 2023-24 tax year.
A new Health & Social Care Levy has resulted in a temporary increase in the rate of NICs from 6 April 2022 by 1.25% for employers, employees and the self-employed.
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