Spread Betting = self employment or not

Hello All,
I'm new to trading and wanted to know if engage in spread betting, does it follow under self employment or any other category (if any other category, please let me.)..cheers

Spreadbetting is not subject to tax in itself, so your profits do not even need to be declared to Inland Revenue. The advice from my accountants is that the IR are reluctant to treat traders as self-employed persons, even if they support themselves from profits and even if they have no other income and work all hours on trading. If your profits become significant, I think it would be prudent to check again with a tax advisor (not the IR at first), as tax regulations do change every year.

Sask - I admire your confidence, but are you really going to be able to support yourself on SB profits? If so, please let me know how, as my job is rather irritating at times.

Sask - I admire your confidence, but are you really going to be able to support yourself on SB profits? If so, please let me know how, as my job is rather irritating at times.

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Thanks for the reply Tomorton,
Actually I'm doing my masters in Financial Risk Management and for my second semester I would be learning about derivatives (I do have some basic knowledge about it..) and in Treasury Management. So I thought if I can get into spread betting now and make some decent returns on them it would add value to what I have learnt & in the process gain some trading experience.
I do have a part time job (£7/hr :-( ) which is still going to be my primary one. Secondary is Spread betting however I do intend to make it my primary which of course is going to take considerable time and effort.
The question about self employment stems from the fact that I'm on a student visa which means I cannot work for more than 20 hrs/week or take up self-employment or business or be a professional sports person. So I just wanted to make sure that I'm on the right side of the law.
Some one also mentioned that if UK regulations call something as Betting - then anyone and everyone can take it up (irrespective of what immigration status they have).

Hi sask - I totally admire your enterprise. You've come to a foreign country to improve your education with a view to finding good employment, you're working while here and looking for another income that will make you self-supporting. And you want to comply with UK legislation while doing all this.

It is possible that immigration regulations with regards what constitutes self-employment could be different from the Inland Revenue's, so you might wish to find out how the immigration authorities define it. They seek to define employment and self-employment for different purposes, so it is not impossible that they would have different opinions on this.

Hope all goes well.