Looking for a bit of advice on my own tax return. From April 2010 till Jan I was employed but I was on maternity leave. I was payed a very slightly (£2 a week) enhanced SMP and had tax & NI deducted, though very small amounts. 

On my last tax return (2009-10) I had been employed for some of it and claimed maternity allowance for the rest, same as 08-09. On both those tax returns I put on the MA and got hit with a horrendous tax bill. On speaking to a(surprisingly) helpful advisor, it transpired that I shouldn't have entered the MA figure on the return as it was a 'benefit' so they in fact owed me (result). 

With the SMP I assume I need to enter that as earnings as you normally would if you have a P60/earnings from employment, especially as I have paid tax & NI on it. The only reason I ask is that the tax credits office deduct a percentage off it when working out your earnings, if it is SMP, so I wanted to check that I didn't do it on my tax return.

Also I earnt £175 as self employed, but am I able to offset the amount I paid for Professional Indemnity Insurance against that. I didn't do MLR till after April as I didn't find out about it till after then so I assume I can offset that against earnings this year if at all.

I hope some of that made sense - SSP and SMP always confused me when I was doing payroll - maybe that will be my next course to study.