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Hello everyone! Im English, with a big student loan. (Dont worry, Ill get to tax later) In England, the interest on our loans is the same as inflation, so I wanted to avoid paying it off as long as possible. I was teaching English abroad until recently, so I told the loan people about that, and they took a little out of my wage. I kept quiet about Istock (a little dodgy), although at the time I wasnt earning much. Now though, Im not teaching English anymore and Im living only on Istock. Im going to be travelling, living on tourist visas for a year, and working for Istock as I go in (many) foreign countries, starting with Japan. Innevitably, the student loans company (Da*n them) are now asking me to fill out a "student income assessment form" (cringe), so I have a few questions for anyone unfortunate enough to have been through this beaurocratic nightmare themselves!
1.How do I proove how much I earn from Istock? (People who are used to paying tax could probably answer this one).
2.As this is all supposed to be sorted out in advance, how do I do an estimate about what Im going to be getting next, and then proove it, ideally without telling them about the money Ive been earning over the past year? Can I just give the number for December times twelve?
3.Am I supposed to pay tax somewhere? Im a little confused about this, as I always thought that Im effectively working illegally on a tourist visa wherever I am, and should be paying taxes there. Or am I supposed to pay it in England, even though I havent lived in the country for a few years?

Thanks very much to anyone who has the patience to help me here- I know this is an exceptionally tedious and depressing post, and taxes and loans are the last thing any of us want to think about. Personally, if I read this post, Id be pretty irritated by now. Thanks a lot, and I appreciate any help you can give. 

Hatman was quicker... nothing to say

Where do you pay your money into, if it's a UK bank (after the Paypal process) and you have a UK passport I'd suggest you liable to pay UK tax.
If you haven't told the Inland Revenue that you're now living abroad they'll consider you still liable here, but as suggested set up as a sole trader, tell the Inland revenue when you want your tax year to start, you'll have to pay a class 2 NI stamp and then that's it.
As suggested by the others, go see an accountant who'll explain what to do.
Enjoy your travels.

I don't know about the UK but in the US you have to pay taxes on income earned abroad and I find the discussion about swiss bank accounts distasteful. I'd suggest no one else give advise to someone looking to avoid taxes and be a bad debtor.

"There are only two certainties in life, death and taxes."

If you're willing to pay taxes l(i.e. stop your illegally activity) then the way you would prove how much you earn is to either keep the check stubs if you get checks or if you use paypal then print off your payment history on iStock. As least in the US, the only income you have to pay taxes on is the "realized" income, i.e. you are actually paid and not just money in your iStock account.

P.S. Just because your debt is indexed to inflation doesn't mean you want to put off paying it! Pay off any credit card debt you have first, but then you should pay your student debt. Remember that it is not an interest free loan and the interest compounds on the principle.

Really? I'm american so this would be very new to me. Do you mean by "through income tax" that they only use income tax to pay of your loan or do they add an addition deduction from your wages (garnishment)? When I looked at the British student loan website it said that the loans did charge interest but that interest was indexed to inflation.

I think you are right, it is the banks that will loan to students interest free, in the hope that they will stay with them.

"Another option is using an overdraft facility. Most banks will offer interest-free overdrafts on their student accounts with the hope that you will continue to use that bank once you graduate. You can only have one student account at any one time and the amount you get on an overdraft will depend on the bank. The usual amount is around £2,000 and it is interest-free."

http://learnist.org/student-loans/student-debt-consolidation.html

Ah I see- Just let me check I understand. Is that the one with "Your Payout Report" at the top? The one that looks like this?:

Request Date Closed Date Status Amount Method Receipt
December 18, 2007 December 22, 2007 Closed $****.00 Paypal Get
November 21, 2007 November 27, 2007 Closed $****.00 Paypal Get
etc etc, with it going down the page?

Thats great yingyang, thanks a lot. My four day marathon of paperwork is at last coming to an end...