Self-employed

I think I have had my fill of talk about registering to be self-employed. Why do they make it so difficult to do things the right way? Surely it would be easier for people to pay their taxes than it is now.

OK so I am only 20 and never had to do anything like this before but I wanted to go about things the right way. I want to pay my taxes and not get into trouble for not doing so. Yet yesterday afternoon it took me over 2 hours to find the appropriate form, fill it in and find appropriate information of what I need to keep in order to file my tax returns. It was mind boggling.

I hope I have done everything the right way, and I get the right info back. I have had a few invaluable snippets of advice from some valued writing friends but it is still so confusing. I need a step-by-step how to be self employed.