using wp_insert_term to create custom terms for a custom taxonomy from frontend form,

I have a form which allows certain roles to add custom terms to a taxonomy.

My taxonomy is called Genre (slug genre)

form method='post' enctype='multipart/form-data'
input type=text value= name=new
    input type='submit' name='Save'
/form 

I have been going around in circles with this for hours. Ive searched for other questions similar and have tried the suggestions.

I am using https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/ to create the custom taxonomies - Was wondering maybe my script is firing before this plugin does and therefore wp_insert_terms happens before the register of the custom taxonomy?

My PHP:

if(isset($_POST['save'])  !empty($_POST)) {

    $term = ($_POST['new']);
        
    
      $existent_term = term_exists( $term, 'genre' );

    if( $existent_term  isset($existent_term['term_id']) ) {

        $term_id = $existent_term['term_id'];

    } else {

        //insert the term if it doesn't exsit
        $term = wp_insert_term(
            $term, // the term 
            'genre' // the taxonomy
        );
        if( !is_wp_error($term )  isset($term['term_id']) ) {
             $term_id = $term['term_id'];
        } 

   }

} //end isset

Nothing shows in the error log either.

Has anyone come across this issue before? or is anyone able the assist please

Ive tried things like setting $term = ($_POST['new']); to $term = music; and having the input value like input type=text value=music name=new

Also I have tried with an array

wp_insert_term(
    $term,   // the term 
    'genre', // the taxonomy
    array(
        'description' = 'I am description.',
        'slug'        = 'music',
       
    )
);