Paperwork & Limited Companies

[rob42]

Hello all.

I will shortly be starting a limited company, but I am wondering what to do about the tax and paperwork side of things. In case anyone's interested it's an internet-based business, and I'll be the sole director for now. I've chosen ltd because of liability reasons.

I'll form the company through an agent, because it's just less hassle as I understand.

I don't plan on trading until May or June, but I'd like to have things in place so I can "switch things on" at any time.

Right now I don't have the funds to hire an accountant, so I will be doing all the bookkeeping and paperwork myself, but I'm wondering where to start. I tend to be good at these kinds of things, and my accounts should end up quite simple.



So, my questions are:

- For example, if I were to form my business today, when would I have to submit paperwork to the HMRC?

- Is there a book or guide that's generally considered a definitive resource, that will teach me all I need to know about the paperwork and admin side of things?

- Is there any software that will help calculate my business's accounts and taxes due (and help with the paperwork)? Preferably something online that I can update with purchases, payments etc?

- I will be working on this business part-time from home in addition to full-time work elsewhere, and I understand I will need to provide a registered office. My tenancy agreement states that the property cannot be used for business purposes. Does this prevent me from using my rented address as my registered office? What should I do in this situation?


If anyone has any advice, that would be really great.

Thanks

[maxine]

Hi Rob42

I don't mean to put you off but accountants study for years and work hard to keep up with their knowledge and qualifications and it's not going to be the sort of thing you can learn out of a book whilst you are running your business and working full time. For the sake of £25 approx a month (for low volume transactions) is it really worth it?

There are accountants who will do free company formation for you and also there are some that accept start up vouchers through various business link schemes so if it the money that is putting you off initially until you have cashflow, these sorts of things can help out.

Also, if you have chosen limited company for liability reasons because of borrowing in the new companies name, bear in mind that you are likely to be asked to be a personal guarantor for any borrowing in the companies name (the company wont have any credit rating initially etc) and if that is a reason for being ltd then you might aswell start things as a sole trader to see how things go before going limited and sole trader accounts will be much easier than limited company.

Hope this helps and sorry to have a negative view :)

[Jenni384]

Great post by Maxine.

Rob, most accountants offer a free first meeting and you will get much more tailored advice in that hour than you can get on a forum.

If you don't plan on getting an accountant, please read up on what's required for a Ltd Co before you go and form one. They are complicated and we get so many posts on here saying "Hi, I have a Ltd Co, I can't afford an accountant and I don't know how to do my accounts, please help." As Maxine says it takes years for us to learn how to do it properly so it's nigh on impossible to explain how to do on a forum. The penalties can get very expensive.

I don't mean to be negative but it's a situation thats sadly all too common.

Year-end stuff aside, get a decent bookkeeping package like Solar Accounts or Free Agent and if you aren't sure how to use it, get some training. If you find the bookkeeping hard then you will have to consider paying an accountant to do the year end.

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

Have a bit of a read of our getting started section here:

http://www.franklyaccounts.co.uk/getting.php

[RBS]

Rob,

Looks at these monthly prices and tell me - is it expensive?
http://www.cheapaccounting.co.uk (http://www.cheapaccounting.co.uk/)

I think its reasonable. Also, you get brilliant professional advice. Don't make mistake in the beginning, its not worth it, leave it to professionals.

[rob42]

I'd just like to say thanks to all you guys.

I was obviously looking in the wrong place for the cost of accounting, It seems I vastly overestimated what the cost would be for what I wanted.

I can definitely afford the kind of prices you guys are talking about.

Thanks for all your help,

Rob