Hi all, last year I ceased trading for my limited company. I did owe HMRC £5000 for corporation tax as my accountant filed it even though I made it clear when I was going to be ceasing trade, she effectively put me £5000 in debt, which she admitted could have been avoided in hindsight. My accountant sought out advice and was informed the best thing to do was to walk away and it would eventually get struck off, HMRC would most likely object but not chase such a small amount. Now a year later I have received a notice that my company strike off has been suspended. My question is, is this indefinite? Do I need to apply again or am I simply best to leave it alone and it will eventually get struck off?

I also have some money in my business account that I haven't touched in worry it will follow me, do I leave it in the account or can I move it safely.

And to be clear the business has no assets, no means to pay and has not traded in more than a year now. The money that is left is nowhere near enough to cover the debt.

Sorry if I missed anything else important, I'm way over my head with this as it was my first business venture.

I would appreciate any advice.

First post - be blunt - Will never give up, just need to know what way to run.

I'm in the middle of self-funding my little business dream and while its generally going quite well - tested run times for projects, worked out costs and prices, set up trade accounts, building a small social media following (13.5k and counting across two platforms), buying bits here and there, little savings pot there for things like materials, marketing, site running costs, etc.

I'm almost at the point where I can register and begin trading, however...

At home, I have two children with significant additional needs, which restricts my time to 9am-3pm then 10pm-2am during the weekdays, the weekends are on rotation, so the kids are away every fortnight, and also for 1 week during summer and Christmas holidays. I have to start this from home, as I neither have the funds, the credit rating or the time to take on a lease of any kind. The best I could ask for would be a fortnightly craft fair or other similar situation, so a combo of selling at craft fairs and crafting, marketing and selling, packaging and posting any products from home through a website would be better(?).

The business is a craft blank supplier, and custom laser cutting and engraving service. I (plan to) sell pre-cut shapes, made from wood, card or paper to begin with and later acrylic and various other materials, once i have enough profit to reinvest into better laser cutting equipment. At present, all items are blank, for the customer to DIY themselves, or for a custom order example - branded coasters, keyrings, signs, etc. I don't seal, paint or decorate anything beyond examples of what can be done with the product for photo's and other media.

I do any cutting or engraving when the kids aren't home, realistically around 4hr cutting time 5 days per week. In 4hr, I can get 50 or 5 things cut or engraved, pending complexity. Obviously the more detailed and specific something is, generally the higher the cost, which makes up for not being able to produce as many. When I've scaled up, this will increase to 80-100 items per day at low complexity, or roughly 15 more complex items, potentially more, and I'll be able to make much bigger items too.

Hopefully I've given you enough of an explanation so far, questions coming, I promise!

If I were to open up online tomorrow, I know I couldn't handle everything by myself once/if the orders started rolling in. The time I have, I need for design and manufacturing.

Should I be looking for a business partner, or otherwise hire someone to do all of the other things? Or looking for another business to design/make things for them to sell (where would I find those?).

When it comes to niche products... where do I start? This machine can do SO many things, and design is limited only to the imagination and it's been quite difficult to decide what to focus on. This is partly the reason for the craft blanks: Basic shapes are easy to cut, are consistently in demand and as they're quick and easy even with custom or larger orders, they can be fulfilled easily at speed. So I reduced to small signs (welcome, seasonal or commercial), basic shapes, seasonal craft shapes such as ghosts, pumpkins, etc. for halloween, your standard christmas shapes, easter... so on. Should I stick with this for now?

This is where it's at for now, however I want to add another layer in. I'm a qualified wedding planner and event organiser who has never planned a wedding or organised an event bigger than a childs birthday party (multiple, not just my own children). I'm also autistic and ADHD. I want to plan private events such as birthday parties for other neurodivergent people. In my experience, planing, organising and executing mentally disabled children's and adults parties requires significant additional considerations from the decor to the catering. As a special needs parent, I know what it takes on the daily, never mind deal with a birthday which is often overstimulating and mentally draining for both the host and birthday person. These would be fully custom events, I'd make everything, organise any catering or entertainment, transport it there, set it up, either provide a host or provide a "how-to" for the host, and go back and clear it all away when they were done. Afterwhich, I'd then have X amount of pieces to re-use, possibly hire out to others, or sell.

I definitely can't do all this by myself. So how do I get someone else on board? Better to partner or employ?

There's probably a thousand other questions I should ask but I'm really just looking for advice on what to do, if it sounds like it's worth it... The research says so, the test audience reacted very well, I've had maybe 2 businesses have me make products for them, one was a lady who sells wooden jewellery who received 260 pairs of earrings - severely shorted myself and made next to nothing, but it was worth it for the test, the experience and the knowledge there might be 200 odd people walking around with my earrings on. The other asked me to make journal covers and backs, simple cut with rounded corners and holes for A4 paper, who came back and ordered quite a few other custom products. Both were very time consuming.

And I'm going to leave it here as I could literally talk about this all day and night!

Thank you in advance!

Hello,

We are an international wooden door manufacturer looking to expand our market in the UK. We have come across Constructionline, which claims to pre-qualify our business for A-listed construction companies. However, from reading reviews about Constructionline, it appears that many people do not get many leads from it. Can anyone offer advice?

Thank you

Hi,


I submitted the companies house account separately and I am now doing the tax return for my LTD. I need to know make sure that the info on return matches what I submitted to companies house. My mistake is that I did not round the amounts correctly with companies house. Now if I declare following the companies house, I will need to write round the tax down while it should be up I think. So will HMRC system alert or something for this? Like actual calculation is: tax £82.27, and I calculated the liabilities for companies house in base of £82 of tax, like rounding it down. But I realised now doing the tax return that it should have been 83. I saw some where that you should round up for expense and down for income, even though I cant find it exact for CT.

Any thoughts? I think they will not care, but any way what would be the best action?

Next year I will round first my actual calculations instead.


Thanks

Hi

I have an item that I would like to private label in China and import to the U.K my question is are there any legal requirements when it comes to labeling the product is there anything that has to be written on the product or packaging about safety or so on, or is it enough that the company has showed me the relevant certificates for that certain product ?

Hi all, first time poster - be gentle with me!
I've acquired a new build property from which I intend to run a small gallery/studio. Currently there is no electricity supply, just a capped terminal, and obviously no electric use history to quote when comparing potential suppliers, although I'm anticipating that the power consumption will be 'moderate'.
Given the above, any suggestions how best to go about identifying a suitable commercial electricity supplier?

Can the full purchase amount be claimed immediately for tax purposes?

Hello all, does anyone have any advice plz....I am needing the start up money to open a small cafe. I am currently trying to set up a home cooking business as I am passionate cook. Am desperate to have a premises though and know I could run a great little cafe. Am extremely committed and ambitious but am stuck without the initial funding. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks, Aisha

Hi Community,


I need advice on how to proceed. I paid a sourcing fee to a property management company for a rent-to-service accommodation property, intending to pay additional setup fees later. However, due to circumstances beyond my control, I couldn't proceed with the deal.


I promptly informed the company and requested a refund. Their website prominently states a money-back guarantee, and their T&C says: "If, following an Order, the Order cannot be completed for any reason outside of Your control, and you subsequently cancel the Order, we will refund your money in full as soon as possible."


There was no reference to commercial transaction rules, and although I acknowledged it was a commercial transaction by ticking a checkbox, the website did not provide detailed information on this matter.


However, I received the following email from them:


"We hope this email finds you well. Unfortunately, we will not be able to refund the sourcing fee as the Contract entered into between the parties is a commercial agreement, not a consumer agreement, and therefore no consumer rights such as cooling-off periods or refunds shall be applicable."


Is this legal? What should I do next?

Apologies if this is not the correct sub-forum, I'm just seeking some advice on the best way to handle some loose ends and close my company down for good.

Background and context, I'm the sole director of my Limited Company which has been in dormancy for the past 18 months or so. I'm now in a position to fully close it since I don't envision myself restarting the business.

1. The company has no debt or employees.
2. Still has a couple hundred pounds in the business account in profit.
3. Has not traded or had any transactions on the account for over 18 months.

I almost applied to strike off and dissolve the company via Companies House website, but stopped at the stage where it said all assets would be surrendered to the Crown. Can I just withdraw the remaining hundreds of pounds in the form of trivial benefits/annual "Christmas/Summer" party expenses despite it being in a dormant state?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I have my first CT due, and I have a micro LTD.

While going through the HMRC free service to complete the CT, it's not allowed to use that service if you need to report any foreign currency transactions. My company paid a supplier in Poland and some subscriptions in dollars. But I have all the invoices in GBP, and I find it unfair not to be able to go through because of this reason. It's very easy nowadays to end up paying for something in a foreign currency. Because of this, it indicates I need to complete it through another service. I contacted HMRC, and they just told me it's a self-assessing system.

I could just answer "No" to that question and continue; all my figures are under £1k, there are no assets involved, and the foreign transactions are simple. I did not calculate anything; they were charged by the supplier, and my bank doesn't have any charges on them. So they are just like any other expense. I did check FRS 105 some time ago for this, and they are as simple as any other expense incurred within the UK in my case. So, it could be that I can answer "No."

Another thing is HMRC told me they no longer take CT tax returns through the post, and that usually, they only take those that are 2 years delayed…?

If I prepare the files myself, the same as those commercial software packages do, where would I submit them? Or can only those authorized submit? I can't seem to find where HMRC allows attaching the files and submitting the return manually.

I have studied accounting in another country and am now about to finish Uni in the UK. I would like to be able to do this myself. I am still researching around this.

Best regards,

Question, Director of family Ltd business, where no one has no overall control, no Shareholders Agreement ih place, nor no recorded meeting which reduces the dividend value by 50% of Co-Director,

Is it legal based on an equal share of 25%, even if the Director in question has inherited Cancer after 8 months of service to receive a deduction in dividend (Based on the same class of shares as of the 3 other Directors , whi have (verbally a shared dividend rate o payment?

I work in construction for a small company, I have came across an opportunity to make some extra money by investing in some products to hire out for a long term project on the side . it wouldn't be a massive turnover possibly £1-2000 per year this could also be topped up with some other jobs through out the year. if I was to-do this as a sole trader from what I paid in tax I don't think it would be worth my time would it be possible to run a ltd company with a small turn over but low to zero profit due to spending any money in the business on things such as fuel , tools, mobile phone etc , things which I already spend my tax paid earnings on , the idea would be to change my usual spending on these things into the business to save using my tax paid earnings or paying any corporation tax
I am currently in the very early stages of this and don't have a grate deal of knowledge on the matter looking to find out if this is even feasible before I spend money getting an appointment with an accountant

Dear members,

This is my first post, though I have followed threads and gained great insight on this helpful platform. I hope I could ask for your thoughts on my best approach in preparing for a lot of personally guaranteed debt to be called in imminently. My products business of 9 years became insolvent this year, I've battled so hard to survive and put everything i had in to this business over the years. I've been in business for 24 years and am devastated to be in this situation. I have secured a pre-pack sale with a competitor brand, which thankfully will cover the majority of a secured charge on the business, The expected 2 week process is starting now and will be due to complete soon. They have offered me continued employment, which is some relief given I'm about to lose everything.

I have around 96k with funding circle and another 20k across other lenders where PG's will be enforced. I want to do my best to manage them and show that I accept responsibility. I just don't have access to any lump sum funds, zero savings and my partner earns an average salary. Our property does have equity, we are joint names on the policy, with around 200k in equity, So I would expect that my half is up for grabs. We have 2 children and I want to explore every avenue possible to avoid losing our family home. I think within 2 years I could get 50k together with saving and potentially working 2 jobs. Would they wait that long for a settlement offer?

Do I wait for contact first or do I make the first move in acknowledging the debt. I assume they will receive notice of our administration within days. What do you think the likelihood of funding circle agreeing to an IVA? If they reject an IVA, maybe they will accept a monthly payment plan, I'm just hopeful, despite being petrified. Failing that I am looking at potential bankruptcy, in which case would that almost definitely lead to a charge on the property.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated on what should be the best move forward for me.

Thank You

A while ago I started a thread about my micro business working from home and some commentators said I did not have a business, I had a work at home job!
If I am self employed, or a director of a Ltd company and I work from home selling from a website and earn a good income from it as self employed or take a salary and dividends and retain profit, what am I?

Hello everyone

Are there any Estate Agents on here? I am looking for some general advice on something. Thanks

Thread to discuss ESG and businesses, regardless of your business size or industry...

What does ESG mean to you?

To what extent does ESG regulation/policies impact your business now? e.g. regulation in the manufacturing industry

To what extent do you think ESG regulation/policies may impact you in the future?

Do you view ESG as an urgent thing that you need to address now? Why or why not?

Would you take the time to become 'better' at ESG? Why or why not?

thank you!

Hello
My son started self employment in April. Plumber, with no work involving other contractors, so no CS card needed. Sole trader, not VAT registered. He has appointed an accountant (without discussing with me, the more organised one out of the two of us). As yet, we havent signed the accountants contract, theres been a few emails between myself and the accountant re the setting up on their systems etc.

I am wondering how beneficial this will be as opposed to me doing his first self assessment. Ive not done one before but I am quite organised with keeping records etc. Ive asked on a facebook group and the majority of the replies were that an accountant would be beneficial as they know all the 'tips and secrets' we can write off to tax etc.

The price quoted from the accountant is quite vague, theyve suggested putting £50 a month aside.
Theres also some questions I feel i would like to be able to ask and if I am doing the accounts on my own, then I wouldnt have the benefit of the accountants knowledge. Such as ...the main client he has is an estate agent. They request a quote which must include all materials - once job done they get their invoice which doesnt have a breakdown of parts and materials is for instance he will fit a shower and charge them £400 but the shower unit cost £200. So the payment from this agent will be £400.
So...on my 'outgoings' sheet I enter the £200. On income spreadsheet I enter £400.

Theres two questions I have for this situation;

1 - its my understanding that this £400 will add to' turnover' - meaning a number of hefty priced materials on a few jobs could push towards VAT level. Is this a correct assumption?

2 - from last month, accounts have been opened at two different plumbing suppliers whereby for a month, he can order materials, equipment etc then pay at the end of the month . This is very useful in terms of cashflow as some of his clients (estate agents) have 30 day terms for payment although they sometimes pay sooner. Its also easier in terms of keeping the accounts spreadsheets tidy. Do you foresee this being a problem should anyone (HMRC) need to know what materials etc have been purchased for each job? Quite often he will buy items to have 'in stock' such as edging trim, fillers and occasionally if theres a special offer on a particular set of taps he might buy two sets for a job in the future.

So with the above two questions as examples, and my lack of experience this is why I am thinking it MIGHT be useful to keep the services of the accountant - its the cost thats bothering me.

Advice very welcome

Hi,

My first post here!

We've been using Linnworks since around 2013. We used to pay £40 a month for it. A few years ago it increased to £1400 a year which wasn't great but workable.

They've just contacted me saying that, despite being a very old customer (Linnworks started in 2010), they now want £3600 a year. It's just way too much for us and just feels like a total **** you after being with them for 10 years. They cited "rising costs" but it's a 150% increase which I think it outrageous and pure greed. And to be honest we simply can't afford it.

So, my question is, what do people recommend?

We need it to:

• Link with Ebay, Amazon and Shopify
• Link to MintSoft, our fulfilment centre's platform.
• Ideally keep track of batch and best before, although MintSoft does this so not esential.
• No need to do fulfilment like Linnworks does, although we may take fulfilment in house in future so would be handy to have it as a feature to future proof ourselves.
• Keep track of customers details.
• Keep track of VAT and stock value for accounting.
• Ideally some kind of link with Xero or Quickbooks etc., we have been waiting on the Linnworks upgrade to do this and it's never come, would be good to finally get on an accounting package.
  
  Thanks!
  

Hi there

I instructed my solicitor to report on a lease and make recommendations. One of his concerns is that due to me being personally liable under the terms of the lease, the indemnity clause is much too broad in terms of how it might be applied. He suggested I resist the clause as much as possible but in a worst case scenario, have it restricted to breach of covenant.

However, the solicitor representing the landlord won't budge. They're claiming it's boilerplate, wouldn't generally be negotiated and needs to stay in its current form.

Here's the section of the provision we have issue with:

"...arising from any breach of any tenant covenants in this lease, or any act or omission of the Tenant, any undertenant or their respective workers, contractors or agents or any other person on the Property or the Common Parts with the actual or implied authority of any of them."

The lease relates to property with a low rental value and the idea that I'd risk my assets on a clause as broad as the above for a few hundred square feet of office space seems like madness to me. I suggested that if this catch-all provision is standard, we mirror it whereby I'd be indemnified against any "act or omission" by the landlord, but they're not interested and I'm ready to walk away having already paid their fees and my own.

Is signing a lease with this provision intact definitely a bad move? My solicitor is certainly advising against, but I have considered him to be overly cautious in the past so it'd be good to get some other viewpoints on this.

Thanks for any advice or insight offered. It's appreciated.

So I am turning 24 this month and I am getting fed up of working at my current job, I am looking at starting my own business and need to ask some questions. Would love to hear some opinions and options you lot could suggest.

So basically as the title states I am wanting to start a car recovery business and then venturing out to call out for tire repairs and stuff in the future.

My logic is I want to start and try this adventure while I am young and while I’m still at home with family so if anything does go wrong I’m not going to end up with a lot of issues and having to worry about paying off my house or anything like that.

• I haven’t got any money to currently invest into the business and was wondering would you guys suggest a loan? Or how would you go about starting a business with no capital to invest at the moment

• This business will require a lot of outgoings before getting started which is my main problem I will need a lot of capital to get going which is why I wanted to hear you guys thoughts on getting a loan to pursue my dreams

My head has sort of gone blank at the moment so once I can figure out some other things to ask I will update but any help right now is appreciated.

Hi Superstars,

I have recently started a web design company and I have about 15 clients (all of them word of mouth) and I have a great testomonials I always try to over deliver, and I would like to grow my company and have 100+ clients, and my budget is tight I cannot afford marketing etc...

My question is how can I hire somone 100% commison based to get me clients (only gets paid if they closed the sale).
I appreciate everyone's time for taking the time to answer

Best wishes

Afternoon.

With regards to a restrictive covenant such as that i'm not to contact any of my current companies clients when i resign as a director.. How long can these be enforced for? I have been in my industry most of my life and its "what i do" so i dont think i can be forced to not work in my industry right?
Also say i leave with a restriction that i'm not to contact any of my current clients after my resignation (Which i dont intend to) What happens if they contact me? have i got to tell them i cant work with them?

Thank you in advance.

J

Hi, has anyone set up Royal Mail's Local Collect on an eCommerce website?

We've solved getting post office locations onto the website via API, so we can currently display pick up locations to customers, but we want to know what data points need to be passed through downstream systems (WMS etc) in order to correctly manifest a 'Local Collect' label, rather than a standard tracked 24 or 48.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

C

I've recently been removed from my position by my business partners, and I'm worried that they might try to take away my 33% shareholding. I'm also concerned that I won't receive my last salary. I'm not sure if I can transfer any money from the business to my account to prevent any unpaid salary. Any advice?