I've been thinking of buying the business & taking over the lease for the shop i currently work inn in October but am still unsure if to take on that responsibility.
so in the meantime i've been thinking of other options than sighing up to a lease.

I don't drive so am unable to go around grooming mobile.
So my options are either buy a caravan, renovate it into a dog groomers & situate it on my drive or renovate my garage into a dog groomers.

I've spoke with my neighbours & they've all said they would be fine with it, I explained i would only be having a car or a person calling once a hour & would be 6 to 8 clients a day.

So if anyone can help me my questions are do I need planning permission or need to follow any regulations before renovating either of these ideas, are they the same for both or...?

I already have insurance to cover the dogs welfare & also my contents, would I need insurance for clients coming onto my property aswell?

Do I contact my local council about planning permission, even if am unsure of which one I plan to do yet?

Thanks

Hi all,

Owner of a small company here. As an employer, I decided to contribute to an employee's certain type of personal expense. So I pay him directly, rather than paying his supplier.

I add that benefit to his Payroll (I am using Xero), and it appears fine.

I need to know, which account category should I record this outgoing money when I am reconciling.

Any help will be appreciated.

Hi All,

I am looking to get ERA (Exempt Regulated Activities) status with ACCA and I am required to have a continuity agreement with another regulated accountancy firm that has that license (providing those services) with their professional body. Are there any accountants that have that status are happy to do this with my firm?

Thanks

Andreas

Hi all
I'm looking for a wordpress freelancer to create a new website.
After some research I'm more confused than ever.
There are so many choices to choose from and I have no idea of who to pick, trust, etc.
I like some of the bigger sites offering a stack of designers as they seem to be good value but going ahead is making me a little nervous.
If anyone can advise of their experinces or point me in the right direction that would be very helpful.

Many Thanks
Andy

Hi, I need to take 2 printers to Spain for a conference for a few days. They aren't worth more than £1500, they aren't heavy, they were bought in the UK and we are a VAT registered UK company.

I think we just need an ATA Carnet to get them through customs but is there anything else we need to do?

Is there a kind person out there that can give me a steer on this?

Thanks in advance.
Andrew

Hi. I guess it is not the right place to address this sort of questions, but I'll give it a try
I am planning to get a personal unsecured loan for 10-15 k. without guarantor. Any advice of what lenders may do it without much hassle ?
Many thanks in advance for your support.
PS : APR not crucially importnat.

Hi Everyone,

I am working on a new business idea with a colleague and we want to set up some customer development calls to gain insight from people who are thinking about setting up or have recently set up their own business to help us to validate (or not!) our idea.

Does anyone have any recommendations or ideas of where I can be looking to find people who may be willing to share their feedback? We would be looking to have a 30 minute chat with people (via video call) and would be offering a voucher as a thank you for their time.

I've been on some social sites and Reddit but wondered if anyone knew of any where else that may be successful.

Would there be anyone here who has recently started their own business who would be open to chatting?

Thank you in advance!

Hi All,

Newbie question here.

We are a small training company and things were pretty hectic from Jan 23 to April (which is good complaint) and moved back to face to face training thus I was travelling all over but kept forgetting to reclaim millage..

I've kept a note of all the journeys.

Are there any restrictions agin now putting all the mileage through in bulk going back the last 4 months at 45p per mile? Anything else I need to think about other than getting a better way bookkeep (I plan to move to quickbooks).

Wondering where I stand with this? Today I go into work and there's a cleaning lady vacuuming the stairs and landing of the building where I rent a small space for my business.

Up until now, the three occupiers (including myself) have always done the cleaning. One of the other occupiers approached me last year asking if I would be happy to chip in for a cleaner, and I said I'd prefer to do it myself to keep the cost down (they had worked out how much it would be, and I thought it seemed pretty expensive when we can do it ourselves) They occupy a much bigger space than I do and have bigger toilets and a waiting room etc. I just have two rooms and a small toilet. I've still to speak to the third occupant to see if he was happy to pay for a cleaner.

I'm expecting an invoice to be pushed under my door at some point in the near future for a third share of the cleaning bill, which I never agreed to in the first place. My landlord probably won't get involved as I'm guessing it was this particular occupant who arranged it off their own back, plus I didn't get any notification of this from my landlord so he probably doesn't know.

What should I do? Thanks.

Hi guys hope everyone is well and business is well!

I am in the flooring trade - and I have recently taken over a building - which comprises of a main showroom, and an outer warehouse.

When I took over the building, it was a showroom, and then to the rear there was a 4 metre gap and then a warehouse. I have knocked down the rear partition wall of the showroom, and knocked a doorway through the warehouse, and erected two walls and a felt roof essentially for easy access between showroom and warehouse. Essentially I have 2 completely separate buildings with a 3-4 metre gap in between. I've put a roof and walls - and 2 doorways between them. So we can go between showroom and warehouse even in the rain etc

My question is, how badly will this affect my rates? I will inform the VOA but just wanted a heads up. We are they are still two separate buildings, both on separate foundations and separate roofs. The rear is only being used for storage.

I know the previous valuation had it listed as external storage and the rates were cheap, will it still be classed as external storage?

Will it be significantly cheaper for me to just demolish my tunnel and keep them as two separate buildings?

Hi all,

I'm new on here and just wanted a bit of advice. We bought a residential property through our limited company with the intention of building two houses on the land at the bottom of the garden, renovating the property and selling all three properties on. We did sell the two new builds but decided to buy the property for ourselves. We sold our main residence and then bought the property from our limited company at market value and moved in. I thought we only needed to pay 3% SDLT but HMRC have said we need to pay 15% as "non-qualifying individuals have been permitted to occupy the property". Has anyone else come across this or know if this is correct? Thanks for any help.

Hello,

I'm in the process of registering for VAT and the first question asked while doing so is the below;

Does the business have a fixed establishment in the UK or Isle of Man?​

A UK or Isle of Man establishment exists if either the:

• place where essential management decisions are made and the business’s central administration is carried out is in the UK or Isle of Man
• business has a permanent physical presence with the human and technical resources to make or receive taxable supplies in the UK or Isle of Man

--

I'm not really sure how to answer this (it's a yes/no). I work as a sole trader. I'm a musician/composer, writing music for TV shows and I work from a bedroom in our flat, which myself and my partner are renting.

I make 'essential management decisions' at home I guess. Our flat isn't really a 'permanent physical presence' in regard to the business as we can obviously move etc.
All in all it's a bit confusing, so if anyone has any guidance on this one it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi everyone. Just curious of some opinions please. We own a cafe which has a separate takeaway hatch connected. Two members of staff are related and have told us they have their own coffee van which they’ll be setting up 10-15 mins away from us just selling drinks and snacks. They’re wanting to continue working for us without their days being effected whilst also working a couple of days on the van. It shouldn’t effect us too much as it’s a very different business however it could pinch the odd takeaway customer & more so, I think it’s obvious which they’ll care more about. It’s a nightmare time wise as we have young children so can’t just work all the shifts & it’s a tricky position to fill as it’s weekend work and taking on running the show. Ultimately, short term it’ll make our life very hard with the busy season approaching. Opinions please! Is it not such a big deal? Or a big no no. Thanks in advance! Sarah.

Hi all.


I am the sole director and shareholder of a Ltd company (domestic cleaning services) which has been running since March 2022 with a turnover of around 79K. I employ several staff, all of whom are PAYE, I also pay myself PAYE.

I am also a Sole Trader business (Gardening services) which was started around the same time but to date this has very much been a secondary business with revenue of around 3K, with myself being the only worker.

Q1, would HMRC consider the two business as seperate entities? Ordinarily I would say yes due to the different business types, the two are not financially linked, no equipment is used for both and there are two seperate bank accounts. There are however a few things which make me question whether this would be the case.
- I work for both (obviously)
- Several clients are clients of both (the services are performed separately but at the clients premises)
- One of my existing Ltd Co staff will be finishing work with that company and I will be employing them through the sole trader business (they will be changing careers in doing so and there will be no overlap of the two).
- Both businesses are registered at my home address (not an office as such), but equipment etc for both are kept there).

Q2, if the annual turnover for my Ltd Co continues to stay below the VAT threshold but my sole trader business grows (this is now expected, in the region of 10K - 15K), will both business's still be classed as under the VAT threshold or both need to become VAT registered? This question is linked to the above as I assume they won't if the businesses aren't deemed to be linked but yes if they are seen as being linked?

Many thanks.

Hi everyone. I’m looking for some advice regarding equal shareholders of a limited company. I’m the Founder and hold Ordinary A shares and I (in hindsight very naively) gifted my business partner equal Ordinary B shares. We have an agreement that should we ever part ways she has to leave the business and I retain ownership of the company name and branding, she also cannot sell her shares to anyone else without giving me first refusal.

Due to a number of reasons my business partner has agreed to leave the business on the 31st March, and has set up her own competing business which she is already operating from. She now is refusing to sign the forms needed to be removed from the company because she wanted an exit agreement in place and there are some terms we are disagreeing on. I’m also pregnant and am becoming increasingly stressed by her demands, tone of her emails and how difficult she is being. She has also treated me unfavourably since I told her I was pregnant, basically falling out with me, being rude and telling me my pregnancy is shit timing because she is getting married a week after my due date and does not want to have to work on her honeymoon (this was the final straw and reason I decided I no longer want to be in business with her). My questions are:

- is pregnancy and maternity still a protected characteristic even though it is not an employer/employee relationship?

- if one shareholder has given notice to exit the business by a certain date, has set up a competing business and then refused to sign paperwork to leave what can the other shareholder do to force them to leave?

- can the shareholder exiting the business impose an email forward and the forwarding of incoming website enquiries to their new business email address and impose restrictions and a non-compete clause on the other? She is taking her clients with her to her new business, which I have agreed to. I’ve also agreed not to try and solicit business from any of her clients, however there are 3 which I don’t want to include, as quite easily some of my business contacts could move to these agencies and under the current terms she wants me to agree to, I wouldn’t be able to work with significant contacts of mine who make up the majority of my earnings, which would have a huge detrimental impact on my livelihood. I have agreed to the email diversion and forwarding website enquiries for 4 months, as a gesture of goodwill to give her chance to inform all of her clients of her new contacts details. I will then be going on maternity leave, yet she wants me to continue to sending her emails whilst I’m on maternity leave which I don’t think is fair as I’m entitled to enjoy my maternity leave without having to support her with admin for her new business!

Sorry it’s long winded, but any help would be greatly received! Thank you.

Hi All

Looking for some advice, myself and the wife have ran a business since 2019 (survived Covid) it was set up as a side hussle/hobby but turned into much more very quickly. We have took over 30k the last two years and it’s looking closer to 60k this year with small profits the last two years and again this year. The business has no debts or credit accounts etc.

But we are looking to expand and have the potential to do this quickly, we are a small independent clothing store that takes our pop up stall to events in the dance sector, we have secured a lot of big events like the world and British championships, events in Butlins, Alton Towers to name a few. We have the opportunity to attend three times as many of these events as we currently do.

I’m looking for funding/investment rather than a business loan, don’t get me wrong I would take a loan as a last resort but if anyone knows of any funding options/investors I would obviously prefer to go down this route if possible.

The forecast for next year is around 100k turnover with over 30k profit I know it’s not millions but it’s a decent little earner for someone to invest in.

We have taken over £10,000 in web orders as well as the events, we’ve had over 94k go in through the bank via stripe/sum up card reader payments.

We have so much potential to build the business so just looking for any help/advice.

Many thanks

Afternoon,
I run a Vintage warehouse and at the end of the current tax year have stock that remains unsold.
All stock is paid for so have all the invoices showing what I have spent out but dont know if there is somewhere I am meant to show what stock is being carried over to the new year or does this not need doing.
This is the first year I have premises, usually I do not carry forward any stock but the cost is about 6k.
Regards
Becky

What is the residual value of a car lease?

I own a limited company, i am the only director and shareholder and was looking to take out 2k dividend which i belive is still the current dividend allowance.

I am in the first year of trading, my business was set up in june 2022.

Do i have to wait to pay CT and then pay myself a dividend or can i pay out anytime, and is there anything else required like a self assessment if a dividend of 2k is paid out?

I started my courier business with no start up loans and this has made me struggle for growth and to really shape my vision for my business. Can someone give advice on how how to get a business loan, would this still be classed as start up loan or something else?

I had my probation review at the beginning of February 2023 and was told by my line manager that I had successfully passed it. He completed the form in pencil and asked me to sign it at the end and then he signed it. I could see that he had ringed round the word "successful". Unfortunately, he did not provide me with a copy of it. He had said that he would send it to HR and they would be in touch with me about it. I did not hear anything for 3 weeks and so I chased to be told that HR had lost it and my line manager had to send them a copy. fast forward to April and I received a letter from HR to say that I had passed my probation as a fee earner but I had an extension of time of four weeks (which would have taken me until early March) in relation to the manager position and that they had not come back to me due to pressure of work and that my line manager would come back to me for a review meeting at the end of April when another colleague was coming back to work who was formally the manager of the office and he would discuss it with me then. At no point during the review meeting did he say to me that there was any extension of my probation - merely that I had been successful. I then asked HR for a copy of my completed probation review and the form that came back to me signed bore no resemblance to the one that I had signed and had been altered (pencil erased and different wording put in) to show that I had an extension of 4 weeks to my probation. If I had signed that, I would have queried it and we would have had to have made an appointment to meet up in four weeks to review it again but this has only been sent to me now. Also, I am being made to wait until the end of April which is two months from the actual review date. The copy review form has segments of the form missing as well and I do have a record of them. Obviously the form has been amended since I signed it. I now trust no-one and feel like I am being manipulated as the other manager is coming back to work and I have been used. I am not sure if this amounts to a breach of contract but again, I cannot prove that the pencilled in comments were erased as I wasn't supplied with a copy at the time of the review. What do I do now? This has completely knocked my confidence and I feel now that I have no opportunities for advancement within this firm given that I have this black mark against me and everything that I was promised at the interview was a complete lie to get me into the firm as they had been advertising for some considerable time.

Hi I have just found out about trivial benefits for director but the tax year is nearly ending on 5th.

Can I claim the £300 trivial benefit
So put through 6 separate £50 transaction for gift vouchers?

Will this be okay to do on one day?

Hello,

I recently started a webshop and I used to make all the banners, headlines and discriptions for my advertisements myself. I noticed that this took up a lot of time that I could better spend on other aspects of my webshop. I started looking for a solution and came across AdCreative. This programme generates google ads, headlines, descriptions, social media posts for all platforms and also shows an insight into how an ad "performs". I'm thinking about purchasing a membership because I think this brings a lot of benefits. I also saw on their website that you can get $500 back if you spend that amount on google ads within two months. Are there people here who have experience with AdCreative? I am very curious to hear what your experiences are, or if there are other solutions that I have overlooked.

Kind regards,

Rob

Hello, i've been speaking with Business Debtline regarding my company (ltd) closure and when I mentioned the possibility of paying a debt personally they felt this might not be a preferential payment as it uses personal funds rather than company funds.

Can anyone confirm or deny this as they weren't absolutely sure? Thanks!

I need to hide my home address for reasons I'd prefer not to explain, and I was looking at several virtual office companies that seem to offer a virtual address for limited companies. I'm curious about the legality of it. I'm not expecting to get much post, but I don't want my home address on Companies House. Has anyone used a service like this, and do you recommend any services in this niche?