I'm trying to figure out how much money I'll need to spend on an accountant. I need the following services:

Yearly ltd company accounts
VAT registration in the UK
VAT registration in the EU
VAT returns in both UK and EU
Help with finding any relevant funding opportunities (R&D tax credits etc.)
Bookkeeping

Ideally, I'd like to pay monthly, so I don't have a massive bill at the end of the year. I don't have much money so I'm really looking to cut costs as much as possible.

Hello all,
We have a small brick-mortar shop selling childrenswear and footwear complemented by an online shop.
We are going to close our brick-mortar shop but would like to continue with the online shop, running it from home.

My question is: since we are running it from home, we do not want returns to be posted to the residential address.

Can anyone recommend postal mailbox services or similar, suitable for small family run businesses?

At the end of 2020 to the start of 2021 I applied for a startup loan from:


I was successful and received the money. Unfortunately the business didn't work out as planned and I had to close it down. I'm still paying off the debt as it was a personal loan. The thing is I learnt so much from my mistakes that I'm sure I won't make them again. I'm just wondering if you can apply for a second startup loan or whether you are restricted to just one? I intend to pay all debts back as required.

I'm working on a minimum viable product, I'm also conducting market research and I have the numbers worked out in my business plan. I'm not planning on applying for a few months but I just want to know if I can apply for a second loan?

Hi,

I am an owner ( 48% ), director and employee of a family run construction company.

Is there any reason I could not be made redundant as any other employee. As far as I’m aware there is no issue with this as a director/ employee but does the fact that I’m also an owner make any difference?

Thanks in advance.

OK slightly complicated but I will try explain clearly. 20 years ago we started a small childcare business as a sole trader, 10 years later we started another small business and a much larger one. We merged all 3 into one Ltd company at that point. To prepare for potentially selling the larger company, we split the 3 out into separate ltd companies in May last year. It has become very clear how the badly the original business is doing now it is completely separate, it had been masked by the success of the other 2. So we now have had to make the decision to shut the business, very sad as it got us through some hard times when first started and we have a fantastic team of 10 part time staff, some of which have been with us for 15 years. We also have another larger ltd company in the same sector that is doing very well.

Hope that all made sense.

So how do we go about closing a ltd company? There is no way we would contemplate just going bust (although it is already bust!) and leaving our staff high and dry, also in our industry your reputation is key, if we get this wrong it could trash our very good name locally.

At the moment the business is in 7k debt to our main business, and is about 2k short of this months payroll. the second half of the year (to the end of April 2023) will be better but not enough to beak even. We would like to try and keep going until then and plan the closure properly.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of help if possible. I'll try not to ramble too much so hopefully, someone will understand.

I received a PAYE late payment notice (here) this morning from my accountants that they had received from HMRC saying that I was late paying the September PAYE.

I normally pay salary on the 28th of each month and do the PAYE same day. There had been a hiccup in me receiving the end-of-month summary so I didn't get the PAYE paid until October 3rd (5 days later than normal).

On questioning my accountants why this was deemed late (as I thought that I had until the 22nd of the following month to pay PAYE) they informed me that

HMRC records reflect that part of the amount was paid on 3rd October, but the rest was not paid until the 28th October.

The payments you made on 28th October is being split between two months, you must have underpaid one month.

Click to expand...

Please see attached files which show the current and last year's payment history, The amount of £601.53 (part of September PAYE payment) should have been paid by 22nd October, it looks like it was paid after that date, 28th October.

So you still need to pay by 22nd November the £601.53 and then you should be up to date.

Click to expand...

I've included a link to the two files I was given - current year and previous year

I've looked at this for so long I can no longer understand it!!

I don't mind paying if I've not paid the correct amount, but I can't understand how paying on the October 3rd is classed as late when September 28th isn't?

My accountants haven't been any help in clarifying this for me (I'm not an accountant so I don't understand it), and they have given me my P30 in the hopes that it "gives me a better view" (it's just a page full of numbers!!) P30

Can someone, anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks in advance

I'm currently going through the motions of taking a landscaper to small claims court RE 'The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (as amended) and also 'The Consumer Rights Act 2015'
I appreciate this forum is mainly from the perspective of the business owner, hence why I ask this question, I'm looking for general feedback on my position and would like to know if it would be suitable to ask here? If so I will post further details and look forward to your feedback, however, if not, that's perfectly fine and post can be removed.
Thanks in advance.

So apologies if this has been covered previously I have searched.
Our business consists of 2 partners on a 50/50 holding.
One has a company car the other a van the lease costs are broadly similar. When considering the remuneration packages should the lease cost or the P11 value be used?.

I'm working with a UK VAT registered business, who does B2B only sales all over the world. Some of their sales go directly from an Italian supplier, so they have an Italian VAT registration. I have a couple of questions in this area for which I am really struggling to find clear guidance on:

1. For sales made under the Italian VAT registration, does the net element go into box 6 of the UK VAT return. I know that exports go into box 6, but if the sale is made from the Italian VAT number surely these sales are nothing to do with the UK VAT number for which the UK return is for and should therefore be excluded entirely?

2. When making a sale to an Italian customer, where the goods go direct from the Italian supplier, the sale is being made under the Italian VAT registration (place of supply rule) and this customer is currently zero rating. I can't understand why though, surely it should be at the Italian VAT rate (the goods are vatable)?

3. When making a sale to an Italian customer, where the goods are being shipped from the UK, does this mean that they have to make the sale from the UK VAT number due to the place of supply rule? At which point they can zero rate as it's an export.

Any help is much appreciated.

Looking for some advice before I act on this, please! I'm in a VAT situation that I'm finding a little confusing.

I started contracting for a company X earlier this year and first invoiced them during the Apr-Jun VAT quarter. At the time, Company X told me they didn't have a UK office, and to invoice them in the US. I checked rules on VAT and it doesn't apply, so I never charged VAT (B2B services, place of supply in the US).

I did a lot more work for this company during the Jul-Sep quarter so my net sales were up but my VAT obviously wasn't. This prompted my accountant to query this while preparing my Jul-Sep VAT return. I explained that much of that income was billed to the US and my accountant asked me to confirm that I'm paid from a US bank account.

Company X told me that they don't know the rules around VAT, they just leave the contractors to deal with that, although they do have other UK contractors who do charge VAT.

I've now heard from someone else at company X who has apologised because they mistakenly told me to invoice company X Inc in the US, while paying me from company X Ltd which is registered in the UK (and has been the entire time). Their suggestion is that I send a credit for the total amount I've billed them to company X Inc, then re-issue invoices to company X Ltd with VAT on top.

This suggestion seemed to confuse my accountant. He seemed to think I should just invoice them for the VAT amount they owe. He didn't understand the reason for issuing a credit then re-issuing invoices, when all that should be paid is the difference. My accountant's suggestion was to go through the 12-or-so invoices for Jul-Sep, issue individual credits for each one, then re-issue the invoices with VAT added on. He says he will then submit my Jul-Sep VAT return, I'll pay the bill, then I'll be reimbursed when company X Ltd make those payments. This is more work but I don't mind doing it if I need to. My main issue with this is that the invoices from Apr-Jun won't be taken into account in the Jul-Sep VAT return, and I'm potentially putting myself on the line for a fine for filing an incorrect Apr-Jun VAT return.

I'm not a VAT or tax expert at all, but I feel like my accountant is over-complicating things here. I would argue that my Jul-Sep VAT return can be submitted as-is. From my perspective it's in order - I've billed a US company during that quarter, so there's no VAT due on those invoices. The discrepancy seems to fall firmly with company X where company X Ltd have paid invoices for company X Inc. I don't think this is an issue with my accounting/VAT.

To correct the VAT, if I issue a credit for the total amount to company X Inc then that effectively cancels out the invoices to company X Inc in my records - I'm owed nothing by them, they owe me nothing. If I then invoice company X Ltd and include VAT, and company X Ltd pay me the difference (the VAT), then my VAT return should cover everything and bring me fully up to date? I think the bit that's confusing me here is that I'll credit company X Inc, then invoice company X Ltd who will then effectively owe me the full amount + VAT despite having already paid me the full amount - VAT. I think this is the same discrepancy as before and needs correcting on company X's side, but is it something I need to be concerned about?

Am I barking up the wrong tree here, or is my accountant right to suggest altering all of my existing invoices to company X prior to submitting my Jul-Sep VAT return? If that's the right approach, what about the Apr-Jun VAT return?

Thanks!

I've realised I won't be able to do what I want to do on my Apple MBA and need a dedicated laptop to run Linux (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed). Before I push it into production, I'll use it to test virtual machines and code on Linux. Can someone recommend a decent laptop for less than £1k with a minimum of 16GB of RAM and a decent-sized storage SSD?

Hey, looking for a little advice with regards to the car data industry.

I have a new tool that I am developing that I think will be useful to folks in the car industry, here in the UK. For example car insurance providers like eSure, car sales like Arnold Clark, car blogs like Auto Express etc. If I wanted to showcase my tool I think getting a booth at an expo or something where I could demo what it does would be a good start, but I've no idea what kind of expo the folks in these companies might be attending. Their roles in these companies are predominately going to be making decision on cars or writing articles based on data. For example my tool might show what cars would be more desirable for Arnold Clark to purchase for resale value, or the cars with less problems over all.

So I guess what I am asking is how do I approach these types of organizations to make contact, pitch / demo my tool and to start networking. Any hints or tips? Again I feel a place where I could showcase my tool would be a better fit.

Thanks

Hello,

I am in the process of helping to create a service whereby fast growing small businesses can outsource their recruitment to another company to find them new staff. They use the same methods a recruitment agency does but also they do the talent attraction and employer branding part. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the following value proposition.

Above the fold:​

Headline: Outsourced recruitment for small businesses
Subtext: Spend less time recruiting and more time growing


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Pain points:​

Doesn't your business deserve to reach it's growth potential?
Are you spending a small fortune on recruitment agency fees? Do you find yourself turning down work because you can't hire the right people? Do you have an unsatisfying scattergun approach to recruitment? Do you want to make data driven decisions and quickly view your hiring metrics? Most fast growing small businesses struggle with the same problems. You're not alone and we're here to help

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Would this appeal to you as a small business owner who is hiring a lot? Does it even make sense?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Paul

Hi

Is anyone familiar with using Google for Jobs. Im talking about the job search listings that Google provides.

I currently have 5 jobs posted on there but I can only find one. All the jobs are structured the same in accordance with what Google expects.

I am using a third party system (seo-for-jobs) that helps get the jobs on Google.

The third party system allows me to add different job title variants but none of these ever show up when doing a search.

I am using the same job description for all the jobs of which im informed is ok to do. All the jobs have different locations etc.

But I cant figure out why one job would be fine but the others are nowhere to be seen.

If you want to see the job that is working, search for, Affiliate Marketing Sales Jobs Reading. Mine should be the first you see, posted by Wealth Creations Group.

If anyone has some advice then it will be most appreciated.

Hi - I am looking at dissolving a LTD company - there is a BBL of £6397 - other than that there are no debts and no assets - whats the best way to do this - any advice is greatly appreciated - many thanks

Hello

I need to submit micro company accounts for my Ltd and have been trying to do this via WebFiling for about a week. Unfortunately, I always get this error message

Sorry, there is a problem with the service​

You need to contact us so that we can help you with this issue.

and there has been no reaction from WebFiling support. The deadline for submission is now Sunday....

Anyone an idea? Is it possible to extend the deadline (weekend!)?

Thanks for your help

I am trying to get my head around Quick books Essentials

I have just linked my Paypal account to Quickbooks and imported the transactions, but they are all weird so need changing

They are all under review

So for example
I have a sale from Julian it's £9 £0.56p is the fee so total received is £8.44

In QuickBooks the sale is recorded as:

sales of product income 20% S £9
The fee is recorded separately as an expense cardnet bank charge!

I have changed the fee from cardnet bank charge to Paypal fees but it's asking me for a VAT rate
is it 20% S or NO VAT


also I have done a £1 refund on a different transaction (which quick books has recorded as business milage) how is this recorded as it's not an expense.
This system is weird

Could anyone be so kind as to tell me if they know of a subscription free EPOS system? We’re happy to pay and buy one outright, just abhor paying never ending fees for a simple programme now MTD is here. Looked at many but there all burger joint/just eat type set ups
Thanks for any help!

Hi,

My company would like to make a bonus payment to an employee.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestion on how to minimise the tax burden on a bonus payment?

Thanks in advance,

Suzie

Afternoon everyone
I have a warehouse of about 80 square metres which is used as retail and workspace.
We are looking for the best heaters for efficiency and cost to plug in or any other suggestions.
We had oil heaters but when I plugged them in the electricity meter was racking up the cost
Any help would be appreciated
Becky
Barn Fresh Interiors

Hi All,

I am looking for some help.

My background is in digital marketing - I have spent 10 years working in the corporate world, but feel I just want to be my own boss / also think I have a great idea.

I have found a supplier of a product on Alibaba, and worked over some months to engineer this to fit an entirely new market (one I am familiar with, and can test in with the prototype which they are shipping soon).

My plan in a line is 'bring products over, sell online via social media marketing/affiliate marketing, and existing distribution channels, and get a patent on the product'.

Obviously, things are never that simple.

I don't have a blueprint for a process and don't want to get caught out; things such as I will need to get products tested for safety, literally - where do you go for this and what should it cost me? Shipping costs/import duties I could maybe figure out looking at this forum, but what would I expect this to be? Then patenting a product seems expensive based on the lawyer fees.

Has anyone trodden this path before, can anyone offer any help please?

Thanks all!

Hi,

I would be really grateful for some advice on importing children's clothing from Europe to the UK. (I am currently looking at production in Portugal.)

I'm in the process of starting up a children's clothing brand. I have registered the company, trademarked the name and registered the web domain to begin with. I have now finalised the branding, created the patterns and tech packs and I am now in the process of sourcing fabrics and a factory/factories to produce the clothing.

So my main question is, does anyone have experience with importing children's clothing from Europe to the UK as I am very lost from this point?

The delivery methods being quoted by the textiles mills tend to be Ex Works or FOB, which I am trying to get my head around.

So initially, does anyone have any advice for delivery of the fabric from the mill to the factory (both of which should hopefully be in Portugal)? And secondly, do you have advice or recommendations on how to deliver the clothing from the factory to our UK address?

Are there any recommendations for freight companies or similar? Do these tend to include insurance or should I be looking at independent insurance to cover the cost of the goods being transported?

I would also appreciate any advice on import tax/duties relating to children's clothing. My initial research tells me that children's clothing is VAT exempt, however, there is a high chance that the freight/courier company may charge me VAT which I will then need to claim back (it seems to be that this could be a Brexit related issue).

Many thanks in advance,
Steph

I've got a client who will be moving to Ireland in the new year. He wants to register a .ie domain name in advance of this. Does anyone know if this is possible from the UK?

Hi, looking for advice. I rent a unit from a private landlord. He told me he gets wholesale Electric supply, this means I pay electric bills to him. I have just two freezers on 24hrs and use the unit about 4 to 5 hours a month to produce food. My bill is higher than my neighbours that are regular. Three months came to £870. I refused to pay as I told him Iam not happy, they should check and see if something is wrong with my unit.
I got a letter at the top saying hand delivered. If I do not pay in 14 days they will lock my unit. Like bullying me. He also have my three months deposit which is not in the deposit scheme.
I need a lawyer or suggestions or advice please. Thanks

Hi all thanks for reading this, so I've started a reselling side hussle online, my question is, when you sell something do I reinvest the profits or reinvest how much I paid for the item? If you get me
Thanks again!