Self employed question

[Triathlon]

Can you two people (me and a colleague) both be working as self employed under the same company name? We plan to be self employed, working with our own clients (still under the same name), but come together for large events and when we advertise, we'll pay for that together as we'll be advertising the name of the company.

Any thoughts?

 

[Joyous]

Hi Triathlon

Yes it can be done but you’ll need to be quite particular about how you set it up and draw up the agreement between you and you colleague. The two of you can work either as a partnership or as a limited company with both of you being shareholders and directors.

The complication arises because you’re not doing a straight split of the profits, i.e. 50:50, 60:40 or whatever. It seems as if other than when you work together each partner will bear the full cost of a given project and claim all the revenue. Your accounting will need to be set up so that all income and expenditure gets booked to one of three cost centres (you, your partner and one joint).

It can be done but you’ll be well advised to speak to an accountant to ensure that you and your partners profit share and tax liabilities are correctly worked out. Also ensure that you get a decent agreement drawn up as your description sounds as if you need one.

Regards

Joy