Self Employed - Running Multiple Businesses - How?

[scottwhittaker]

Hello
Sorry if this is a long winded question but I think its best to outline my scenario in order to best ask my question! I have looked all over for information on setting up as self employed in this way but everything is targetted towards people running one business under one name.

Scenario
I wish to register as self employed in order to offer web site design services/hosting etc in my local area. I want to offer this under a localised name, lets call it "City Computers".

I also want to build some web sites for myself on which I will sell goods (not computer related, lets say selling paint on mypaintshop.co.uk and toys on mytoyshop.co.uk) and so I went to Barclays to enquire about a merchant account to accept payments on these sites.

I thought I would be able to have a merchant account using my main business name City Computers (I would only need one merchant account then for all 3 businesses). They told me however that I wouldn't be able to have a merchant account under the name City Computers because the name City Computers would appear on customers bank statements and I could get a lot of chargebacks from people that had bought Paint or Toys and nothing computer related. However they did say that if I had a generic business name like lets say "SW Trading" then I could have a merchant account under that name providing my bank account name was this also (and that I clearly stated this name on the Paint and Toy web sites).

Questions
Basically I am looking for advice on what my business structure should be and how I should operate it in terms of book keeping, accepting payments online/by cheque etc.

Should I have two business bank accounts (one for City Computers and one for SW Trading) and just combine the turnover etc for my business accounts or do these remain seperate until I declare my own earnings for the year?

Do I have to register two businesses? As seperate businesses can they both turnover £67,000 (or whatever current VAT threshold is) and not have to register for VAT or is the combined total added together with myself running both?

Are there any good online sources of advice on being self employed in this manner?

Again I do apologise for the length of the question as I realise there is no quick answer to it but any help or guidance would be very much appreciated.

Regards
Scott

 

[frauke]

You can have several business names without any problems. The HMRC also prefer them to have them separate on your tax return. Of course you pay tax on all your income, not on individual businesses if you are a soletrader.


VAT registration would be in your name, not the business name if you are a sole trader so all the businesses t/o would be added together for VAT purposes

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Scott I honestly think you'd be best speaking with an accountant at this stage. You can pick up a few snippets of advice from places such as this, but you will have a lot of questions at this stage and really need proper advice to ensure your business(es) are structured in the most tax efficient manner etc.

Most accountants will give you a free intial consultation so you can get some free advice to start and see which you feel comfortable working with.

Good luck.

 

[LemonBlossom]

Yeah, it is fine to run more than one business self-employed. I am currently self-empoyed and in the process of setting up my second business these will be under two different names. HMRC get NIC's and send me a Tax Return every year, so they are happy, I have called them and made them aware of the situation. So when I do my tax return next year, I just have to add both businesses which you are given space for. In relation to the accounts, I run two different ledgers, it just makes it alot easier for me. I can see my exact status with each company at any given time without any effort.

But also as Nicola said, it's always good to speak to an accountant about your situation.