my head hurts !

[George Elsmore]

it’s only just started 😮 but good luck hope all goes well 🙂

[Hugh Potter]

thanks george !

off t the workshop now to relax ! got some rigs to tie, limpets to rehouse, and a big tackle box to sort out, oh yeah, better do a couple of stickers while down there !!

[Carrie Brown]

Congrats on taking the plunge Hugh and good on you for taking it all seriously and becoming legit like the majority of us.

Now you will have more stress and less money than ever before 😉 :lol1:

😀

[Russ]

Look on the bright side there’s always the vat issue to look forward to :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

Regards Russ

[Hugh Potter]

lol, if i make the £60k a year threshold, i’ll gladly go vat reg !

cheers carrie.

[Russ]

I think carrie has a little more hair than me in ref to the vat issue, as much as I would like her golden locks, anyway I would wear it diffrently you know sex it up with a couple of big earrings and prehaps back comb a little.

Regards Russ.

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Carrie Brown:

Now you will have more stress and less money than ever before 😉 :lol1:
😀

couldnt agree more carrie :lol1: good luck hugh…wish you all the best 😉

nik

[John Singh]

Well done Hugh

For goodness sake don’t tell them you want to park your bike in the front garden… they’ll want to know the colour, size and whether you carry passengers…..
but you’ll know what to tell them won’t you…

“get on your bike”

[Shane Drew]

I’m starting to worry about you Russ 😮

Wow, it is cheap to register over there. Just to submit the paperwork, to get the council to consider the home license here is $1500 non refundable 👿

Took em 6 months to come back with an answer, and 4 A4 typed sheets full of trading conditions. 😮

Thing is, half the council boffins that I had to answer to have no idea how hard it is for a self employed person. Nearly all were career council workers that would not know a hard days work if it bit them on the backside.

All the best hugh, hope it goes well mate.

[Andy Gorman]

Good on yer Hugh. Why did you tell the council? Sod ’em, that’s what I reckon.

[David Rowland]

is your house ideally suited? Are you near other businesses?

Updated:

Mr Hugh… are you in an area with mixed business/houses by your road?
or are you in the middle of a housing estate with druggies everywhere?
or are you in the middle of a farm country side?

[Andy Gorman]

Who me? Yes and yes.

[Lynn Normington]

well done Hugh but
Can’t understand why it’s anything to do with the council 🙄 tax man ok V.A.T. if you have a bigish turnover but the council ?? Why and who do you need to register with to be a sole trader? (unless of course you make shoes 😀 )

Lynn

[John Singh]

Dave you have to be specific
Suited for what?? :lol1:

[John Singh]

quote :

Why and who do you need to register with to be a sole trader? (unless of course you make shoes )

Very good Lynn :lol1:

[Peter Normington]

I only get suited for weddings and funerals
Peter

[David Rowland]

teh Business Rates maybe?!

[Andy Gorman]

I know I should have planning permission because I have a workshop at the end of my garden. I’ll be buggered if I’m going to let the council write to all my neighbours telling all and sundry that I’ve got expensive signmaking kit and computers in there and asking them if they object to me working for a living. Sod ’em.

The tax man is another matter – you’ve got to pay your dues.

[Peter Normington]

Dave, many people work from home Lawers, accountants, prostitutes?
but only dedicated premises pay biz rates, in our area as much as 30percent of a residential property can be used for biz without paying extra rates. It is also OK to claim tax allowence on your mortgage/rent/power/phones etc for biz use.

Peter

[David Rowland]

I do too in my other bizniz.. but when you start looking at external buildings then it becomes a little tricky.

[Peter Normington]

Well Go On Dave, whats your other business?
A shed is quite versatile It can be massive and permanent if you follow the rules, it has to be a certain distance from the main property, and not used as a residence. so if you have a big garden, no problems to build a nice workshop.

Peter

[Andy Gorman]

I don’t know anything about rates, but I do know that my council requires me to gain planning permission to work from an outbuilding. They aint getting it mind you, but they can dream can’t they. Having a home office is no problem – they aren’t interested in that.

You can claim a load of stuff in tax terms for working from home. You do have an accountant, Hugh?

[Peter Normington]

Andy, its all in the definition, If you make a bit of furniture in your shed is that work?

Peter

[Andy Gorman]

Let’s face it, who is bothered about whether I cut a bit of vinyl in my shed? I keep the noise down so the neighbours aren’t bothered, so I don’t see why I should throw £180 at the council for them to give me permission to earn a living. Anyway, if I ever did get caught out everything I do in there could be explained away as a hobby or craftwork.

Except the dead bodies under the floor boards of course.

[John Singh]

You were not suppose to tell anyone about the stiffs
We agreed didn’t we?

[David Rowland]

The only thing I can say is I work in IT and Sign Making, board rules stops me

[Hugh Potter]

i registered as a sole trader with the tax office, something i’m supposed to do, legally, within 3 months of going self employed, needed to arrange paying my stamp at least !

i spoke to the council purely for two reasons, first to find out if any changes would be made to the councul tax (rather find out now than get a backdated bill in two years), councul tax people said no problem,

the other reason, i wanted to find out who i need to ask about permission to place a temp advertising board at the end of the road, you know… out in the morning, back in at night, i’m just off of a main road, i’m not looking for walk-ins (the lawns already got a muddy path where i keep tramping up n down that annoys the mrs as it is !), just want to make people aware of blahblah signs and my number, there’s alot of traffic that sits waiting for the roundabout at peak times so it would get good viewing,

anyways, she asked where i worked from, so i said i have a workbench in the garden shed, didnt say it was purpose built !

trouble is, a timber structure is considered a temp building and requires no PP (whay so many schools use em !), but cos i work out of it, i ‘might’ need PP, purely cos they assume i might have customers visiting and deliveries etc, truth of the matter is, and i explained this, is that i go to the customer, i dont want every chav and his dad knowing what i got in the workshop, yes i get deliveries, but only about one a fortnight and even then its no different to a post office van delivering to the house, they dont deliver to the workshop !

if you work from the house, you need no permission to use it for business, though i expect you’d still take deliveries of stationary etc, and if you’re an accountant you’ll have alot more customers visiting than I will, i exlained that even on the rare occasion a customer visits, i use the kitchen as an office, and they come during the day when there’s no issues with parking, i dont have a sperate work/ personal vehicle, so again i’mc causing no probs to neighbours,

damned woman still says i should apply to find out, cost is half the PPP fee which is £265, should’ve hung up then before giving my address, but she already had the business name cos she asked what was going to go on the sign !

turns out i had to call highways and byways, who said i can’t legally do it, and could be sued by a driver if they claim they crashed while reading my sign,

unofficially the guy added that i could put a sign on my car roof and park it on the main road !!

the PP thing is a bloody rip off, £135 just to find out that i probably wont need permission, some cool way they’ve got of encouraging small business people !

i think i’l protest a little by mail first, explaining that the kitchen is my design studio / office, and the shed is a garden shed hat just happens to now have a workbench where i can do some jobs, invite them round to discuss it, of course by then it’ll be full of removals boxes, bikes, fishing gear, gardening gear etc, hang on.. it already is !!! cant see any other way around it, certainly cant afford to be throwing money away like they sem to think i can.

grrrr rant rant !

[John Singh]

Don’t invite them round Hugh
You’re asking for trouble
They’ll see that apple tree and ask if you flog the harvest to the neighbours…

and if you’ve got bikes they’ll be asking if they are used for hire

and for goodness sake keep the barbi covered up else they’ll charge you for catering services

[Hugh Potter]

yuo’re probably right john, i just don’t want to pay for nothing,

thats like me asking a customer for half the money up front, non refundable, and then telling them i cant do the job !

[del]

Ive just gon sole trader also Hugh…paperwork from the bank was a bit of a nightmare as you say, im not gona tell the council nouthing 😉

just need to find some proper work now, just sent out 200 color flyers and gona go walkies on monday…. 😮

[Hugh Potter]

going walkies is good, i’ve had one good job from each of my walkies, people are far more likely to remember the polite chap who popped in and left a flyer, than a bit of mail they find, just hope the polite chap with a flyer was me !