Highland Forestry

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Yep, my Accountant told me I could pay £1200 a year into my daughters account tax free, and £80 a week to the misses also tax free... There are some good benefits to being a Ltd company.. Tax effective is the way to go, and that's which ever way suits the individual case.

Know what you mean... you would expect them to slap him under investigation.. Thankfully they couldnt do that with me as I dont do any cash work at all...absolutley everythingis through the books. See what you mean about approaching the threshold though, I bet they would say no if they thought we would go over the 150k mark.

I am already VAT registered, yep... have been for a good while now.. But we are on the conventional scheme. I'm just trying to work out if I could save some money with the flat rate scheme.. cutting costs is all good at the moment

I think we're just under that mark.

Hmmm Ok. I wonder if my accountant would agree to means teast last years accounts to work out if I would be better on the flat rate scheme. I am hoping to make some machinery purchases this year so being able to claim the VAT back will be important.

There's something I am not getting here... With the VAT flat rate scheme, I thought you pay a percentage of your TURNOVER, 9% roughly for forestry. If you are charging 17.5% ontop of your prices for VAT, there is a big defficite. For example, if you put a bill out for 100k then when you add your VAT ontop it will be £117,500.00 inclusive. So 9% of this would be £10575 which means you would make a profit of £6925 on the VAT alone for every 100k you invoice out. Is this right or am I missing something?? Dosent seem logical that the government would let this happen as for every 100k you invoice out they would be loosing nearly 7k ?? Or am I being too cynical??

Hook, line and sinker... Totally agree... finding that line can be difficult. There's a few Scotties up here that have been reduced.. I have to say they look awful and i'm glad it wasnt me asked to do them. We have done a good ammount of crown cleaning, pruning snow and wind snapped branches and crown lifting though and I always think they look better afterwards.

To be honest Doug, no.... not really. I was a sole trader, and then went VAT registered, and then decided to go Ltd. The VAT side of it is easy enough, effectiley it's a new VAT registration for the Ltd company but I let the accountant deal with all of that and just pay his bill..... I'm about £650 a year for accountancy fees which is for all the book keeping, accounts and 4 VAT returns a year and the final audited accounts. I learned a big lesson over christmas actually... If you need a plumber - call a plumber..

Not always mozza.... depends who drives past it, who see's you in your sign written van doing it, how it looks afterwards etc.. A job is a job but if you're asked to completley butcher something and leave a tree that looks hideos right next to a road of something it could have repercussions!

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You'll only pay VAT from the date of registration I believe Doug.

Yep, we're both right (kindof) You can generally reclaim VAT on goods you bought up to three years before you registered for VAT, and services you bought up to six months before you registered. Remember too that you may be able to backdate your VAT registration by up to three years. That's what it says on the HMRC site.

Taken from the HMRC website: ''You can generally reclaim VAT on goods you bought up to three years before you registered for VAT, and services you bought up to six months before you registered. Remember too that you may be able to backdate your VAT registration by up to three years.'' Could be handy for someone about to register for getting VAT back on saws, vehicles etc.

Some say he roams about the woods at night foraging for wolves and that he has webbed buttocks... All we know is, he's called The Twig!

The fletcher stewart catalogue has somebody in it called 'The Twig' lol

That's a very good point dillsue.... the VAT flat rate scheme is something I am considering looking into also...I have a sneaky feeling that we wouldnt be much better off unfortunatley. That prompts a phone call to my accountant in the morning me thinks!

Doug.. Sounds like you are looking into doing exactly what I've just done. There are benefits and pitfalls but in my opinion becoming Ltd is a good choice.. It offers you more flexibility than just being a sole trader, as far as tax and natonal insurance, as you can can pay yourself a modest wage and then at the end of the year your accountant can sort you divedends. Some things to remember are that if you become Ltd, you need to submit your accounts to companies house once a year, and your accountant should be chartered to deal with a Ltd companies accounts. Don't confuse Ltd with VAT - they are two entirley seporate entities. You cant claim back VAT for 5 years by going Ltd. When your turnover reaches the VAT threshold, your accountant should flag you up for VAT registration. After registration you can claim back VAT on all purchases for up to 6 months before the date of registration. You're also supposed to have a corporate bank account for a Ltd company and the process for setitng up a new account for a Ltd company is not the simplest but you can do it quite easily. I would suggest you speak to an accountant or a business advisor that is completley independent. If it's helpful at all I could reccomend a good guy in Aviemore.

It's a Scots Pine...... there's gazillions of them in this country, they always take better to crown lifting and cleaning rather than reduction but to be honest, why bother? Fell it and replant with something else. If it's a big granny pine or an ancient caledonian then that's a different matter altogether.

Well done to all!

The forwarder is about right, but the skidder looks a tiny bit overpriced to me..

We've got around 3ft of snow and more in places round here... No work for us untill it all buggers off. We stopped work on the 22nd December and all I have been doing since is emergency call-outs. We've been at Inverness, Dingwall, Wick, Helmsdale, Lairg and everywhere inbetween cutting trees off rail infrastructure, but last night a Stobart Rail freight train de-railed in the next village so I fully expect we'll be called in to cut trees to free the carriages an the loco. Other than that we're forecast snow up til the 17th, and no sign of it thawing out between Not going to be the best month money-wise

£65-£70 a day if you are providing saws/fuel etc for a beginner/less experienced and £85-£90 for a seasoned worked I would say Andy... or thereabouts. Depends on the work though.... if it's day rate cutting then it's not so bad as you simply have a margin you work to in your pric for the job/day rate for the job but we often have to work on a piece rate which works out best for everybody, and I prefer to be on a price per ton as the lads get paid for what they produce and not for time spent blethering or drinking tea.

I have to take the head off my pole saw and put it in the back of the ranger at an angle, but it still sticks out the back a bit which then requires a bungee rope to hold the hardtop door down..... I think a roofrack is in order.

Many thanks Rich! That's exactly what I was looking for mate.. I see what you mean about having a bit too much slack, but I take it you can use as much or as little as you like.. I can see that the VT would work really well on a frictionless system with a cambium saver or art pulley etc. Looks like you guys had a fun day... the weather looked a bit grim though! Thanks again, Matt