darren@dynamoaccounts

Xero is a pretty decent package for those looking to grow however for most we tend to suggest Freeagent. A lot depends on your requirements, whether you're looking to grow the business and level of IT skills. Almost everyone gets comfortable with freeagent pretty much straight away but Xero is slightly more complex.

There's plenty of banks out there that do 18-24 months without charges. Also, if it's just internet transfers in & out, there are web based tariffs with the main banks that don't charge for these transactions, only for using over the counter and cash. From a tax perspective, depending on the level of earnings may be beneficial but you have mentioned protection with the limited liability as being important. The limited company also gives a bit more credibility when dealing with new customers. As for VAT, if your customers are registered for VAT could be beneficial so that you can claim the VAT back on your costs.

The tests for a disguised employee are included within the wording of the contract as well as the working practices. falls within a piece of legislation called IR35. Tend to read a lot of these contracts to take clients outside IR35, feel free to drop me an email if you'd like any help with it. So your contract should include things like the right to subsitution, mutuality of obligation (no right to receive or accept work after the contract is ended) and control amongst a few other things. The requirement for PL/PI insurance cover is also helpful. If you're providing your own kit is a plus point. There's a great deal of things to be brought into the equation such as supervision, direction & control. Having said that, the chances of such a tax enquiry are very low as HMRC have bigger fish to fry at the moment with the team that looks after this area only able to handle 250 cases a year as per a recent HMRC consultation document.

100% relief if the rateable value less than £6k then staged relief to £12k. As stated above, only on the first site. Link

Get these as well, mainly around this time of year advertising spaces on wall planners for the emergency services. Put all sorts of guilt trips on. Tend to tell them that the budget is already gone.

Having dealt with HMRC for over 25 years, there's no logic or commercial sense in a great many of their decisions. During the initial years of training, a partner once said to me that if an inspector was any good, he'd be poached to work in practice for twice the money, leaving the dross in the tax office. And to be fair, he was right. If you look at the record of HMRC's case wins, it makes poor reading. Their record against contractors is prime example, spending tens of millions of pounds chasing a couple of hundred grand which is all politically motivated. Same with Kevin's case, no common sense or commercial awareness. And at the end of the day, the judgements like that tend to be easily got around and with no substance.

If you own more than one vehicle can qualify as a fleet. This link to Autonet from Moneysupermarket for some comparisons. There's some good offers in the fleet & truck magazines but as was said earlier, the best prices are on those with drivers over 25 and they'll put restrictions on any convictions or number of points.

How long have you been working for this guy? He's supposed to give you a contract of employment within a 3 months of joining. Do you receive payslips that show the tax & NI being deducted. I know it's common place for contracts of employment not to be issued but in a trade where there's an increase in risk of getting injured, would say it's pretty important for both sides and protecting your backside.

We prepare a lot of our clients VAT returns for varying reasons, either time, compliance or that we do the book keeping as well but in the main it's to ensure the figures are correct. If the figures aren't correct then there's a problem. Many clients now use cloud based packages such as Sage, Xero or Freeagent depending on their requirements which helps save a lot of time/cost. Excel is just as simple and have a number of guys that supply details on spreadsheets as well. If an accountant doesn't save you as much as their fees in tax/vat a year when compared to doing it yourself, then there's something wrong.

Found the same with the first chapter visited but the second was a bit more diverse and ended up with a reasonable amount of work not just directly but indirectly as well. There were quite a variety of trade in there. Each area has there own networking events which is useful for corporate work but personal work tends to be more referral with a mixture of local advertising. Have a few clients that get involved with the local football teams, cheap board ads, programmes, etc. Quite cost effective and lasts for the full year. Everyone has their own preference, can't all advertise in the same place after all.

Have you tried a bit of networking, we've a few guys that attend BNI breakfast events each week. They've a broad spectrum of trades in each chapter and refer work around each other every week.

Morning guys, first post so apologies for jumping straight in. Do you have the correct VAT figure? If so, pay over the correct amount so don't incur any interest for late payment. Should be able to speak to the VAT office and explain what has happened, or even better get someone else at the accountants to call and waste their time not yours, time is money after all. It's likely that they'll have to submit a manual form to HMRC with the corrected figures which may automatically raise an assessment for submission of an incorrect return. If that's the case it will need appealing. But again, get the accountant to sort that and forward you copies of the correspondence so that you know it's being done.