Account me in

are there any accountants out there?

need to set my freelance design up as a limited company and wouldn't mind a wee bit of advice - ta.

hancock is the man!

"aphrodite at the waterhole on the horizontal"

The Rebel one of me fave films

You got the Hancock Half Hours Elvis?

wayne_f14 need to set my freelance design up as a limited company and wouldn't mind a wee bit of advice - ta.

Lemme know how you get on will ya? I've been stiffed by the taxman this year... It must stop!
EDIT: My accountant is a moron :-(

@Wayne. Hit me with some info and I'll see what I can tell you, I'm a Management Accountant (Read CUNT) but should be able to at least point you in the right direction.

scott not scott // that ice cream eating competition he has with the little kid in the punch and judy man is so poignant, stunning piece of acting

Ob17 - i'll give ya a whisper, ta.

hey wayne, im a limited company. my accountant dodgy as hell. scammin me some good money tho so cant really complain. they're just so fkn slow...waiting 5mths now for VAT reg!

*I hate accountants.

my accountants been fantastic and I'll still use him and would feel happy recommending him to others,

just trying to avoid the 300 notes it would cost me if it's something i can do myself :^{ ] }

acCoUntaNTS - surely not...

+highfive+

wayne_f14 You got the Hancock Half Hours Elvis?

I spent my childhood listening to them dude. Love them.

"it is raining here also in tokyo"
"one good ear and a flapper"

I'm the guy who quotes hancock in the pub and gets weird looks :)

"ooh, get him, gloves, and he's carrying one"

"at least my mothers gravy used to move about on the plate - yours just sits there.
'that's the goodnes in it' -
that's the half a pound of flour in it"

Got all the radio programmes if you'd like them :^{ ] }

I'm a tax adviser and, without know your income profile, turnover, etc I would guess that it's not worth it (unless you are desperate for the limited liability). I'm guessing that someone has told that you that remunerating yourself through dividends would be more tax efficient? This may or may not be true, and if you wanted to divert some of your income to your missus then don't bother; the law will probably change now that HMRC have lost Arctic Systems.

cheers tom -

a lot of the design agencies that i work for have been telling me that they will now only accept invoices from a ltd company. this seems to stem from a piece of legislation that would make them potentially liable for tax and NI on invoices from a sole trader.

could do without the hassle but even some of the recruitment agencies are now only giving two options - invoice as a Ltd or you do PAYE [which kind of negates some of the benefits of veing a freelancer]

OK, so they are worried about IR35? If you are doing work for a lot of different people, then you are not going to be caught by IR35 and (even if you were) then you would be the one that would have to bear the brunt of Employers NI.

That said, if they refuse to accept invoices from someone other than a limited company, not much you can do. I'm not sure how they can tell if you are operating PAYE though (a sole trader, partnership and unlimited company can all operate this for their employees). You should probably check what these agencies would want from a partnership, as you might be able to masquerade as one (to avoid having to incorporate).

ohh this is interesting....

get a job ya pikey stooooodent :^{ ] }

ha! i was being serious when i said it was interesting......it things i have to learn.
anyway......shut it!

so when are you forming aidan ltd. ?

Might it be enough if you changed your trading name? i.e. instead of being Dave Smith you were Dave Smith trading as Super Awesome Graphic Design?

Either way, I think that you should probably talk to these agencies. As long as you are working for a lot of different people, using your own stuff, choosing what work you take, working from home, etc, you are not going to fall within the scope of IR35. That said, if there was any argument for selling your sole trader good will to a company before 5 April (and this seems unlikely, as you probably ARE the goodwill) then you could potentially benefit from a bit of a CGT break, blah blah blah.

Also, Aidan, why the hell would anyone need to know about IR35 unless they were studying for their ATT or CTA?

Any more tax questions (i.e. if you actually want to talk numbers), give me a shout at tom underscore blessington at hotmail dot com.

tom - thats just noise to me^^^^^ , it's why i do the colouring in and you run the tuck shop

My argument would be that i was a contractor [Like a photographer]

But as I am very often working inhouse for agencies If they are as dogmatic as they are being then I have no option, just trying to make it as painless and cheap as possible without making a silly mistake that will see me being liable for the debts of a village in Fiji

i know of one agency that would only employ Ltd company photographers/freelancers etc, it's a bit silly as it limits creative choice, a bit like design agencies being forced to buy dell computers because a parent company has them as a preferred supplier when they really want macs, or somebody telling me to use nikon when i want to use canon.

God yeah, why would anyone want to use Nikon?

wayne_f14, becoming a limited company from a sole trader isn't always as easy as signing some forms. You are taking something you own and transferring it to a seperate legal entity (which has tax consequences). That aside, do whatever you need to do to carry on getting an income - 0% of nothing isn't as good as 80% of something.

Assuming that you form your limited company, you will probably want to pay yourself a salary that gives you a basic state pension entitlement (c. £5,000 off the top of my head) then take the rest of your pay in dividends. Talk to your accountant about this before you make any decisions though. If you were going to be caught by IR35 (the deemed employee legislation) then you would probably be caught by the Personal Service Company legislation, so it's not like this Limited Company is going to help the people hiring you that much!

wayne_f14

Rick Mayall - I am often compared to him in the young ones. I think it is undeserved.