http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk News, Help and Advice for UK Freelancers, Contractors and the Self-Employed Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000 # hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © Freelance Advisor 2011 feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk (Freelance Advisor) feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk (Freelance Advisor) 1440 http://podcast.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/artwork144.jpg http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk 144 144 News, Help and Advice for UK Freelancers, Contractors and the Self-Employed Freelance Advisor Freelance Advisor feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk no no http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/incorporations-and-business-failures-both-on-the-increase/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/incorporations-and-business-failures-both-on-the-increase/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:30:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=16113 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/incorporations-and-business-failures-both-on-the-increase/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/company-name-vs-trading-name/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/company-name-vs-trading-name/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=14713 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/company-name-vs-trading-name/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/how-to-form-a-limited-company/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/how-to-form-a-limited-company/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 12:00:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=13794 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/how-to-form-a-limited-company/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/limited-company-vs-sole-trader-which-is-best/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/limited-company-vs-sole-trader-which-is-best/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 13:30:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=13789 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/limited-company-vs-sole-trader-which-is-best/feed/ 1 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/update-employee-benefit-trusts-circling-the-drain/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/update-employee-benefit-trusts-circling-the-drain/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:16:43 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=10959 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/update-employee-benefit-trusts-circling-the-drain/feed/ 2 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/basic-tax-planning-for-freelancers/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/basic-tax-planning-for-freelancers/#comments Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:56:40 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=9238 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/basic-tax-planning-for-freelancers/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-stories-setting-up-a-limited-company-business-bank-account-finding-work/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-stories-setting-up-a-limited-company-business-bank-account-finding-work/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:21:42 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=8447 Freelance Stories series we talk to artworker and print production pro Bill Greenwood. After 20-years working for top design studios Bill has decided to go it alone and tells us what it is like to start your own Limited Company.]]> http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-stories-setting-up-a-limited-company-business-bank-account-finding-work/feed/ 1 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/going-limited-how-much-can-i-save/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/going-limited-how-much-can-i-save/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:37:51 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=4819 going limited could save you money. By going limited you can, save tax, open more avenues for employment, benefit from limited liability if you get into trouble.]]> http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/going-limited-how-much-can-i-save/feed/ 2 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-finance-detailed-information-on-the-expenses-you-can-claim/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-finance-detailed-information-on-the-expenses-you-can-claim/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:25:18 +0000 Darren Fell http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=4747 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-finance-detailed-information-on-the-expenses-you-can-claim/feed/ 23 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-expenses-what-business-expenses-can-i-claim/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-expenses-what-business-expenses-can-i-claim/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:10:53 +0000 Darren Fell http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=4740 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-expenses-what-business-expenses-can-i-claim/feed/ 7 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/how-do-i-open-a-limited-company-bank-account/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/how-do-i-open-a-limited-company-bank-account/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:54:53 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=4723 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/how-do-i-open-a-limited-company-bank-account/feed/ 2 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-questions-how-do-i-set-up-a-limited-company/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-questions-how-do-i-set-up-a-limited-company/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:22:24 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=4164 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-questions-how-do-i-set-up-a-limited-company/feed/ 1 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/avoiding-accountancy-hell-two-steps-to-accounting-heaven/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/avoiding-accountancy-hell-two-steps-to-accounting-heaven/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:11:55 +0000 Darren Fell http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=1529 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/avoiding-accountancy-hell-two-steps-to-accounting-heaven/feed/ 4 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/podcast-16-steps-to-accountancy-heaven/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/podcast-16-steps-to-accountancy-heaven/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:26:43 +0000 Andy White http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=1481 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/podcast-16-steps-to-accountancy-heaven/feed/ 4 0:27:49 Darren Fell covers the correct steps to setting up your accounting system. Step 1: Find the good accountant Step 2: Make sure you like their software Transcript: Steps to Accounting Heaven Darren: The freelancers approach is, I believe, that of a [...] Darren Fell covers the correct steps to setting up your accounting system. Step 1: Find the good accountant Step 2: Make sure you like their software Transcript: Steps to Accounting Heaven Darren: The freelancers approach is, I believe, that of a self sufficient person, a person who will try and think, as I will, to try and do it yourself, and where does that come down to, and that comes down to a software route.  So you start looking for a software approach first, and there are some fantastic pieces of software out there, absolutely fantastic, but that necessarily isn’t the right step first.  You may be choosing a fantastically graphically beautifully thing that maps out your P & L, your advanced cash flows, but you might not be following an approach correctly, and in the end, the accountant may not want to use that piece of software, and that’s the key point. We are recommending find the accountant first.  They are not just a person that only know about accountancy, they are a person that clearly has built up a fantastic repertoire of good business advice, so they can put in place good bookkeeping practices, give you all the information on how long you need to keep your receipts for, every facet.  Should you go limited, or are you ok staying sole trader, and at what point should you go limited, what the responsibilities of being limited are, are there endless forms, or will the accountancy firm do that for you.  Lots and lots of key areas that they help you with, and will set your mind at rest. Now other key areas are, these are questions that we’ve seen time and time again, at accountancy health checks that we’ve held with Crunch, should I be VAT registered?  At what point do I definitely need to go VAT registered?  Which scheme should I go for – flat rate or fully registered?  Again these are all key things that the accountant will go through with you.  So my experience is to choose the accountant first, not to pick the piece of software, because as I said at the beginning of this section, so many people have picked beautiful pieces of software, picked the accountant at the last minute, sat with them, and they’ve said I’m really sorry I’m not going to go into that  login and have to work through yet another accountancy bookkeeping system to get your P & L, or invoices, or your expenses out so I can do the year end, I’m just not going to do it.  What you have to do, you have to replicate it all in Excel and you’ve wasted anything between £15.99 and £25.00 a month for the whole year to get to the accountant to say I’m not using it. Andy White: Have you had experience of people who have trodden this path? Darren: I have, and that is exactly why I am communicating it now.  People have been on the phone, telling about the woes, and again I agree with them, they’ve picked a fantastic piece of software, and they’ve left it to the last minute and the accountant point blankly, and I mean point blankly, refuses to use that piece of software, and they really feel quite gutted they’ve wasted all that money. 1: Find the good accountant Key points: accountants can be unqualified.  It can be a mate of a mate, they are good at bookkeeping, but they don’t know all of the rules, they are probably not up to date with the latest legislation.  I would strongly advise not to go down the mate of the mate route, because they may appear to be doing things correctly, but HRMC, once things are filed that isn’t the end of it, they can retrospectively come after you, and I think look back as far as six years.  So don’t think for a second that you’ve got away with anything or done your accounts really cheap.  It is so worthwhile having a fully qualified accountant.  Now the question is how do you find that fully qualified accountant?  Now our idea is the ultimate way, you may as well look for a fully formed chartered accountancy practice, the accountants, or at least one in the practice, will be a charted accountant, they will have[...] Podcast feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk no no http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-coach-still-a-sole-trader-when-is-a-good-time-to-switch-to-limited-company/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-coach-still-a-sole-trader-when-is-a-good-time-to-switch-to-limited-company/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:50:28 +0000 Daryl Close http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=1354 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-coach-still-a-sole-trader-when-is-a-good-time-to-switch-to-limited-company/feed/ 14 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-resources-essential-tax-guide/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-resources-essential-tax-guide/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:20:04 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=1035 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/freelance-resources-essential-tax-guide/feed/ 9 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/tax-the-basics/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/tax-the-basics/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:30:10 +0000 Michael Rose http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=1021 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/money/tax-the-basics/feed/ 7 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/going-freelance-six-things-that-need-to-be-on-your-legal-checklist/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/going-freelance-six-things-that-need-to-be-on-your-legal-checklist/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:11:04 +0000 David Gordon http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2009/01/16/going-freelance-six-things-that-need-to-be-on-your-legal-checklist/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/legal-advice/going-freelance-six-things-that-need-to-be-on-your-legal-checklist/feed/ 27 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:17:05 +0000 Andy White http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2008/02/08/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/feed/ 0 0:12:03 Andy talks to Raju Ajiz, an IT support contractor, about some of the first things you should consider before embarking on freelancing or contracting. Andy White: I’m talking with Raju Ajiz who has been an IT Contractor, specialising, in support f[...] Andy talks to Raju Ajiz, an IT support contractor, about some of the first things you should consider before embarking on freelancing or contracting. Andy White: I’m talking with Raju Ajiz who has been an IT Contractor, specialising, in support for 12yrs. Hello Raju. Raju Ajiz: How you doing Sir. AW: Now then Raju, what would you say are the top things that you need to do to prepare for freelancing? RA: Firstly most agencies that ask you for work insist on you being a limited company so you need to register yourself with Companies House. Most accountants will do that for you but if you do want to get your hands dirty then you can actually request the forms online from Companies House and fill that out and complete that yourself and I think that the cost to generate a limited company is around about £50 plus VAT. It is not an expensive way of doing things. Once you’ve done that, most agencies again, unfortunately we are ruled by our agencies because they are our prospective employers rather than the end employer so to speak, they insist on us being VAT registered and, there again, you should be able to do that online. HMRC are the people that deal with VAT. The only one thing that I would say with the VAT is please don’t mess the VAT people around. You must pay on time and be a good boy otherwise you do get hit hard with fines etc etc. AW: You sound like you’re talking from experience Raju. RA: Oh definitely. I mean, I think most contractors would have gone through the circle of ignoring people when they need paying and then, once you get hit with a few fines whether it be from the VAT man or the tax man, you soon tow the line so to speak. In my experience, I was a few days late and I think initially you get fined 3% on the value of the VAT and if you continue to do that it can go up to about 15%-25% and then it does give you a black mark so it’s good to be quite disciplined and I think if you start off quite disciplined it will benefit you as you go along. AW: OK well talking about money, how about bank accounts? RA:Yes obviously we need to gain the hard earned money that you’ve worked for and, these are specialised bank accounts. Once you’ve been made limited and you’ve got your VAT registration, you can hop along to most banks and most banks are pretty much and much. It’s just who you prefer and you will need some identification, your certificate of corporation etc. So basically off you go to your bank manager, he will do a credit check to see if you are worthy. I think you get credit checked for everything nowadays don’t you? AW: Yeh I think so. RA: Yep and then they should open up a limited company account for you. There again, one bit of advice on accounts, I would try and put transactions through, invoices etc, try and limit your cash withdrawals because obviously, you’ve got to be able to prove what those cash withdrawals are for so there again, I’ve fallen into the pitfall of withdrawing too much cash and have not been able to identify what it was for because us, as human beings, we normally don’t write records down etc so, there again, if you can be disciplined, if you can start off on the right note, so to speak, you would normally not have any problems at the end of the year. You can go through your bank accounts and look at all your transactions, hand it over to your accountant and he should be able to sort out your tax and VAT liability. AW: RA: So it’s very important to keep records isn’t it then? RA: Oh definitely definitely and I would definitely say that you should really have a weekly expense form or transaction form just so that you can remind yourself and it just makes life a lot easier. So if you spend about half an hour for the week, just completing this on your expense form you may be travelling so you may want to put down your mileage because you can claim that. I think currently at the moment it’s 42p or 40p per mile for diesel over 2 litre. Obviously, that particular criteria, you c[...] Podcast feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk no no