why will accountants not advise me

network

Dear All
I want to form a limited company for my businesses to ensure that i do not have any hassle from the tax credit people who seem to be able to able to get the simplist thing wrongs and cometo you with their hands out.( Currently i do counselling, writing, and trainee mortgage consultant including protection and general insurance) I am already engaged in all three areas and will go into profit at the end of this year.
Because i am a single parent i qualify for much needed tax credits for child care, but a member of out team has been stung rather heavily by the tax credit people who because she has varying incomes (which she told them about by phone and letter each time there was a changed) got their sums wrong and demanded a "so called" overpayment which she was unable to pay back within the required time and they took her to court.
To avoid this i want to become limited, i can pay myself a set wage each month, so ensuring that the tax people cannot get their sums wrong and get me into the same probs experienced by my collegue. I have tried to explain this to an accountant who thinks it is not worth it "we'll just keep an eye on it"
Am i the only person who can see the sense in this, or am i missing a point. whatever hassle there is in setting up and running a limited company cannot be bigger thatn dealing with the might and ineptitude of the tax credit people.
many thks

bryanb

network wrote: »

Dear All
I want to form a limited company for my businesses to ensure that i do not have any hassle from the tax credit people who seem to be able to able to get the simplist thing wrongs and cometo you with their hands out.( Currently i do counselling, writing, and trainee mortgage consultant including protection and general insurance) I am already engaged in all three areas and will go into profit at the end of this year.
Because i am a single parent i qualify for much needed tax credits for child care, but a member of out team has been stung rather heavily by the tax credit people who because she has varying incomes (which she told them about by phone and letter each time there was a changed) got their sums wrong and demanded a "so called" overpayment which she was unable to pay back within the required time and they took her to court.
To avoid this i want to become limited, i can pay myself a set wage each month, so ensuring that the tax people cannot get their sums wrong and get me into the same probs experienced by my collegue. I have tried to explain this to an accountant who thinks it is not worth it "we'll just keep an eye on it"
Am i the only person who can see the sense in this, or am i missing a point. whatever hassle there is in setting up and running a limited company cannot be bigger thatn dealing with the might and ineptitude of the tax credit people.
many thks

An accountant has advised you - It's not worth it!

network

And the reason is?

silvercar

network wrote: »

And the reason is?

Ask the accountant?

I would guess that the costs of employing an accountant to set this up and ensure that all necessary accounts are submitted on time etc will mean that the accountant would need to charge you more than the cost benefit to you.

dunstonh

Often you hear the figure of around £35k a year being required before its worth moving from self employed to limited company. Less than that and the cost outweighs the benefit. That figure will vary over the years depending on allowances and rule changes but I would suspect that the accountant knows what they are talking about.

CLAPTON

Unfortunately I can't help directly but it would seem to me that the OP is not primarily concerned with saving tax as such.

The OP's main certain seems to be the ability to allocate herself a fixed income so avoid tax credits problems (as opposed to reducing tax.)

It seems to be a rational objective and maybe setting up a limited company might help her achieve that.

Alas I don't know the answers myself, but I can't see why an accountant couldn't advise .. maybe the OP should just find a different accountant.

Merlin_Accounts

Has your accountant explained to you what it entails to be a Limited Company? There are numerous compliance issues, and of course there are costs to consider too - your accountant's bill would be somewhat higher for the Limited Company, and there will be set up costs as well.

I can understand the logic of why you want to do this, just not sure if the costs/compliance issues outweigh the benefits (mentally as well as financially).