Starting Out self employed Bar worker

tonydpub

Hi all
First off i am a newbie and slowly finding things on the site so forgive me for being a bit simple

I have been self employed for about 2 months now and have registered as a sole trader

I am a self employed Bar Steward :beer:

I need a lap top to start up my business and wonder if i can buy one and claim

can i get a mobile phone for business only aslong as i use it just for that

My car is used for my new job and on its last legs can i buy a car a use it for my work (not new but maybe up to £3000)

i pay my wages into my current account and have been keeping reciepts for clothes travel petrol etc what is a reasonable amount to claim in first year

any help would be greatly recieved

sorry if this is in wrong place or if i have done it wrong as i said i am a newbie

paulwf

Hi tonydpub,

A good place to start may be explaining how a bar steward is self employed? Presumably from what you are saying there is a good reason why you aren't employed?

McKneff

Have you checked this with HMRC - it is them who decide who can be self employed.

Better give them a ring if you havnt.

debbie42

You can book your PC as a business expense, so it can be offset against your tax bill.

I was told that I could claim a proportion of my mobile phone bill, even though it isn't exclusively for business. I haven't looked into the detail of this yet, as my first year's accounts have yet to be filed.

My understanding is that you can either book running expenses for a car, or a mileage allowance (not both). I'm using 40p per mile, as mileage for my job is low.

Deepmistrust

McKneff wrote: »

Have you checked this with HMRC - it is them who decide who can be self employed.

Better give them a ring if you havnt.

Do what? He can register as a self-employed bar steward if he wants. There is no law that says he can't run his own self-employed business that supplies bar staff to the entertainment industry.

Deepmistrust

tonydpub wrote: »

Hi all
First off i am a newbie and slowly finding things on the site so forgive me for being a bit simple

I have been self employed for about 2 months now and have registered as a sole trader

I am a self employed Bar Steward :beer:

I need a lap top to start up my business and wonder if i can buy one and claim

can i get a mobile phone for business only aslong as i use it just for that

My car is used for my new job and on its last legs can i buy a car a use it for my work (not new but maybe up to £3000)

i pay my wages into my current account and have been keeping reciepts for clothes travel petrol etc what is a reasonable amount to claim in first year

any help would be greatly recieved

sorry if this is in wrong place or if i have done it wrong as i said i am a newbie

You can purchase a car and a lap top or whatever you want.

However, You cannot claim those items as expenses. Instead you can either claim "Capital Allowances" or in the case of the vehicle you can claim either Capital Allowances or Mileage (Currently 40p for the first 10k miles then 25p thereafter).

You would need to work out which is most suitable for your circumstances, but once you make the decision, you cannot swap the way in which you account for your motoring expenses for the same vehicle.

And if you claim Capital Allowances, you can only claim for the proportion of the Assets business use. I.e. if you use the car for personal use too, then you need to calculate the percentage of
business use, and would adjust your claim accordingly.

i.e. you can only claim expenses that are "wholly and exclusively" used in the business.

Is the clothing uniform? Because otherwise it would be unlikely to be tax deductable.

It might be worth you taking on professional accounting help at least in your first year of trading.

paulwf

Deepmistrust wrote: »

Do what? He can register as a self-employed bar steward if he wants. There is no law that says he can't run his own self-employed business that supplies bar staff to the entertainment industry.

We need more info, wouldn't a bar steward normally run a bar within a sports club etc rather than provide staff for multiple venues? That's why I asked the OP to clarify.

It is important to get this right, and the exact nature of the job will also have implications on what expenses are allowable.

Would you care to clarify OP?

tonydpub

We need more info, wouldn't a bar steward normally run a bar within a sports club etc rather than provide staff for multiple venues? That's why I asked the OP to clarify.

It is important to get this right, and the exact nature of the job will also have implications on what expenses are allowable.

Would you care to clarify OP?

I am currently running a bar in a club but am not under contract or paye etc therefore i can go wo whereever or work for who ever i want to however if i work there for too long i am worried that the tax office might say that i am not self employed as i have worked for the same people for a while

the money is good for me and it is close to my home and family so as long as they want me i would be pleased to stay however the club is struggling and can not give me a contract as such etc

hope this clears it up (a little)

many thanks
Tony

Deepmistrust

paulwf wrote: »

We need more info, wouldn't a bar steward normally run a bar within a sports club etc rather than provide staff for multiple venues? That's why I asked the OP to clarify.

It is important to get this right, and the exact nature of the job will also have implications on what expenses are allowable.

Would you care to clarify OP?

OK, I read your post that you were questioning why a bar steward would be self-employed at all.

debbie42

tonydpub wrote: »

I am currently running a bar in a club but am not under contract or paye etc therefore i can go wo whereever or work for who ever i want to however if i work there for too long i am worried that the tax office might say that i am not self employed as i have worked for the same people for a while

The lack of a contract doesn't necessarily mean you should be self-employed. Have a look here for guidelines to work out whether you should have employee or self-employed status:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/start-leave/status.htm

paulwf

tonydpub wrote: »

I am currently running a bar in a club but am not under contract or paye etc therefore i can go wo whereever or work for who ever i want to however if i work there for too long i am worried that the tax office might say that i am not self employed as i have worked for the same people for a while

the money is good for me and it is close to my home and family so as long as they want me i would be pleased to stay however the club is struggling and can not give me a contract as such etc

hope this clears it up (a little)

many thanks
Tony

The club needs to get clarification from HMRC that they are entitled to put you on a self employment contract. It sounds very much like they are trying to avoid their NI contributions, holiday pay, sick pay, redundancy and other benefits. The fact that they are struggling is irrelevant to HMRC.

The pay probably isn't that good if you take all that into account, especially if you have to buy a laptop, mobile and uniform. I'm not sure how HMRC would view it if you put through loads of expenses for what is probably not a genuine self employed position...maybe one of the accountants can clarify?

You really need to take advice from ACAS, HMRC or an accountant IMHO.