Self Employed?

Broken_by_the_Bank

Hi
Can anyone answer my question?

If you are SE and go BR, then re set up the business.
Do you have to do an SOA for the business as well as a personal one?

Thanks.

hondamt

I've been bankrupt since May and all I did was carry on as normal.
I totalled my accounts and restarted next day.No assets to talk of and didn't owe anything to anybody through the buisness (sole trader). OR let me keep the van worth about £2500 and told me to keep it roadworthy.Haven't heard from them since.

hondamt

Sorry forgot to add, no SOA for the buisness. I'm guessing it would be very hard to set a SOA to someone self employed ie: income/profit varies every month,any profit made could be needed to reinvest,new stock and so on .

Broken_by_the_Bank

Hi hondamt

Thanks for the reply!

Yes you,ve hit the nail on the head there with your second bit of info.

I can work out my salary from the business accounts after Ive taken all the expenditure out.
This leaves me with a figure that I am then using to calculate my SOA and then obviously take out any household expenditure.

Do you have to declare the total revenue - costs of the business = salary as well as salary - cost of living?

Example: business takes £1800.00 - business costs of £300. This leaves a salary of £1500 - £1495 of household costs = £5.00
When I do the SOA do I only have to declare my salary and not the earnings?

From what you are saying it doesnt matter what you your revenue is so long as there is no change in salary???? Is this right?

I seem to be meeting myself backwards!!!
Im sure its simple but I want to make sure that everything is correct.

Thanks for any help!!!!!!!:eek:

JMV

This has been useful - so thank you to BTB for asking the Question and to Hondamt for the info...

I've struggled to find info from the Sole Trader perspective...

I was planning to use my Personal Drawings (out of Business Acount and into Personal Account) for proof of earnings - and of course, the Business A/C is there for them to see...

itsallover

How about a trading name?
I'm looking at starting a business and don't want to use my name. Say my name was Alan Smith and I wantted to start a plumbing business.
Can I trade as "Brilliant Plumbing " rather than "Allan Smith Plumbing"?

Broken_by_the_Bank

Hi itsallover

The only restrictions I have found is that once BR you have a legal obligation to ensure you show who you are on anything official.
I checked this out for my partner and it appears you have to follow this ruling.

EG: Allan Smith trading as ..............

Hope this helps and good luck!

itsallover

Thanx for that Broken by the Bank

hondamt

Hi,
All I did was work out the average I draw out from the 3 months before BR and that was what I put down as earnings.
As i said, nobody has contacted me since and my drawings are slightly less recently (less work about).
As a sole trader I just have a NatWest personal account (god knows how I kept that after BR).
I was under the impression that if you traded under any thing other than your own name you had to have a buisness account
I didn't even try for a buisness account after BR.

itsallover

Making payments must be tricky though on a basic account. Is the only way one can pay a bill by bacs and over the phone?