New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

Andy2013

As far as I am aware if you have "people/clients" coming to your address you have to pay business rates on that property , I may be incorrect , but a chap I know does his one to one business in a nice hotel foyer/lounge to avoid this and also to give a good impression to his clients .

andyscott

I would be wary of using a home address for business if claiing housing benefit. they could reduce your benefit seen as though the address is partly used for business even if you have no clients visiting your home. If its a council house you may also need permission to do this.


What does everyone else do for an address who works from home or planning on doing when they start self employment?

pinkypoopydoo

You only have to pay business rates if you use a unique space (ie, an office) for your business. If you use a desk in a livingroom/bedroom etc, there should be no charge for business rates.

Don't know about how it would affect housing benefit though - if you are claiming HB it would be worth speaking to someone who could give you a definitive answer on that.

Andy2013

Probably worth a read on this link http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/CouncilTax/workingFromHome.html

It seems a little more varied than I thought so I will check it out more but it seems that if clients use your space for the purpose of your business you may be liable to pay rates on that room/area and council tax on the remaining space.

A basic office should be fine, I hope!

Don't want to add stress but nosey neighbours can be a pain and you don't want the local authorities getting upset.

bellkat

I think I've already upset the local authorities!!

I live in a council flat and I was filling in a HB form the other day, which asked if I would be operating a business from home, type of business etc.

I then rang council to advise them as it says you have to on their website. It also says they would normally have no problem with small on-line business's which mine is.

I had the 'pleasure' of speaking to a rude obnoxious woman who told me I would be 'investigated' before they would allow me to start my business.

I wish I'd not bothered now, may just say I'm operating from my daughters address, which I will be some of the time.

Andy2013

And they wonder why the economy is screwed and small businesses are struggling .

Another hurdle to jump over!!!

andyscott

Sorry but unless I was getting clients visiting my home or receiving lots of deliveries I would not be telling the council.

I have seen mailing addresses for only £10 per month but were not close enough for me to use.

If the council decide that you were to be charged rates or have your benefit reduced, it's going to cost you a lot more than £10 per month.

Andy2013

This morning I have contacted the local council about business rates as I get lots of deliveries to my home and I am registered with HMRC as having my address as my business/place of work so as I now have a reasonable amount of turnover I want to do things all above board and legal , so this was the response I got.

Anyone who runs any sort of business from a home address that you pay council tax on must inform the local council and get assessed as to the exact nature of there trading and the amount of usage the business has for that property .

On many occasions a small business will only pay rates on a single room and that gets taken of council tax and turned into a business rate so for the lucky ones whom run a small business without visitors most wont pay much more than the basic council tax amount.

A bit of a hassle but HMRC can check you are claiming correct benefits and paying correct tax's so to avoid any problems I have done the above, not everyone will but if your thinking of running a business long term then its best to do things above board.

One nosey miserable neighbour and all your hard work could come to a grinding halt !!

CuriousWorker

Hmm, I'm starting to think this may not be viable (even after all the mentoring, having my business plan approved, being accepted onto NEA, etc). Even after going through all these plans with business mentors, etc it seems that none of them picked up on some of these issues. It's not just issues with using my home address either, I'm also having difficulties working out how I would account for online payments (Paypal), etc for HMRC considering the way I have had to do things. I've hardly started trading and have yet to receive my first NEA payment and already things are getting way too complicated for my liking. For example, I sold an item on ebay -they wouldn't let me use my new Paypal account (despite trying to update it) so used my ex-partner's account to sell the item and they sent the money on to my new Paypal account - they are not a business or self-employed - so how do I account for it? Additionally, for electronic payments ALL records of transactions are required, "front and back" - what on Earth does "front and back" mean??

Also, some invoices for payments received via Paypal have the username that I use on their website on them - which I'm not happy about. This basically means that anyone who sees the invoice can go online and have a look at any work I have published, which I don't want.

andyscott

CuriousWorker wrote: »

Hmm, I'm starting to think this may not be viable (even after all the mentoring, having my business plan approved, being accepted onto NEA, etc). Even after going through all these plans with business mentors, etc it seems that none of them picked up on some of these issues. It's not just issues with using my home address either, I'm also having difficulties working out how I would account for online payments (Paypal), etc for HMRC considering the way I have had to do things. I've hardly started trading and have yet to receive my first NEA payment and already things are getting way too complicated for my liking. For example, I sold an item on ebay -they wouldn't let me use my new Paypal account (despite trying to update it) so used my ex-partner's account to sell the item and they sent the money on to my new Paypal account - they are not a business or self-employed - so how do I account for it? Additionally, for electronic payments ALL records of transactions are required, "front and back" - what on Earth does "front and back" mean??

Also, some invoices for payments received via Paypal have the username that I use on their website on them - which I'm not happy about. This basically means that anyone who sees the invoice can go online and have a look at any work I have published, which I don't want.

have you got a business bank account?

To be honest I do really see why there is an issue here, now that your trading as a new business you should be setting up a business ebay account and a new pay pal account using your business bank account. If this is done, then the paypal payments should be straight forward, you should not be trying to register a business pay pal account with your personal ebay account.

You ask about how you record money from an ex's pay pal account because they are not self employed or a business. this should not make any difference as most businesses using paypal will be selling to the public.

As for the invoices I would assume that they need to display your name as this is an official proof of purchase. I dont imagine HMRC been to happy if you were to provide an invoice to them but it never said who it was from.

As with regards to your home address, I have mentioned it a few times in recent posts about having a virtual address which will cost you about £10 per month. Can you not do it that way?