~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 8) ~ Please read first post :)

pixtotts

I am so lucky it is insane! Every time I am positive I'm not going to make MOV and am trying to console myself the fact I'm going to have to buy books, I suddenly end up over £100! ! And I still have 2 more people to collect orders from x

ajs2013

Quick Tax question. Im sorting throught my spreadsheets trying to sort it all out ready to do my first tax return (yes im early but would like to get a head start so all the info is there ready to type in online) and wondered would demo products be classed as 'expenses'? Im trying to figure it all out as im a novice to what you can and cant put down as expenses and im hoping to start a part time job soon too and need to try and gauge how this will effect the tax i may have to pay on the avon and whether it will be worth carrying on (if i can get the tax down to minimal or nothing) or maybe giving up for good. Any help would be appreciated ty x

ajs2013

Oh Also if you get a product for yourself would you just not include them as technically its your own spending items, your not earning from it.

Pinzy

ajs2013 wrote: »

Just an enquiry really. How many times do you all on average use your brochure bags. Obviously if they have major holes i bin them straight away. Just wondering if you all bin yours after one use or try abuse them as much as you can to save on extra costs.

Re-use until they look unsightly. Can't abide chucking all that plastic away if I can help it!

I,_Geek

Demo items - if it's for business promotion I include it as an expense, if it's just for personal use I don't.

Personal items (including ones bought from main brochure) - I don't include these in my accounts. So on the invoice I highlight any bought for personal use and deduct these from the total brochure price. For example:

Total brochure price of all items ordered = £200

I'm not actually going to receive £200 from my customers if some of the items are for personal use. So I need to work out what my actual business turnover was.

Personal items (brochure price) = £10

So business turnover = £190

Then I work out "cost of goods sold". Again, this just needs to be items sold to customers and not include the cost price of personal items.

Cost price (for simplicity there's no fixed discounts) = £150

Cost price of personal items = £7.50

So "cost of goods sold" = £150 - £7.50 = £142.50

Some reps don't do this and include their personal items as business sales (i.e. they're saying they're making profit on personal items, which isn't the case). This will make your taxable profits higher than they really are. If you're on tax credits, it could mean you get less of those than you're entitled to. If you're paying tax, you'll pay more tax than you really should.

So if you remove all personal items from your accounts, they'll be just about the back-and-forth of business money and therefore accurate.

ajs2013

thank you I Geek thats really helped me, such a novice at this and with me hopefully returning to part time work soon will help ensure i don't pay more tax than i should by declaring the right items Every penny helps.

pixtotts

My first out of stock items issue, it was going so well!... unfortunately all for the same customer! but then they were all in the sales book so meh can't say much I guess...
Most annoying thing is one of them was a foundation trial... Which I actually had but thought noone would order so used it myself only last week! Ggrr!
x

I,_Geek

Accounts - the simplest way to think about your accounts is that they're a record of all the money your business receives, and all the money you have to spend to run the business. The difference between the two being your taxable income.

If in doubt, ring HMRC's helpline (I'd compile a list of questions instead of ringing separately for each one).

Here's some helpsheets from HMRC - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/sa103f-notes.pdf - much probably won't be relevant to you, but there's lists of expenses showing what's allowed and what's not.

I,_Geek

Oh I should clarify that when I said "taxable income" above, I was just talking about the income from your self-employment as an Avon rep.

There are other incomes (e.g. "normal" employment, other self-employment, some benefits) that are also taxable. So they'll be added up and looked at as a whole to decide how much tax, if any, you owe.

Here's a simple government guide that explains: https://www.gov.uk/taxable-income - it was a surprise to me to learn that some benefits are taxable.

ajs2013

pixtotts wrote: »

My first out of stock items issue, it was going so well!... unfortunately all for the same customer! but then they were all in the sales book so meh can't say much I guess...
Most annoying thing is one of them was a foundation trial... Which I actually had but thought noone would order so used it myself only last week! Ggrr!
x

Just a quick tip ive found. If your on facebook look up Avon groups there is one called Avon dicontinued products (i believe from memory) and there the reps list lots of products they have for sale. If I have something out of stock i see if i can get it from there. They have to sell it at cost price plus p+p unless its discontinued or rare. It might be worth seeing if its on there. Might mean u dont make anything on it yourself but as long as it doesnt cost you over what the customer pays you might be ok. I ended up paying 25p over what a customer paid me for an item but they are a loyal customer who always orders and good sized orders so was happy to supliment that small cost to get them the item they wanted.