Starting a Part Time Business

ImJustAsking

My wife and I are thinking about starting up a small part time business. I work full time already but my wife doesn't work at all as she is a stay at home Mum. The work split will be 50/50 in that I will be going out to do repairs at peoples homes and she will do all the invoicing, diarising appointments, taking calls, tax calulations and anything else apart from the physical work. We would like to register the business in a sole trader capacity. Is it legal for my wife to register as self employed and I work as an unpaid volunteer or do we both need to register independently? I have no intention of taking a wage or paying myself anything as all profits will be my wife's on paper. All banking will be done through my wife's personal account. The business insurance will be in her name. The reason we are thinking it would be better for her to register as self employed is because she doesn't currently work so therefore currently uses none of her personal tax allowance whereas I do. I want to keep everything above board but at the same time not pay more than we need to in tax and NI. If it's not legal I don't want to do it but if it is a loophole then I want to exploit it. Can anyone advise?

jhp

The Tax board is the most appropriate to raise that sort of question on.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...splay.php?f=22

jaycube

This small business comes with heavy taxes and you guys have to note these thing before starting it.