business account question

carousels

I'm a part time writer. I write articles for magazines (usually 1 or 2 per month) and I also write short stories that are usually published in anthologies. The latter is less frequent than the articles.

I also have a day job at a bank.

My question is, as I'm being paid for the writing, is it okay to keep using my personal account? I usually get either a direct credit to my personal account or a cheque whenever I submit something and this usually goes into my personal account.

I've been doing this for nearly a year and I don't make a massive amount of money from it. Is it okay for me to keep using my personal account as it's not really a 'business'. It's just me writing.

Or would I need to get a business account? And if I do need this, is it better to stick with the bank I have my personal account with or open one at a new bank?

jonesMUFCforever

Seriously you work for a bank and need to ask the question?

carousels

Well yes. I work in personal.

Neil_Jones

carousels wrote: »

My question is, as I'm being paid for the writing, is it okay to keep using my personal account? I usually get either a direct credit to my personal account or a cheque whenever I submit something and this usually goes into my personal account.

I've been doing this for nearly a year and I don't make a massive amount of money from it. Is it okay for me to keep using my personal account as it's not really a 'business'. It's just me writing.

If your writing was your full time business, then it may be better to have the business account.

However for something on the side as a hobby and/or something that you do in your spare time, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If the income from it is significant it may cause issues further down the line but if we're only talking, say, a couple of hundred pounds, it's probably not worth worrying about. Anything more than that, and anything approaching four figures is going to attract somebody's attention.

carousels

Neil_Jones wrote: »

If your writing was your full time business, then it may be better to have the business account.

However for something on the side as a hobby and/or something that you do in your spare time, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If the income from it is significant it may cause issues further down the line but if we're only talking, say, a couple of hundred pounds, it's probably not worth worrying about. Anything more than that, and anything approaching four figures is going to attract somebody's attention.

Thank you, very much! That's all I needed to know.

Archi_Bald

carousels wrote: »

Well yes. I work in personal.

Personnel?

EssexExile

This is really worrying. A person who works in personnel for a bank who can't spell personnel & can't think of anyone at work to ask about banking.

carousels

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Personnel?

Personal banking as opposed to business.

carousels

EssexExile wrote: »

This is really worrying. A person who works in personnel for a bank who can't spell personnel & can't think of anyone at work to ask about banking.

My fault, really. As the question was in regards to business banking, I thought people would automatically assume I meant personal banking when I said I work in 'personal' as opposed to 'business' but clearly I was wrong.

Next time, I'll spell it out.

Also, it doesn't make sense to ask my colleagues who work in personal banking about business account use.

jonesMUFCforever

Ask them whether it is right to operate a business through a personal account - they will then guide you.

WannaBLoaded

For small change, the bank wont notice. If, however, you started having grands go through there over a period of time a question would be asked because banks shut down personal accounts being used for business.

I have regular money going in every month from google to one of my personal accounts and never got asked any questions, but when i had bank transfers totaling 15 grand from various people go into another personal account they asked questions, luckily they believed my BS.

I now have a business account anyway.

But i am self employed so it is better, you are in full time work so really i don't think you need to worry.