Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

cazmanian_minx

Not much to update, but I thought I would anyway!

Flat - sale still going through, contract has been sent to buyers' solicitor

House - waiting to hear back from the seller over date of entry, he suggested completion on 30th April, we want 2nd June.

Flute & piccolo - up for sale as of yesterday at £895 each, so fingers crossed.

Court hearings - next one was due this coming Tuesday (1st April!), but ex's solicitor rang mine on Thursday afternoon and said can they request a postponement because they've still not got all the paperwork ready :rolleyes:

Cashflow - dire! I've written cheques for £2,600 to my various solicitors this month which has put a big dent in my savings. However, I've got an invoice for £740 going off to a transcription client at the end of next week, plus another £160 due in from the same client (being processed at the moment), plus the £350 from the story due in 6 weeks or so, which will put some of it back.

The AQA work seems to be picking up again, so hopefully I can bank a couple of hundred quid from that over the next month or so.

Caz

setmefree2

Glad to hear everything is still going well on the flat sale and house purchase.:D

cazmanian_minx

Updated my sig to reflect the latest mortgage payment - 18.09% paid off in a year. I was feeling a bit down about that until I realised that if I'd paid all the money I've spent on the legal fees for my divorce and related matters off the mortgage (which I would have done if it hadn't gone to the solicitor), I'd have paid off £10,471.38 or 31.45% and would have been on track to be MFi3, which cheered me up a bit.

Have to say, even though I'm a bit apprehensive about the size of the new mortgage, I'm very, very glad that we got it sorted a few months ago. I checked the paperwork yesterday and the offer is guaranteed until 31st August, so that gives us plenty of time to get everything sewn up and us moved (we're still waiting to hear from the seller about whether 2nd June is OK for a date of entry or whether he still wants 30th April - if the latter, I'm going to panic!)

It's the first day of the new financial year, which means I have to spend the day doing my stock take. Turnover from my bead-selling has been amazing this year, nearly £49,000 :eek: which is quadruple last year's figure. I should know my annual profit by this evening, it's going to be somewhere around £12k I think.

Caz

taka

Well done!!

baffcat

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

It's the first day of the new financial year, which means I have to spend the day doing my stock take. Turnover from my bead-selling has been amazing this year, nearly £49,000 which is quadruple last year's figure.

Hiya Caz

I've been lurking / reading your thread for some time, and am impressed by your ability to find sources of income. I too trade on ebay, and make money in a couple of other ways.

A thought came to mind though, that I'm sure you must already have in hand. I assume you're self-employed, or even registered as a company. If your turnover on ebay is £49k, and you seem to do pretty well on your transcription, plus your bits 'n pieces from the stories and photos, aren't you in danger of having to register for VAT, if you aren't already?

The thresh-hold is £64k (on a rolling basis), so if you're turning over £15k on the non-ebay stuff, you should already have registered.

I mention it because I have to struggle to keep my turnover below the thresh-hold, so it's often on my mind. For me to register for VAT, I'd have to increase my turnover by over £8000 to remain in the same position I am now. My inputs are tiny (mostly packing materials and carrier charges - pity there's no VAT in postage costs), so having to pay VAT on my sales would be very onerous, both in terms of sales and the time to do the paperwork.

I'm lucky because my cost prices are probably only 5% of my sale prices, so the profit within the £59K I turned over in this last tax year means I don't have to work my bottom off to sell enough to have to register, which in turn means I don't have to worry about the dreaded VAT.

If your profit is only £12k on ebay (I don't mean 'only') and yet it's four times more than the previous year, then I'd imagine you're hoping to raise it again this year to give you a better income stream.

Anyway, good luck with the new house, the ebaying (gotta love 25% FVF fees discount through those DSRs), the pictures and the transcription. We were on a long weekend near Crieff last weekend, and I envy you the opportunity to live up there.

Baff

P.S. Well done on the mortgage payments. Ours (superficially, at least) is now at zero, due in large measure to 0% rate balance transfers (for which I must thank Martin BIGTIME).

catshark88

Well done Caz, great to hear that you are doing so well!

CS88

gingababe

Wow Caz well done, I wish my ebay shop was going that well.... Oh well I suppose its only time & getting traffic to hit ...

The house looks fab.... I wish

Ginga

cazmanian_minx

Thanks, everyone

Baff, the VAT threshold applies per business, so I could go to £60k turnover on the bead-selling, £60k turnover on transcription and £60k turnover as a photographer (I wish!) and still not have to register. Once we've moved, though, I'm going to have a lot more storage space, so will have to register the bead shop.

Caz

baffcat

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Thanks, everyone

Baff, the VAT threshold applies per business, so I could go to £60k turnover on the bead-selling, £60k turnover on transcription and £60k turnover as a photographer (I wish!) and still not have to register. Once we've moved, though, I'm going to have a lot more storage space, so will have to register the bead shop.
Caz

Caz

I'd have a chat with your accountant, as what you've just said flies in the face of my accountant's understanding of VAT law. Unless you're running separate limited companies, and each operate independently of one another, with no inter-trading, HMRC might be inclined to think you're trying to avoid registering for VAT. This is especially true if you're self-employed.

From HMRC FAQ page here

As a sole proprietor, do I need to submit separate applications for each business activity?

No. An individual registering as a sole proprietor can only have one VAT number. This number must be used to account for VAT on all your business activities (my italics). You can keep separate records for each business activity but include them all on the one VAT Return you receive.

From Yannons Chartered Accountants:

a) Taxable Persons

It should always be remembered that it is a person that is registered for VAT and not a business. If a person has two separate different businesses, both with taxable supplies of £40,000, then that person will be required to be registered for VAT and account for VAT at the appropriate rate on the total supplies of £80,000.

It is possible to mitigate the effect of VAT by having one of the businesses operated by a limited company or by a partnership with a relative, but professional advice needs to be taken since Customs & Excise have the power to still treat the two businesses as one if strict criteria are not met.

I know this isn't what you'd want to hear (I know I didn't), but better to be aware of it now than get a big fine later for not registering.

HTH

Baff

cazmanian_minx

Thanks, Baff, I'll double-check it - but I was looking at buying a small business in Scotland last year, a sole-trader operation which was a cafe/restaurant with a takeaway attached to it. The takeaway part of the business wasn't VAT-registered, the cafe/restaurant was and there didn't seem to be any problems with it, their accountant had signed it off quite happily.

Not taking anywhere near enough to push me over on the other activities anyway, so it's a moot point at the moment

Caz