13 year old wants to set up business? Q's

Dollymixture

Hi. My 13 year old son is autistic and is an artist. He started painting to raise money for charity in May this year and since then has raised and donated £2000 to charity and has almost raised £6000 for an autism service dog. He has a following of nearly 4k fans on facebook. We have been discussing where we go with this in the new year. He would still like to paint and raise money for charity, but i think he should also save some himself for his future - whatever it may bring. He is an amazing computer games maker and may well be able to go to uni with support.

Anyway... we were thinking that maybe the original paintings could be sold to raise money with all proceeds going to charity, and then sell prints with proceeds of these going to his savings.

I am assuming this will mean setting him up as a sole trader?
Is this very complicated with tax returns etc? He obviously wouldn't be employing anyone. Am i right in thinking he would pay the same tax as an adult does?

As a family we are currently on income support (we have two severely disabled children and are currently both carers) - how does this work if our son is earning money? We would not be touching a penny, but i'd imagine it would be classed as family income?

I'd really like to help him go ahead with this, but it needs to be the right thing for the whole family.

I'd very much appreciate any advice

Thank you

Savvy_Sue

One difficulty is that until he is 18, there are many things he can't legally do, eg open a business bank account, enter into legal agreements. And even when he is 18, he may lack 'capacity' to do them - don't get me wrong, he may not lack capacity!

You're right that he has the same personal tax allowance as a grown up, but I don't know how income or savings belonging to a child affect a family's claim for income support. Maybe ask that specific question on the Benefits board? Or look at the forms you have to complete for your claim: there will be some clues there, I think, in what you have to declare!

antrobus

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

One difficulty is that until he is 18, there are many things he can't legally do, eg open a business bank account, enter into legal agreements. And even when he is 18, he may lack 'capacity' to do them - don't get me wrong, he may not lack capacity! ....

That's not an insurmountable problem, Charlotte Church was a millionaire at the age of 14.

Dollymixture wrote: »

...As a family we are currently on income support (we have two severely disabled children and are currently both carers) - how does this work if our son is earning money? We would not be touching a penny, but i'd imagine it would be classed as family income?....

Will my child’s earnings from part-time employment affect my entitlement to benefit?

NO. So long as your child is registered to attend school their earnings from part-time employment should not offset your entitlement to Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Family Credit, etc.

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=8639&p=0

Mistral001

Is not the standard way to do this is to set up a trust fund so that he can get the money when he is 18?

bengalknights

Your child just needs to apply for a NI number and pay the tax due and keep records of all income and expenditure

A yearly self assesment is all the need to cover tax position

Dollymixture

Thank you all very much, you've helped tremendously! Especially antrobus with that link. I think it is all pretty straight forward then - a new venture for the new year, he's so excited

YKay

Congratulations on your son's talent, you should be very proud of him. Your post made me smile. Good luck for his future.

Cirias

OP - I know it's not strictly on topic, but any chance you might drop a link to his page or something? I am just curious now to see his artwork and sounds like he has a big following

Savvy_Sue

Cirias wrote: »

OP - I know it's not strictly on topic, but any chance you might drop a link to his page or something? I am just curious now to see his artwork and sounds like he has a big following

Can't be put in the thread itself, but could be added to the OP's profile.