Does Housing benefits account for debt repayments?

w06

Sounds as though you'd be better off getting a job as a developer to sort your finances out.

Probably irrelevant but why Mac AND PC?

DomRavioli

Caci wrote: »

For my business income to improve I have to purchase a Mac and a PC. This will cost me about £3000. This will replace my current slow second hand computer. If I take out credit for £3000 I will have to make a monthly repayment of £200. Would I have to take this off my business profit?

You really don't need to do that.

I know of at least three devs/designers who use a single laptop with dual boot, the most expensive of which cost around £600. Add on maybe another £300 for software and that isn't even a grand.

I suggest that if you can't even run dual boot you have no chance as a web developer, as there are people with greater skillsets who can undercut your prices as they live in places such as India where costs overall are lower, and looking at your "knowledge" of thinking you need both Windows and Mac, this is absolutely doomed to fail. Nowadays there are 18 year old school leavers who can code, and will charge a lot less than a professional agency.

Unless you can come up with a way to sort this out, you have no chance. Perhaps get a job first and do this part time until you are able to put this together and service your commitments.

fishybusiness

For my business income to improve I have to purchase a Mac and a PC. This will cost me about £3000. This will replace my current slow second hand computer. If I take out credit for £3000 I will have to make a monthly repayment of £200. Would I have to take this off my business profit?

Lets say you do need your £3k of equipment, nothing actually wrong with that. There are specific rules applied to equipment purchased for a new business - you need accounting advice before taking the plunge.

For my business income to improve I have to purchase a Mac and a PC. This will cost me about £3000. This will replace my current slow second hand computer. If I take out credit for £3000 I will have to make a monthly repayment of £200. Would I have to take this off my business profit?

This is a question for a HB assessor. I've tried to get a straight answer from them in the past when planning a business startup. Answer I received was.....tell us when you have started and we will work it out. So no help whatsoever when planning and committing.

The way HB is assessed for self employed people is completely different to those who are employees.

This is very true, and confusing to anyone starting out on the SE route.

You might not get a loan for 3000 if you've already defaulted on previous debts. If you're getting letters from debt collection agencies then your credit rating is already shot.

As for housing benefit, they'll look at your income and rent, and that's it. They don't look at debt repayments, or bills. The £445 could be spent on packets of marshmallows for all they care, it's personal spending and comes out of your income.

If you can't afford to pay the debts then you'd have to come to an arrangement with your creditors. They won't take kindly to you taking out further debt when you couldn't afford to pay them though and could decide to take you to court.


ETA: Your income being your profit, which is complicated. It still won't take into account the debt you're currently paying off though.

This is good advice. HB calcs will not take account of any debt you may be paying now, that is solely your responsibility.

My advice.....

Separate your personal finances from your business finances. It's hard I know, been there done that. To think clearly you must be able to plan them separately. You may want to use some of your personal income to help your business, that could work. You may want to let your business use your computers which are financed personally, which again could work, but make sure you record those things in the correct places to gain the full benefit, both from a tax perspective and expenses perspective.

Taking on more finance right now may be the death of your plans. New businesses need to invest in all sorts of bits and pieces that are forgotten about until you are working and then you realise. You are likely to need some financial wiggle room so squeezing yourself financially may come back to bite.

Thinking about it, do you have any sort of business plan, with a simple cashflow forecast? That would be a wise place to start.

Lastly, the ltd thing I mentioned earlier can help separate yours and the business finances but you really need an accountant to go down that route for the first time.

skintandfat

Use a separate account for your business stuff.


Be methodical- for example;
When shopping you buy your groceries etc - pay this with your personal card.
If you buy screen wash or stationary for the business then put this through on a separate transaction (separate account). This makes it easier to prove what money is what.
By the same means any payments to the business will go to the separate account- leaving your personal items for the other account

[Deleted User]

Caci wrote: »

For my business income to improve I have to purchase a Mac and a PC. This will cost me about £3000. This will replace my current slow second hand computer. If I take out credit for £3000 I will have to make a monthly repayment of £200. Would I have to take this off my business profit?

You have defaulted accounts of 1400 so who do you think is going to give you another £3k of credit?
I'll give you a clue their first name is NO and second name ONE
Sorry I know you don't want to hear that.

teddysmum

Could you not get a daytime job and do the IT work in the evening (or vice versa)?


It may sound a lot of work, but it is the extra effort that made the necessary money for many high earners. You don't sound ready, yet, to make a business your full time occupation.

Caci_2

teddysmum wrote: »

Could you not get a daytime job and do the IT work in the evening (or vice versa)?


It may sound a lot of work, but it is the extra effort that made the necessary money for many high earners. You don't sound ready, yet, to make a business your full time occupation.

This will not work. I would probably earn a lot more for the hours spent on part time work. The income from my job depends on reputation and skill so this will be a major interruption - too much work.

I did say it will be easy to earn £1000. If I make £1500 per month with £300 left over after all my expenses and pay off the default accounts I don't see why any loan company will hesitate. I hardly knew what Credit score is until recently and I have never worked before to manage my contracts so the low credit can be seen as being the result of being unemployed. I am still eligible for Start Up Loans so I have no doubt I will get that (Just to name a few companies)

Caci_2

DomRavioli wrote: »

You really don't need to do that.

I know of at least three devs/designers who use a single laptop with dual boot, the most expensive of which cost around £600. Add on maybe another £300 for software and that isn't even a grand.

I suggest that if you can't even run dual boot you have no chance as a web developer, as there are people with greater skillsets who can undercut your prices as they live in places such as India where costs overall are lower, and looking at your "knowledge" of thinking you need both Windows and Mac, this is absolutely doomed to fail. Nowadays there are 18 year old school leavers who can code, and will charge a lot less than a professional agency.

Unless you can come up with a way to sort this out, you have no chance. Perhaps get a job first and do this part time until you are able to put this together and service your commitments.

w06 wrote: »

Sounds as though you'd be better off getting a job as a developer to sort your finances out.

Probably irrelevant but why Mac AND PC?

A £600 laptop will overheat and give up if you plan to build the next ebay or tripadvisor (like my recent client asked for). It could work for a Wordpress or Joomla developer (newbies).

Nowadays there are 18 year old school leavers who can code, and will charge a lot less than a professional agency.

I don't think so. And not if they use a i3 computer. This is a little bit up than your developer friends.

I am a software developer as well so I plan to target Android and IOS. Apple hates Windows OS so an iMac is required.

I haven't just began web development so I know what I am doing.

w06

Doesn't sound as though you actually want anybody's advice.

The likes of a Trip Advisor website or Ebay would not be contracted to a startup company. Surely you can see that the way to establish yourself is to build up your portfolio, and in building it earn some capital, pay off your debts and then buy your hardware. Starting from a point of defaulting on loans whilst expecting to take out more loans, buy equipment you can't afford and have the state pay your rent, isn't setting yourself up to succeed.

An all singing all dancing Mac and PC set up might be nice, but it isn't essential by any means. You'd be amazed how many of us work on massive datasets on £600 laptops, sure it's not ideal but that's working within the financial limitations of our work.

Murphybear

teddysmum wrote: »

Could you not get a daytime job and do the IT work in the evening (or vice versa)?


It may sound a lot of work, but it is the extra effort that made the necessary money for many high earners. You don't sound ready, yet, to make a business your full time occupation.

That is actually not a bad idea. My brother did exactly that. He started writing software in the evenings /weekends as a hobby then got a few commissions through contacts. It expanded so much he started full time and has been ver successfully self employed for many years.