Hobby doing nails - Is a business needed?

martindow

Is your wife's nail business in a completely different field of business to your company?  If HMRC considers this an extension of your main business they may expect you to collect VAT on her sales. 

Annie848

Something to consider is even if your wife can get insurance it will probably be invalid if she has no qualifications to do the nail art 

Mistral001

swift_gti said:

Thanks soolin. This was exactly my thought when my wife first mentioned it.. definitely need some kind of insurance.
However I was a little confused on what/who gets insured if there is no business registered.
My experience from my Ltd company is that my business would be insured, but if there is no business as such, can my wife get insurance directly for these business like activities? 

If she is doing it for money, then it is a business, even though she is not making any money.  Many businesses do not make any money.  The business will be a sole trader business by default.  There is not a register of sole trader businesses in the UK, so she will not have to "register her business", but she will have to inform HMRC that she is trading and if her business  has a name, she will have to tell HMRC that name,