2 hobby businesses as one?

saz2020

Hi, I work part time and would like to earn extra cash as a sole trader but I have two skills to offer, one being dog training and the other being biology tuition. Does anyone know if I can offer both services under my name as a sole trader so I have just one set of accounts and one business insurance? And if I do that can I give each ‘sub-business’ a separate name, eg. ‘Jane Doe Dog Training’ and ‘Jane Doe Tuition’ whilst the official name of the company as a sole trader is just ‘Jane Doe’. Would HMRC allow that (if I manage to earn enough to bother them)?

soolin

I run more than 2 unique sole trader businesses, I trade under my own name in all cases but on different sites I use different names as well ( just like I use the name Soolin on here) but I separate out the businesses for my tax return. 

When I do my book keeping I keep the very distinct business apart, so for instance I sell online and in person but I have two other professional self employments, so I have three sets of books. All my selling income in whatever names I use on eBay, Etsy Facebook etc are lumped together and reported as ‘sales’ , the other businesses are reported separately on my tax return with a brief title to say which is which . 

I have always done it that way and HMRC have never told me not to, obviously though if you are looking at the £1000 trading limit then all the businesses are added together , you couldn’t have income of £900 from both businesses and get away with not reporting. 

Sorry that’s complicated , I can’t entirely show what I mean but it is really actually very simple.

Scotch_Bonnet_

Hi Soolin, do you use separate bank accounts for each entity?