Etsy shop - come physical location

david_cox1990

Hi all, hope you’re well.

Recently launched an Etsy shop selling a range of greetings cards. It’s started to take off a little and I’m almost at 300 sales.

A few questions here really: 

1) I’m not currently registered as a business - should I be now?
2) I want to go into my local shopping centre and operate on a physical stall of which they’re renting - they require PLI, do I need to be a registered business to gain PLI? Or can I purchase this as an individual?

Appreciate the support as always

Thanks

David

soolin

You are a business and should already be registered as such with HMRC. However your yearly turnover (all income including postage etc before any expenses) doesn’t exceed £1000 then you don’t need to submit a full return to HMRC. It sounds as though you have already exceeded that limit though. 

If you are looking to sell on the high street then make sure you are all properly registered , and have your PLI in place .

Make sure you check all your legal requirements , you must accept change of mind returns when selling online , must have a physical geographic address available to buyer etc. 

Sandtree

david_cox1990 said:

1) I’m not currently registered as a business - should I be now?
2) I want to go into my local shopping centre and operate on a physical stall of which they’re renting - they require PLI, do I need to be a registered business to gain PLI? Or can I purchase this as an individual?

1) You are currently a sole trader and so need to register with HMRC as such for self assessment assuming your revenue (not profit) is over £1,000

2) "registering" is just for the purposes of paying your taxes, you dont need to be compliant with paying your taxes to buy PL insurance though most who are willing to break those rules probably aren't too worried about contractual requirements to have insurance.

Most PL insurance does have it automatically at the SME level but worth checking that the PL includes product liability insurance too... gives you protection if someone somehow injures themselves with your product 

ManekiNeko

When I was last self employed, maybe six or so years ago now, HMRC allowed for trading for up to three months before registering with them. Even if it's been more than that, such as if you didn't realise you needed to register before now, you'll be better off proactively contacting them to explain and to register.

I think there's been a bit of confusion over the terminology upthread, so just to clarify, registering as a business means purchasing a limited company name and registering with Companies House. You do not have to do this, but you can if you like.

I always preferred to just be self employed, as I found that simplest and easiest, and I registered with HMRC. This is called registering as self employed, and is mandatory if you're not going the limited company route.

You would be well advised to keep back a portion of your earnings towards tax, as if you make a profit, you'll need to pay a tax bill at the end of each tax year. It used to be that about 20 or 25 per cent (I forget, it's been a few years now) was enough, but since I stopped my self employed work, I hear the rules have changed a bit and now HMRC bill some tax in advance, so you might want to err on the side of caution here and keep maybe 40 per cent back. I'm sure others can advise better than me on this as my knowledge is out of date really.

Can't help with insurance as I didn't need that at the time, sorry. I'd suggest ringing a major insurance provider and asking if they would cover you as a self employed person, though, or if they only work with limited companies. They might even be able to give you an idea of the insurance industry norm on this.

metwo

Art related insurance at a good price.

PPL & PI Insurance try a-n The Artists Information Company.

would post the weblink but not allowed