Limited co & pregnant girlfriend/employee

[oracleslave]

Rant

So what you're saying is that you are new to the game and clearly have minimal understanding of some of the complexities (hence my earlier post - you haen't even understood the MSC rules), so you are refusing to get expert and qualified advice on how it works becuase you'd rather f*** it up all by yourself.

Well, OK, it's one way to do it. Can we assume you will take the same approach on Payment on Account for next year, depreciation allowances on capital, the upcoming Family Business Tax and all the other little trivia? Because get any of them wrong and you will lose thousands. Running a business is a little more complex than maintaining a General Ledger.

End Rant

I do agree though.

[Sockpuppet]

Well the truth is I have an accountant, but I've not used him as yet. I'm in my first year of running my own limited and so far I've done everything myself which in all honesty has been a useful learning curve.

It's coming up to end of year for my co in April, so I'm probably going to get my accountant to do this, he has suggested a charge of approx £400-500 to do my end of year, is this reasonable? He says it's a case of just handing over my sage accounts on a pendrive and he will do the rest.

I'm all for doing everything I can myself, as I prefer to be in absolute control of the situation, I've heard of people getting f**ked over etc because their accountant screwed up. So far it has been far from rocket science, but people keep telling me the end of year is the tricky one.

Geez. Unless he charges by the minute then ask him about SMP.

He won't answer. One of his minions will.

It all depends on when her qualifying week was and how long she had worked for you etc. I think that is week 26.

[chris79]

So what you're saying is that you are new to the game and clearly have minimal understanding of some of the complexities (hence my earlier post - you haen't even understood the MSC rules), so you are refusing to get expert and qualified advice on how it works becuase you'd rather f*** it up all by yourself.

Well, OK, it's one way to do it. Can we assume you will take the same approach on Payment on Account for next year, depreciation allowances on capital, the upcoming Family Business Tax and all the other little trivia? Because get any of them wrong and you will lose thousands. Running a business is a little more complex than maintaining a General Ledger.

I take onboard what you are saying, yes I've only been in the game about 18 months, and only 12 months under my own direction. The fact is though my affairs have been far from complex until this point in time, money in, wages/expenses/dividends out. Running a payroll and ledger isn't difficult, and paying HMRC PAYE/NI quarterly isn't either... the only spanner in the works up till now has been the upcoming maternity leave of my girlfriend, and also the year end.

My general fear in the beginning (last April) was using a firm and having them being branded an MSC, therefore becoming part of their problem. On this basis I chose to go it alone, and so far so good, no problems... the accountant I have is a friend of the family and only does work by referrals for private individuals, I think on this basis he is safe to use. Yes I would agree perhaps I don't know the MSC situation in-depth, but up till now that hasn't been a problem or a factor in my ability to run my business. At this moment in time though I think given the changes going on in my business the advice being given here is correct and that an accountant would be the best way forward, which I do agree with!

[malvolio]

Fair enough. But given the MSC thing, ask yourself how much else you don't know.

You may well be fine, I have no opinion either way - but we don't keep reccommending the First Timer guides and PCG membership for fun. This is a complex business these days.

[chris79]

Fair enough. But given the MSC thing, ask yourself how much else you don't know.

You may well be fine, I have no opinion either way - but we don't keep reccommending the First Timer guides and PCG membership for fun. This is a complex business these days.

Nah trust me, I'm not a complete newbie, I did my homework and research before I setup and I do have a good understanding of how my business works and what's all required, I didn't just form a company then start back tracking over what I should have done

What annoys me though is the way the Government handles things by drafting in ambiguous legislation in a hurry giving nobody time to prepare. Last year it was the MSC ruling, which quite rightly I felt the risk of running my own affairs outweighed the penalty of paying full PAYE if caught out. Now they are about to introduce income shifting legislation, which means to be sure I must now alter the structure and setup of my company, again through fear of being treated heavy handed by their own interpretation of my situation.

It's been said before on this forum, but the key here should be to make things simpler, not more complex so that people can get on with what they are doing rather than having to become amateur tax consultants / accountants / solicitors just to put bread on the table.

[dude69]

She's due to give birth in June, what is the situation here from an employment perspective, should I be giving her maternity leave from my own company, does the government contribute at all?

All the info you seek can be found on Google via various government websites. (HMRC, Business Link, Jobcentre Plus, Government Direct)

Please make some attempt to read before posting.

It's really not hard.

Read, in full:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/employee_pregnant.htm

That you have not done this already, suggests that you should be paying an accountant for his services. Google is not rocket science.

The answers, btw, are:

(1) if you like
(2) yes

HTH

[chris79]

I don't want to sound rude here but it's people like you who would leave this forum bare, why bother having this forum if all information ever requested is available through search engines/guides?... All I wanted was a quick answer from someone in the same predicament, but yes I found all the information myself on Google but didn't have an hour to read it from cover to cover. Thanks for your input all the same Dude69.

p.s. I have as much right to ask any question I like here, as you have to complain about it, you don't speak for everyone (and that's directed at all the other moaners who regularly slate people for asking 'newbie' questions - go and setup your own elite members only forum).

[NickNick]

Well the truth is I have an accountant, but I've not used him as yet. I'm in my first year of running my own limited and so far I've done everything myself which in all honesty has been a useful learning curve.

It's coming up to end of year for my co in April, so I'm probably going to get my accountant to do this, he has suggested a charge of approx £400-500 to do my end of year, is this reasonable? He says it's a case of just handing over my sage accounts on a pendrive and he will do the rest.

I'm all for doing everything I can myself, as I prefer to be in absolute control of the situation, I've heard of people getting f**ked over etc because their accountant screwed up. So far it has been far from rocket science, but people keep telling me the end of year is the tricky one.

Jees chris, You are me.
My gf is also expecting in June this year.
I'm coming to the end of my first year as a ltd.
I've been asking the same questions recently.

However ,this is where we differ. I've been asking them of my accountant as I've just not got the time / expertese to handle them. My acct charges £75 a month for the company books and also throws in personal tax returns for free. I reckon that's not a bad deal, but 500 notes for an end of year is pretty cheap too, unless of course you've already paid for the acct throughout the year.

NN

[oracleslave]

Jees chris, You are me.
My gf is also expecting in June this year.
I'm coming to the end of my first year as a ltd.
I've been asking the same questions recently.

However ,this is where we differ. I've been asking them of my accountant as I've just not got the time / expertese to handle them. My acct charges £75 a month for the company books and also throws in personal tax returns for free. I reckon that's not a bad deal, but 500 notes for an end of year is pretty cheap too, unless of course you've already paid for the acct throughout the year.

NN

expertise

[chris79]

Jees chris, You are me.
My gf is also expecting in June this year.
I'm coming to the end of my first year as a ltd.
I've been asking the same questions recently.

However ,this is where we differ. I've been asking them of my accountant as I've just not got the time / expertese to handle them. My acct charges £75 a month for the company books and also throws in personal tax returns for free. I reckon that's not a bad deal, but 500 notes for an end of year is pretty cheap too, unless of course you've already paid for the acct throughout the year.

NN

Hi Nick,

Yeah in all fairness I hadn't really thought about the situation until today regarding the SMP leave of my girlfriend. From what I read on HMRC's website I guess it's not impossible to implement this myself, the easy option would be to get an accountant to do it for me. Personally I'm all for doing everything myself, I think that some people feel that an accountant is the only person cable of doing the work, so far this year nothing which has crossed my path has needed to be done by an accountant. The end of year is coming up in April for me, and I think I'll look over what is required before deciding if I need to pass this to my accountant. Even if I'm missing out on things like claiming for the paper in my printer and other bits, I'm still substantially better off than using an umbrella company paying full PAYE, and I'm happy with what I'm doing. I know people will slate me for this saying I should leave it to the experts, but all the same I have my own reasons for wanting to do things myself, which only seems to fan the flames of a lot of people on this forum who automatically assume that because you're asking questions you have no knowledge or understanding of what you are trying to do, and that the ONLY solution is to pay an accountant.

Anyway, back to the point of the original post, the general concensus is that an accountant should handle this, but I will speak to HMRC first as the dealings I've had with them and businesslink recently almost make out that you should be able to do these things alone if you wish to. The worst that can happen is I'll end up with a tax liability for money which I was never entitled to in the first place, with perhaps a fine.. but big deal in comparison to operating through an Umbrella.

**Friday rant over**