I would tend to be in favour of just one company.
VAT - You would probably both be VAT registered anyway so the VAT threshold is not an issue. Flat rate scheme can easily work - use different rate for each different income stream.
Corporation Tax - H & W are "connected persons", so the tax thresholds etc are halved for each company, so the issue of exceeding a threshold are irrelevant.
Tax Loss Relief - This could be useful. If you have 2 cos, one makes a profit, the other a loss, there is NO setoff one against the other. But if you have 1 co with two trades, you can set a loss against the profit, so greater potential for loss relief.
Different Earnings - You can pay different wage levels or use A&B shares - pay different rates of dividends to different classes of shares - this still works perfectly if set up properly.
Other - You may get a PI policy that covers both, so saving money. Acctcy fees will almost certainly be far less. Bank charges will be less and credit interest more (i.e. one bank account instead of 2). A lot less hassle overall in dealing with just one company instead of 2. Book-keeping is not a problem - easy enough to split each transaction between trades (after all contracting bookkeeping is simple anyway).
So unless there is a damn good reason for having 2, I'd say go for just the 1.
VAT - You would probably both be VAT registered anyway so the VAT threshold is not an issue. Flat rate scheme can easily work - use different rate for each different income stream.
Corporation Tax - H & W are "connected persons", so the tax thresholds etc are halved for each company, so the issue of exceeding a threshold are irrelevant.
Tax Loss Relief - This could be useful. If you have 2 cos, one makes a profit, the other a loss, there is NO setoff one against the other. But if you have 1 co with two trades, you can set a loss against the profit, so greater potential for loss relief.
Different Earnings - You can pay different wage levels or use A&B shares - pay different rates of dividends to different classes of shares - this still works perfectly if set up properly.
Other - You may get a PI policy that covers both, so saving money. Acctcy fees will almost certainly be far less. Bank charges will be less and credit interest more (i.e. one bank account instead of 2). A lot less hassle overall in dealing with just one company instead of 2. Book-keeping is not a problem - easy enough to split each transaction between trades (after all contracting bookkeeping is simple anyway).
So unless there is a damn good reason for having 2, I'd say go for just the 1.
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