Fromed Ltd Company, Things to care about

Place to get advice

Hi folks,

I guess I'm a relative newbie having only been contracting 4 years but here's my 2-pence worth ...

When I started out I got an accountant to handle everything. That way I could concentrate on things I SHOULD be doing like getting a contract and getting settled for starters!

After a while (i think it was at least a year) I started looking at how things worked and decided I wanted to do more myself. Speaking to fellow contratcors, swapping tips and learning how things were done (confirming with my accountant of course!) helped allot :hat

I also contacted my local "Business Link" (dunno if you have them but they're in our Yeller-Pages up north) who came round and gave me free help on how to do my accounts.

Over the next 12 months or so I started doing my own VAT returns and most of my own accounts cutting down my accountant bills and learning stuff along the way. I still use my accountant for things like payroll, year-end and the "brainy accountant" stuff I don't have the time/energy to learn but am doing the relatively simple stuff myself.
Mind you (as far as I know!) it's better to get an accountant do do things like year-end as they (should!) know all the tax intricacies which get you your money.

you can't expect to know and do everything straight-off unless you know all the aspects of running a business already. In time you may or may not decide to do more of this stuff yourself.

Bottom line: Let someone more qualified handle the accounts-side of your company till you get settled Then you can do more "in house" as you learn.

I hope this helps

Raz

Re: VAT

Nah. Spelling's correct.

That's the name of his limited.

Re: VAT

Fromed Ltd Company, Things to care about

Spelling?

PCG & Contractoruk both have good starter docs available for free download.

Go and see / phone some good small specialised contractor accountants and have a chat, many of them will take this on for you.

VAT

£58k!

Re: You could always start from here...

One might add that you don't have to register for VAT if your turnover is less than £56k.

You could always start from here...

www.bizhelp24.com/account...portal.htm

understood

Thanx again for an answer at last, which certainly helps. I'm aware of all the XYZmans websites and i keep on digging, more i dig more questions i have, which is pretty obvious for someone who is going to dive in contracting world first time.
VAT is still a spherical mystery to me, it's all sphere (circle in 3D) it comes it goes , and final verdict is that untill n unless you are not the end user you don't need to pay VAT in reality, you claim it back. Now here comes another question for VAT. Do you normally include VAT in your contract rate and pay from the earned money or you charge the client seperately for VAT. And my understanding is that you are less likely to charge VAT seperately, you pay from the earned money to make the life easier!!
Professionalism, yeh I understand that. Time is money and we all live for money. But i still belong to the old school of existance where helping other "being" is not considered to be a charity. I'm fortunate enough to keep my presence on several BBs and spent considerable amount of "private" time in answering (un)intelligent questions in public domain, and i do moderate few of them.

Cheers
It's not raining

Oh I am tempted...

but I'll resist it Since you are a novice, I'll try and answer the question simply. (and I note you haven't answered my original question - so it's just us that have to provide answers then, is it?)

If you are VAT registered, YourCo will charge your client a fee plus 17.5% VAT on top. Normally you will pass all of that VAT back to the Customs and Excise less any VAT YourCo has had to pay out itself - things like hotel bills, buying kit and so on.

However, since small companies can spend a lot of time adding up all the input and output VAT costs to fill in the VAT100 form, you can elect to use a flat-rate VAT scheme instead, where you invoice VAT as normal but pay back a straight percentage of YourCo's total quarterly income (13% for most, but don't quote me - it varies by industry). It's a lot simpler to operate and the benefit is less tracking of detail and potetnially a slight profit to YourCo.

The downside is that is you buy something expensive, like a laptop with Office 2003 and some developement tools, you'll probably have lost out.

End of intelligent answer. Going back to my original point, this is all written out very clearly on the VATman's web site, it will be explained properly when you register for VAT and any accountant should understand the basics. So, as I said, dig a little deeper before asking people to do the work for you for free - for example, your challenge now is to find the VATman's website.

You get crap answers from BB's because we work for a living and contracting is not a charitable operation, it is all costed out. For example, I've just spent 20 minutes of my time answering questions whose answer is in the public domain.

The PCG has an awful lot of accumulated knowledge that its members can share, so it's not altogether unsurprising that they only publish an abstract for free - but when you find out how it all works, you might fnd that their "abstract" is actually a very full description of how it all fits together. That said, if you want to run a business, it's a good lesson to work out how to fill in the gaps.

Understand?

Re: Hmmm...

Love to know why, since you clearly know f**k all about anything else :|

No i don't but that's the standard responses i get if i post in BBs. And I have gone thru the FREE materials available on PCG, CUK and other sites. They are abstracts. For example they all say that you need to pay VAT and I found out that I can pay a flat VAT of x% but I can't find out on which component of earnings i have to pay VAT. And same with other Qs.
There is no such thing as intelligent question, but intelligent answer does exist.
Anyway thanx for the time for your intelligent answer.

Hmmm...

And kindly don't ask me to signup for PCG, It makes me sick.

Love to know why, since you clearly know f**k all about anything else :|

Anyway, you don't have to join. They'll let you download their guide to freelancing without having to part with any money or even asking who you are. That will then answer all the above questions. Alternatively, get professional advice - there's some people called, ummm, "accountants" I think, who are supposed to understand all that sort of thing. Or I could answer most of the above, but I would be charging my usual day rate, of course.

In other words, as I've said to various other people in the past, do your own research, pretend to act like a professional, then come back and ask intelligent questions... But then, I'm just on old misery.

It's getting colder in London, see when we see good weather again. Thanks god tubes and trains are running.

Fromed my own Limited company,with a Director(myself) and a Secretary (wife), was easy one easier than i thought. Website is up and i'm ready and hope to get a contract soon. Can anyone explain what are the things to take care of to keep the authorities happy? I keep on googling it but can't make up a list which i can remember easily. I'll register for VAT once I get contract. I'm looking for following info:
1) Company related, meetings etc.
2) Fillingup VAT and taxes. At least i could figure out that i need to fillup VAT at regular intervals. But I can't figure out on what to pay VAT?
3) Maintaing the company records etc. Do i need to record some kindda meetings ? and at what intervals.
4) Any other things, book keepings etc.
5) Can i claim expenses on travelling to work by Tube/Train/Bus

And kindly don't ask me to signup for PCG, It makes me sick.

Regards
Nirvana