Sole Trader Registration

[djw1981]

Abbey and Alliance and Leicester are now both owned by Santander so may soon be operating to teh same T&C's.

[adamharman]

My business and personal accounts are with HSBC. They charge per transaction and per cheque (in or out) on the business account, but transfers between the accounts are free. Anything I put on the mastercard goes out at the end of the month as one transaction, and I don't write many cheques. I can't remember the exact figures, but I don't think they charge me more than about 50 quid a year. Or they wouldn't if I didn't have a ###### great overdraft to pay interest on.....

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

adam, depending on how many cheques and cash you pay in a month, HSBC do a free tariff for small business owners. You are limited to h ow many cheques you can pay in, but its quite reasonabkle for someone in our trade

 

(I used to work for hsbc)

 

arrange a meeting with your business manager ASAP to sort this, if you dont have one, then every medium sized branch upwards will have a "Small Business Manager" to do this for you

[Pete McCrea]

To be fair, the NatWest, who we're with aren't that bad. I reckon the charges are about £100/year excluding the overdraft. We do the majority through BACS though, which doesn't attract any charges.

 

If you go LTD, join the FSB and take advantage of their free Business Banking with the Co-Operative Bank. You also get a raft of other 'free' services such as telephone advice lines for Legal matters and assistance with Tax inspections. The FSB also have a deal with one of the Chip and Pin machine operators, which can save you £250 if you sign up for a chip and PIN machine, as well as the lower transaction fees.

[Ahten]

I have recently become self-employed, and was advised by a friend to trade under a LTD company, thus allowing myself protection against bankruptsy and so on. What I am confused about is, can I trade under a name WITHOUT registering the name as a LTD company (as this costs in excess of £40)? Is it 'illegal' to have a 'company name' on my invoice that is not a registered company name? Also would you recommend I employ an accountant or would you say it is fairly straight forward when it comes to tax returns?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Greg

 

Hi Greg

I was in the same position as you a year or so ago and I found my local Business Link to be extremely helpful. Their remit is to help people set themselves up in business so that that the business will survive. Huge range of half day courses either free or for a nominal fee most of which I found very useful and informative and you can get a business advisor if you want one and s/he comes for free too. I would highly recommend you to get in touch with them, it's a Government organisation which you've paid your taxes for.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

 

Neil

[Paul TC]

See also "Guide to Freelancing" available here PCG Website

[Guest lightnix]

...I do not have any business expenses as such, or at least none that are not claimed back when I invoice the company I was working for...

All the more reason to see that accountant soon. Firstly, you'll be surprised, nay - amazed, at what you can claim as a business expense. Secondly: as a self-employed person, you should not be charging anything to the client, other than the fee you quoted in advance of the job - which should have allowed for and included those expenses.

 

See also "Guide to Freelancing" available here PCG Website

That's a jolly useful site, Paul - thanks for posting it. There's also a salutory tale on there; for anyone trading as, or thinking of becoming, a Ltd. Co.

[gherriott]

Thanks very much for those links, they were very helpful!