I've just set up as self employed (but as a VA not a bookkeeper). But I'm doing my own accounts.
I already have a laptop which is about 3 years old. My accountant has said to introduce to the business along with desk, chair, printer, phone etc, she says to list it as a cost of sales. Is she right?
before answering the other bit I'm sorry, probably just been studying too much today and burnt out too many brain cells. What's a VA?
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Your accountant is neither completely right or completely wrong.
you already own the items. They were purchased for other purposes and now you seek to include them within the business but by definition the assets of the business should have been purchased wholly and exclusively for use by the business.
The receipts for the items, assuming that you still have them will not have been in the name of the business but rather in your personal name.
Now from your accountants perspective they are thinking that the items can be introduced to the business at fair value as though the business had purchased them from you. Personally I do not think that this is the way to go but it is not uncommon to hear of this happening with sole traders.
The accountant is likely to include these items at fair value as additions to owners capital introduced rather than taking a payment from the company to purchase the items from you.
I take it that the amounts that we are talking are not material to the business anyway? I ask that as the companies accounts must show a true and fair view of the entities affairs and employing these sort of manipulations might prejudice that should the amounts be material to the accounts.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
It is perfectly ok to introduce capital items into the business, the usual one would be a car, in order to claim capital allowances (after making an adjustment for personal use). Do not introduce at cost price though but at current market value (which probably isn't a great deal if the laptop is 3 years old and the furniture is old too. However as they say, every little helps!
How is the world of virtual assistants? Is there a VA forum? We offer a kind of virtual office but the secretarial partof it has never really taken off if I'm honest, whereas the telephone answering and accounts side has gone really well.
Also, combined with the there or thereabouts methodology that he champions I would suggest that he's probably the best one to turn to for advice about the route that you've chosen and treatment of bringing existing personal assets into the company.
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
And there you go... Evening Rob. My two fingers and a thumb typing is holding me back again!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Well i've only registered as self employed last Thursday. I've not got a website i've sent email marketing letters to companies in my local area and so far i've gain one client that wants 25 hrs per week and another client that wants 5 hours per month. So far so good.
When I was made redundant I decided to study bookkeeping ( and i'm still studying lol) but i've sidetracked and decided to become a VA. I will offer bookkeeping at some stage after trawling my way through all my coursework.
I'm finding that a lot of companies are interested in digital transcripts so i'm trying to get my head around that.
completely off the thread, I just read about your little boy. I went on a tax credits course last week and though I'm no expert and I'm sure you have all this covered, you may be entitled to extra children's tax credit. I'm actually thinking of offering a WTC service as most people do it wrong and since I need the practice of real cases if you want me to check this for you (FOC obviously I'd be happy to).
Yeah tax credits.......very awkward I hate dealing with them. Because ben has Cerebral Palsy we are entitled to extra. However as soon as are income hits 25K we aren't entitled.
I think you would be entitled to something at that level, especially if you are working 16 or 30 hours per week, which you will be now you are self employed. I need to check it all out but if you are interested in me taking a look then drop me an email and I'll email you back with details I need to check what you are entitled. On this course there were al sorts of ways of manipulating, I mean tax planning! It kind of flew in the face of the spirit of the whole thing and left me uncomfortable however when there is a deserving case then it should be claimed in full.
thanks Rob, I'll get all our income details over to you. Give me a day or to cause its all buried in a box somewhere in the office......filing was never one of my strong points :)