I have been reading this forum for a couple of years now and found it very useful and informative. I am now hoping for a bit of advice. I have recently agreed, on a voluntary basis, to do the bookkeeping for a very small publisher. They publish a few, very specialist titles. Everyone works on a voluntary basis and turnover is about £8,000. The publisher has been going for about 10 years not a limited company or a sole trader or partnership just a small group of people producing a few books. And never registered with HMRC either! I would like to register with HMRC to avoid any nasty surprises but am wondering what exactly to register as, given the total lack of any legal structure we seem closest to an unincorporated sports club or something. Profits have accumulated and been given to charity.
I have no concerns over the actual bookkeeping but would welcome advice on the tax position and how best to move forward. Thanks
If they have not registered as a charity then they are self employed and should have been paying tax on their profits rather than giving them away. The fact that the money has been given away does not alter the fact that tax remains payable on it.
If its a miniscule amount of money that they have been making then there is an arguement to suggest that it was a hobby rather than a business.
for help on setting up a charity try these links :
Questions to ask the client are such things as have costs been offset against the charitable donations? Have any salaries been paid from donations?
You need for everything up to now to have been a self funded hobby rather than a business run under the guise of being a charity.
I think that someone like john (EPF) may have more info on this sort of thing as thats his target market.
Don't forget that even with one charity client you are still going to need to be registered for MLR which may put you in a tricky ethical position over your knowledge of the last ten years. However, such does at least give you a good excuse to call the legal department of your professional body for advice.
Good luck with everything Rachel.
kind regards,
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.
I think that someone like john (EPF) may have more info on this sort of thing as thats his target market.
I've been working away doing some networking and trying to become a hub as a trusted advisor on something, and when someone recommends me for the first time, it's something I don't have a clue about . Oh well, back to learning more about marketing .
"I help sole traders and small companies transform the necessary chore of keeping accounts into a valuable resource to manage their business.
Your business is likely to offer products or services which benefit people, are sustainable and do minimal harm, and are traded ethically."
So it's kind of my niche, but my only practical experience of a situation anything like this is when I asked my tame accountant what the situation was with a private members club I was treasurer of, and he wrote to the Inland Revenue to find out, rather than just giving me a few words of wisdom. I wasn't popular with the rest of the committee!!!
I'm rather rusty after my long break, so need to work my way back in gently, so want to stick to straightforward jobs with established sole traders and limited companies to start with! I'll learn this sort of stuff later if I need to .
. Oh well, back to learning more about marketing 
.
