I use Vonage as a number provider (recomended a few years back by Bill (Wella)) as I can divert the call to several phones but the client assumes that they are only calling a local landline. (and indeed they will never be charged more than that even if I pick up using my mobile).

I would avoid non local numbers as it puts clients off especially where theres confusion as to whether they are paying premium amounts for a call. You are likely to find that the clients of something like your other venture less sensitive to calling universal numbers where for bookkeeping clients it's all about location, location, location.

You still have the BT fixed landline costs of course on top of the Vonage service and indeed you've still got the actual phone number as well as the additional one.

HTH,

Shaun.

but why an 0800 number, as I said, that puts people off where I find people really look for local accountants and bookkeepers.

Think about it, if you are looking for a plumber would you look for an 0800 number first or a local number? I think that you will find that the bulk of people will go local.

Thats different to your other venture where people are not looking for a local sollution.

the number I rent is just an easy to remember number from Vonage under my local area code.

The deal that you have seems very similar to the vonage one that I have. Mine isn't in blocks though but rather a set fee with inclusive landline mins and very reasonable transfer to mobile fee's. Similar voicemail to email, etc.

If you owned your broadband before you started your business then you cannot charge anything to the business as you have not incurred any additinal costs (now that one's probably going to put a cat amongst the pigeons on the site!).

In such situation your broadband fee's would be inclusive within your use of home as office.

Also, you already have one business running from home so remember that your use of home charges will be divided pro rata between the businesses, not doubled.

Eilef wrote:

---

It seems a bit harsh 

---

This is covered by:-

In such situation your broadband fee's would be inclusive within your use of home as office.

Also, you already have one business running from home so remember that your use of home charges will be divided pro rata between the businesses, not doubled. 

As Shaun says

I would say thats more loads of people try and then their accountant fixes them. As you are looking to set up on this side of the fence you ned to be one of those telling people that they cannot do it.

There are several different ways to calculate it all based on the number of hours spent working in your house during the week.

The simplest method is £4 per week compensation for allowing the business to use part of your home (£208 per year) (the rules for simplified expenses for the self employed and limited companies are quite different).

If you feel that is not truly representitive of expenditure then you could use the household expenditure divided up in a manner that you would be happy to convince an HMRC inspector was a fair representation of additional expenditure incurred.

Some people use number of rooms (can be problematic as rooms are of different dimensions), others use an exact division of floor space (people often forget to time apportion usage).

Expenditure needs to be allocated and time apportioned to business usage.

Note that claims other that the use of the £4 per week may have implications on the primary residence capital gains exemption when you come to sell the property and also may affect whether the property is liable to business rates.

The relief claimed is intended to represent relief on costs above those that would have been incurred anyway. So, the example of the broadband that already existed cannot be claimed as no additional expenditure has been incurred.

As with all things try to look at everything as though through the eye's of a tax inspector and always appreciate that reliefs are there to compensate, not to reward.

HTH,

Shaun.

Hi Eilef,

unfortunately courses tend to teach just enough to get through the exams but not enough to build a business from (even though certain courses sell themselves on the basis that you can earn a living if you take that course). Thats where sites such as this one come in to try and help people accross that huge divide between theory and practice.

A very good book to buy to get your head around the intricacies of basic tax is Taxation by Alan Melville. You have to buy the current version as, as you would imagine tax changes every year. It's nearly £50 but for tax books thats actually really cheap! (trust me, they go up into the £100's).

I'm not for one moment suggesting that you buy it to advise clients on tax but its a book that should give you the reassurance to challenge clients assumptions that they've adopted from their mate down the pub. Believe me, at times you will really start to question your own knowledge when what a client is telling you as a fact sounds so very plausible (often as it makes more sense that the actual letter of tax regulation).

I tend to alternate the Melville book with the Kaplan ACCA study text for paper P6. Same material but different enough that you can read it cover to cover (provided you give it a good 700 days between reads!... Hence the alternating).

Very true on the difference in business. I have a therapist on my books who works with children so can legitimately claim things like glove puppets as an expense.

Any of my others tried that especially around Christmas time and they would just end up with a higher DLA.

Once you start down this path it's constant learning. I find helping people on this site very good as you never know what the next question will be. Even if you don't post an answer think through / investigate every asked question and you will soon find your knowledge base expanding dramatically.

HTH,

Shaun.

Going back to the original post,

I spent 1.45 hours on the phone today mainly on hold to HMRC to sort a friends Tax Code out, which got me thinking that if I just have a number provided and diverted to my mobile calling HMRC is going to be an expensive game.

Concur totally with Joanne. I would never dream of using a mobile for outgoing calls.

Spent 50 mins on hold last night before getting to speak to someone, but once through very helpful and resolved the issue straight away.

Like Vince I don't have a landline, just a mobile that I get X amount of call time with, my other company 0844 number diverts to it.

What I'm saying is if I don't get a landline phone then calling HMRC is going to be very expensive from a mobile so it looks like I need one anyway.

"What I'm saying is if I don't get a landline phone then calling HMRC is going to be very expensive from a mobile so it looks like I need one anyway."

Take into account what Joanne just said: you might find you don't call them all that often - so the extra cost of doing so once in a while might prove to be lower than the cost of setting up and keeping a landline going.

In fact, that's part of the reason I no longer have a landline. Another reason is that as people came to know my mobile number, they just started to ring me on that rather than trying the landline first - even though I always had an answering machine attached, so they could leave messages if I wasn't around. Therefore paying the line rental for those incoming calls became pointless.

Then there was facsimile - my answering machine doubled up as a fax machine, but I don't receive very many faxes (and send even fewer). So rather than continue to pay the line rental for that, it worked out cheaper to use a fax<-->email service.

Now, going back to the occasional expense of calling HMRC, take a look at the website I mentioned!

In fact, everybody who isn't aware of that website should look at it.

Right now.

Go on.

Can't be bothered? Okay, here's what it's for:

If you only have a non-geographic number for a company or organisation, click on the "Search to find an alternative number" link, enter either the name of the organisation or the number, and click search. Often, such numbers are just redirects to a standard number, and that search might find the normal number for you - and if so, that's the number you ring.

VinceH wrote:

---

 

Now, going back to the occasional expense of calling HMRC, take a look at the website I mentioned!

In fact, everybody who isn't aware of that website should look at it.

 

---

 HMRC lines all start with 03xx, which are inclusive in your bundled minutes or standard rate and won't be any cheaper than calling a geographic number.  However, one tip I've recently discovered is when dialing 0844 and 0845 numbers.  Try replacing the 8 with a 3, it works in most cases but not all.

I used to use say no to 0870 quite a lot but find theres not much need since the switch to 03xx and geographic numbers.

The number I rang last night was 0843 504 7177

Eilef wrote:

---

The number I rang last night was 0843 504 7177

---

 Oh dear, you fell victim to a scam.  That number is provided by a commercial company who then redirect the call to HMRC on their normal number, putting the difference in their own coffers.  the correct number for self assessment and income tax is 0300 200 3310 or 3311 if you're an agent for the tax payer.

Unfortunately the agent helpline doesnt help agents with all the different types of taxes. I would always get the phone number direct from the HMRC site, but loving the way youve stitched your friend up with the phone bill (just joking!!)