Registered a Ltd company for sole trader?

[Jimbob]

Interesting subject.

Never considered going Ltd myself as I'm not that ambitious myself, and don't take on anything risky, ie, possibility of not being paid.

Iv been trading for 6 years and just getting to the point of becoming VAT registered, which iv avoided for as long as possible. I can't see how a start up would need to jump straight into LTD or even VAT. Best to build up at a sensible pace

 

[Jimbob]

a long way to date as I always found the advice received from financial advisers and finance companies to be detrimental to my pocket, so I choose not to use them and prefer not to waste my earnings on PL insurance and the like.

I plan to make profit not to fend off loss

Really LP? I though GSR required PL

 

[lame plumber]

my mistake, was thinking pl stood for some insurance product to stop you losing income or whatever, but if your referring to public liability we seemed to have moved 15 paces left. Of course I have pl insurance as you mention but this is nothing to do with ltd companies and the earlier arguments put forward. Not sure. what line you argument is trying to achieve now

 

[Sag]

Ahhhh two schools of thought.
neather are right and neather are wrong
but rays only going to easily give credit to one of them......

Absolutely, and he's entirely entitled to do that. He may miss out on a lot of business, he may save himself a lot of cash & stress. But each to their own when deciding who to give credit to. Too many people think it's their right to have credit and moan that the banks aren't lending etc.

I don't need credit, it just eases cash flow. Too many companies rely on trade accounts and overdrafts or worse factoring to survive, all are a bad idea. They should look to draw less out of the company and pay off these debts until they can operate in a cash positive way.

The main reason for our trade account is ease of accounting. Instead of 100+ receipts a month to go through, I have one statement. I can also add additional contracts to spend on our account making supplying materials easier for our subbies and helps their cash flow. Those subbies that aren't VAT registered use our account and we benefit from being able to reclaim VAT that we otherwise wouldn't if they worked on a supply & fit basis.

And with average job being about £3.5k there is a lot of transactions and VAT to deal with.

 

[Ray Stafford]

, thats the reason this country is in the doldrums now, down to poor financial controls and too much risk

At the risk of sounding picky, the cause of the recent financial crisis was not "too much risk". It was more that risk was mislabelled by the rating agencies, misunderstood by people who ought to have known better, and levels of risk were accepted by organisations whose business model wouldn't stand it.

There is nothing wrong with high levels of risk, so long as they are priced correctly and undertaken by organisations who understand them correctly.

For a very readable analysis of the banking crisis, try The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

 

[Killy Bing]

........
simple sag, staged payments and/or materials costs up front.

In reality, unless you start doing commercial installs or estates of new builds
the only way you will have your personal assets threatened is if you blow a house up or kill a customer.
due to being gas safe, being limited wont save you from either as you're a competent person.

food for thought.

 

[Sag]

my mistake, was thinking pl stood for some insurance product to stop you losing income or whatever, but if your referring to public liability we seemed to have moved 15 paces left. Of course I have pl insurance as you mention but this is nothing to do with ltd companies and the earlier arguments put forward. Not sure. what line you argument is trying to achieve now

No, it's to do with risk and liability. But obviously wires have been crossed. But if GSR didn't require PL, would you have it?

If so why? If not, why not?

 

[Sag]

Off topic but regarding VAT. If you do bathrooms for the disabled or elderly, you can charge the job as ZERO RATED or reduced VAT at 5%. But you're able to claim back (or at least offset) the entire 20% for any labour and materials you paid out. Just another example of why being VAT registered can be a good thing, regardless of if you hit the threshold or not.

 

[lame plumber]

taking out public liability insurance has nothing to do with being with gsr as far as Im concerned, it is just to protect those I work for from me accidently wrecking their lives and getting some compensation. Nothing to do with ltd companies as this thread started on.

 

[Sag]

taking out public liability insurance has nothing to do with being with gsr as far as Im concerned, it is just to protect those I work for from me accidently wrecking their lives and getting some compensation. Nothing to do with ltd companies as this thread started on.

It protects YOU from being personally sued for the damage. That's why you take out the policy not the householder.

So, if it wasn't required, would you have it or not?

 

[lame plumber]

Off topic but regarding VAT. If you do bathrooms for the disabled or elderly, you can charge the job as ZERO RATED or reduced VAT at 5%. But you're able to claim back (or at least offset) the entire 20% for any labour and materials you paid out. Just another example of why being VAT registered can be a good thing, regardless of if you hit the threshold or not.

not quite true, you dont need to be vat registered for the customer to claim 0 vat, they can do it for themselves by buying direct fm the merchant, then you just charge for the fit and add some on for the loss of supplying the suite, being your not vat registered they dont cop any tax and alls well.

 

[Sag]

not quite true, you dont need to be vat registered for the customer to claim 0 vat, they can do it for themselves by buying direct fm the merchant, then you just charge for the fit and add some on for the loss of supplying the suite, being your not vat registered they dont cop any tax and alls well.

And you lose the opportunity to make a margin by supplying the goods at the same price they could have got them for, but by buying them at trade price......

 

[lame plumber]

It protects YOU from being personally sued for the damage. That's why you take out the policy not the householder.

So, if it wasn't required, would you have it or not?

now who is being muppet like, Ive already answered that one

 

[lame plumber]

And you lose the opportunity to make a margin by supplying the goods at the same price they could have got them for, but by buying them at trade price......

read the post muppet man

 

[Sag]

now who is being muppet like, Ive already answered that one

You said of course you have it, but not answered if you would have it if you didn't need it.

And as I've said, it protects you, so despite all your seeming negative vewis on being risk averse (such as having an ltd to protect personal assets) you do in fact have (and presumably would have regardless of being grs) insurance - protecting you! I.e. covering yourself from a worst case scenario, not because your out to cause damage.

If you stopped trying to argue for the sake of it, you might see what im saying.

 

[lame plumber]

I'm very risk adverse, dont like heights, dont like finance sales folk, hate builders and bankers alike, but love working for myself (which is a dangerous as it gets), so never buy stuff I cant afford, always pay my bills and plan my cash flow carefully. I also hate paperwork, so choose not to go ltd or vat registered and find that still leaves me enough money to live a comfortable life. I do though own my own house and other properties outright which means I dont have to stress so much as the likes of Sag prehaps and most of all I like a little banter. Prehps sag beginning to realise that now🙂

 

[Sag]

Who says I stress? I'm director of an Ltd which I run properly, it's VAT registered and insured. My account deals with anything I can't/don't want to deal with.

I also love working for myself (let's not debate the self employed v employed due to 'working' for the ltd), pick and choose my jobs. Life is good.

 

[MOSSEP]

Of all the business decisions I have made becoming VAT registered is probably the best. I believe it generates us a lot more commercial work, and it doesn't scare off all of the domestic clients like some would think it does. I think some folk misunderstand, but its only the labour we add 20% compared to non VAT companies, they still have to charge the VAT on materials.

As long as you keep your book keeping in good order it's not hard to do returns, and I love the fact that everything my business needs is now 20% cheaper than when we were not VAT registered.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

And you lose the opportunity to make a margin by supplying the goods at the same price they could have got them for, but by buying them at trade price......

Trade price ? ??? Are you kidding me

 

[SafeGasInstall]

What will happen if some can not longer make payments on there credit card , bank loan , motor finance , suppliers bills ?
I did know some one who wiped out £120k and them changed his job , and he told me after 6 years he will be cleared of his records . Is that how it works ?