The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Dual]

Has anyone got experience setting up a Limited company on here?

I've been offered some freelance work and I'm weighing up my options.

Would like some advice if anyone can help.

[Winckle]

I don't "get" Dual.

[Cuttooth]

Cheeky Lad PLC

[Dual]

Am I a joke to you?

[Dual]

[That]

I guess Gecko has experience in this?

.

[Cuttooth]

Am I a joke to you?

Sorry

[Lex-Man]

Has anyone got experience setting up a Limited company on here?

I've been offered some freelance work and I'm weighing up my options.

Would like some advice if anyone can help.

You can go to companies house and set one up,they generally sign a defunct company over to you and then you change the name. It's pretty easy although I'd recommend you get a solicitor to do the paperwork. Also you have to file accounts every year which can be a pain.

I've never done it but my parents had to as they live in a flat and all the tenents bought out the maintenance lease.

[Jenuall]

I did it years ago and it was fairly painless but did involve a fair bit of paperwork, setting people up as Directors, Secretary etc.

The need to file accounts and do a return anually was bloody annoying given I barely used the company though!

[Dual]

I did it years ago and it was fairly painless but did involve a fair bit of paperwork, setting people up as Directors, Secretary etc.

The need to file accounts and do a return anually was bloody annoying given I barely used the company though!

This seems like a silly question but how do you pay yourself? Do you need to be an employee or is it different if you're a director?

[Jenuall]

I did it years ago and it was fairly painless but did involve a fair bit of paperwork, setting people up as Directors, Secretary etc.

The need to file accounts and do a return anually was bloody annoying given I barely used the company though!

This seems like a silly question but how do you pay yourself? Do you need to be an employee or is it different if you're a director?

Yeah you set yourself up with a salary basically. There's other ways of getting money out, like dividends and directors loans but I never really got into that.

[Green Gecko]

You can set up a limited company directly through companies house website, and just adopt the standard articles of association and memorandum. They literally email you the incorporation certificate. It costs about £15.

You can also have a service like Crunch Accounting do this for you but they charge monthly for their accounting software and consultant accounts too. About £75 per month.

You can pay yourself with dividends or a directors loan but if you draw a salary each month you need to run directors payroll which means using RTI to inform HMRC in realtime of the earnings to deduct tax. No biggy but you generally need software to do that which is an extra overhead. I don't run payroll as I'm sole trader but Xero or FreeAgent will do it, they cost about £25 per month inc VAT. With dividends and loans you pay tax through the self assessment system (i.e. You manually pay HMRC whatever your tax liability is), I think. It can be useful because that way you keep money in the business and your pocket for longer but obviously you have to remember you must pay the corporation tax due at the end of the company's trading year and your personal liability at the end of the self assessment period which is normally Jan 31 (it varies for companies depending on when it was set up, but you could change the accounting period so you do all the stuff at the same time).

If you set up a limited company and don't pay tax via payroll or have any other taxable income or benefits in kind you still need to complete a self assessment each year as the director of that limited company.

If it sounds too much work and it might be you can pay an umbrella company instead, they will in my experience take £20-£25 from each payslip as their fee but that is tax deductible so you would get it back through the self assessment process, but can take several months to get it paid back.

I used an umbrella company for contracting

GRcade still has a dormant LTD which is a bit of the PIAT as it doesn't do anything, I thought it would be better but it needs shareholders and or secretaries etc set up which hasn't happened. If you are only using the company for yourself it isn't such a big deal.

Also Google IR35, you can't run a limited company to work for only one entity, it needs to be a proper business with multiple clients, as its considered tax evasion on the part of the company you're working for and the liability there is considered to be both parties which can get you into hot water with HMRC. The current government has worked to destroy what it calls the "gig economy” and thinks that self employer people should be taxed the same as salaried employees even though they do more work and have no job security or rights at all.

[sawyerpip]

If you set up a limited company you still need to complete a self assessment each year as the director of that limited company as it counts as employment.

Not necessarily true, if you take a company salary and so are taxed at source, and don't have additional tax liability, then unless HMRC issue you a return you don't need to file.

[Green Gecko]

That's true, I'm also sole trader though so I have to do it anyway.

Some people recommend doing it anyway just you make sure you are totally square with HMRC and it's also a good way to make sure you get your tax rebate if you are owed one as it essentially forces HMRC to calculate your personal tax liability and issue you a cheque or BACs payment rather than just waiting for them to "notice".

[Rax]

So right now Im a team of one but weve been looking to hire some people. This week weve made some offers and its now confirmed that by the 9th September I will have a team of 3 people directly reporting to me. This has all just hit home and I need to get my gooseberry fool sorted so they will all have work to do.

[Drumstick]

I need to get my gooseberry fool sorted so they will all have work to do.

Whilst you can dedicate your work time to GRcade.

[Rax]

[Tafdolphin]

The job I had a phonecall about and mentioned in here, has finally gone up:

https://recruitment.uni.lu/en/details.h ... Recruiting

So:

They're looking for a narrative storyteller who's also an IT expert with a masters degree in communications and maybe tech who's worked in both a PR company AND a tech start up for at least 5 years who knows how to stream and has experience dealing with the press.

So, that for me is enough to say no to but then they don't even have the usual bullshit of "Competitive Salary" in the What We Offer section, just some nonsense about a 'dynamic team environment.'

Urgh.

[Kezzer]

how is working at a tech start up a damn advantage? - "yes I know how batshit insane and flakey everyone one is, and will do nothing to sort it out"

[Hexx]

Vent incoming sorry

Jesus Bumblefeck Clungeholes.

So we've had a rush job to cross check and update at 2000 line spreadsheet (don't ask) - changing contents of cells, but also deleted and inserting lines as needed

It was split to 4 people. Rather than give each person a cutdown spreadsheet of 0-500, 501-1000,1001-1500 and 1501-2000...the organising copy/pasted the file 4 times and gave each one their own full copy to work on....

They didn't even keep an original copy without anyone's working for reference...

I pointed this out and got a curt they knew what they were doing...(extra people have got involved, works been reallocated as people finished and offered to help out others)

Trying to recombine it now has become a nightmare...