Foreign.

And welcome to the Pat Accounting Podcast with me, your host, Vicky Clark.

I'm going to help you get to grips with your finances, save you lots of money and take the stress out of doing your tax return.

So let's get going.

Right, everyone, welcome.

We've had quite a few new members over the last few weeks and we've had quite a few guests on on over the last few weeks.

But normally it is me and handsome Lee Thomas that do these on various tax topics to help you guys.

And we either just pick them randomly or we go off the questions that we've seen on social media and we clear things up because again, a lot of stuff's on social media that is incorrect.

And so we're here as Mythbusters on a Thursday to tell you what isn't isn't allowable.

Most of the time we do go off on a tangent.

So we are going to speak today about the business basics because we have seen quite a few questions on social media about registering of HMRC and being a limited company and, you know, the tax threshold and when you can hire people, blah, blah, blah.

And a lot of the answers on there are incorrect.

So rather than get into arguments with people on social media, which is sometimes what we do do because people argue and say no, it is allowed, especially chiropractors.

Someone put.

Actually, we are going off on a tangent already.

Already.

No, I know it's only 2 minutes, 58 seconds in on Bill's group, someone put on about she had a corn removed or it was something foot related.

And she was like, I don't know if this is allowable.

And everyone was like, yeah, go for it.

Like it's your foot.

You need your foot to work.

And honestly, there was about 50 comments of everyone going, yeah, I do.

I do it.

There was a few comments that said no, but the overwhelming majority was like, yeah, put it through.

I do.

And I thought to myself, do I don't I.

And I did put in there, that's not allowable.

And everyone ignored me.

So that would go.

Another practice to know as well at the moment is that hmrc, we are all starting to use things like chat GPT, so we're integrating AI into our businesses.

The way that we write emails, we're getting it to design social media posts.

And it is very, very smart technology.

In fact, it can outperform some employees.

But you gotta remember as well, HMRC also has access to these tools.

So a lot of these things, a lot of these things that are going into accounts, a lot of the errors are now starting to be picked up at HMRC's end.

Maybe when you're forgetting to put things in your tax return, like your P11Ds, if you've got a company car or if you've got some health benefits and you forget to put that on, they are now starting to be picked up at hmrc.

So they know about these things.

They are sending letters out saying that your tax return is not right.

You haven't told us, you see, case reference number.

So if you call me at GPT.

Because I did this a few days ago and said, is my chiropractor an allowable expense?

It actually tells you on chatgpt that it's not.

And it explains the reasons why.

Obviously, you've got to be careful because sometimes it is a bit Americanized.

Oh, someone didn't put their phone on silent.

Oh, it's me.

It is sometimes a bit Americanized.

So you've got to be careful with the answers it gives you.

But it actually does explain why it's not an allowable expense and does it in bullet points.

I thought that was quite good.

So if you're ever in doubt, give Chachi PT a try.

You never know, it might help explain.

But like I said, you've just got.

To be checking the answers.

Yes, always double check.

Because like I say, sometimes I've put questions in there and it's come up with a weird.

Well, I know that's not right, but I think, like I say, sometimes it's a bit Americanized.

You've got to be careful.

But today we are going to chat about the pet business basics to make sure you get those right.

Because a lot of people start businesses and like I say, there's a lot of questions out there, so I'm gonna.

And we haven't planned this, by the way, so Lee has no idea what I'm gonna ask him.

I have no idea what I'm gonna ask him.

I'm just going to make it up as we go.

We like to live life on the edge.

Even if you do have an established business, it's always good to listen in because there's going to be some pieces of information that you may not be aware of, you know, and it will just reinforce the knowledge that you do have as well.

So.

So it's definitely worth.

We do go off on a tangent.

Yeah.

Start talking about hamster food like we did last time and guinea pig food, so you never know.

And I have an update as well with regards to HMRC and crypto.

So if you do use crypto.

And you do.

And sell cryptocurrency.

Listen in, because there's that as well.

You're so full of random information.

I need to be, because I don't know what you're going to ask every night.

I'm like, random, random.

Yeah.

It's not going to be on cryptocurrency, I can guarantee you that.

Right, question number one, and I am generally just making these up as we go, but they are questions that I have seen online.

Do you need to be a limited company in order to hire staff?

I have your goal.

I'm joking.

No, you don't.

If your goal is maybe you've just started or maybe you haven't and.

But your goal is that I want to hire staff and I see this question a lot and people say, oh, no, you have to be a limited company to hire staff.

True or false?

That's false.

You can be a sole trader, you can be a partnership, you can be a limited company, it doesn't make a difference of your entity.

You can still apply for a payroll scheme and you can still pay employees through a payroll.

No worries at all.

There are advantages of being a limited company and employing a member staff because you have a little bit of protection that the limited company provides.

However, that's what insurance is there for.

So as a sole trader, no issues whatsoever, you can still employ.

Employ people.

Fabulous.

I like that.

We're short and succinct today.

I like this.

Usually we're here for about half an hour whilst the answers one question.

But we're going short and sweet today, lad, ladies and gents.

Right, next question.

Do I have to be a limited company?

Because a limited company gives me protection, so I won't have that with a sole trader.

That is correct.

You do get some protections with a limited company.

Now, what I mean by protections is if a client of yours was to take legal action, they would take legal action against the limited company and not you personally.

And then any assets that the company owns, they are at risk, not your personal assets, which is slightly different if you're a sole trader or partnership, where you are the business and you are at risk as well as your worldly goods for any debts and, and, you know, obligations that you encounter in the course of running your business.

So pros and cons of the limited company and sole trader.

A limited company is much more complex to start up and more expensive in accountancy fees and running costs, but you do get some protection.

And I say some because there are instances as a, as a Director, you have certain obligations, legal obligations that you must do on behalf of the limited company and there's certain ways that you must run it.

And if you fail to do that, you fail in your directorship duties, then you could be breaking the law.

And there is ways that you can be prosecuted personally and you can be prosecuted or not prosecuted, but you can be chased for some of the company debts.

Certainly if it's HMRC involved, they can still come after you personally and that's the personal guarantors from you until the limited company pays back those debts to hmrc.

So it is limited protection, not protections.

Which I think people, I think where they get confused.

We get a lot of clients that come to us and say I'm a limited company because I just, that's what I thought I had to be and that's what I started off with.

And you know when you first start and you're not earning loads and we get people that earn like between 10 and 15 grand company and we always say to people, if you're just starting out, make it easy for yourself, just be a sole trader.

Unless there's a very specific reason as to why.

Like sometimes like vets and things, obviously there's a bit more risk involved but you know, general dog groomer, dog walker.

We've never really advised to go in the mitt company because of what Lee said.

Like it's so complex and there's so much more to do and rules and regulations around it that it's just going to fry brain when you can just be a sole trader.

It costs less in accountancy fees and there's just one tax return to do at the end of the year.

Well, at the minute there is, that's all going to change at some point, but just make it easy for yourselves guys like limited company fees can be anything from like 100 pound to £500amonth depending on what you need and what you've got.

So just make it easier for yourself and don't always go down the limited company route.

Do your research rather than just doing it because someone said, oh, if you get sued, you're screwed.

If you're a sole trader, that's what all your other insurances are for.

So just make sure that you have those in place and do some, you know, you could chatgpt it, you know, pros and cons of being a limited company.

Pros and cons of being a sole trader.

It'll probably tell you don't know, might do.

So try.

So I'm gonna ask you Gonna ask you and chatgpt the same question.

See, see if we come up with the same answer.

But yeah, just do your research guys.

And again with the partnership, everyone forgets that you've got to be very careful with the partnerships and Well I just thought of a really good question if I have, and this is a good question but maybe slightly off topic.

If I'm a sole trader and I have like three different income streams, let's just say I'm a cat groomer, so that's income stream number one.

I do stuff on TikTok that I get paid for so that's another income stream and I sell stuff online, whatever.

Are they all separate for that purposes or do I have to include all of that in one lump?

Okay, so that's a two parter.

The simple answer to your question is is that for VAT purposes they are all counted as one stream of income to when we look at the VAT turnover to see if you've hit the 9,000 in any roll in 12 months.

However for VAT purposes and accounts purposes it's very different.

In accounts purposes you will have three separate businesses recorded on three separate forms.

In your self assessment you can't mix and match the incomes and the outgoings.

This businesses has to be kept separate and the losses of one can't be carried back or forward to offset against one of the others apart from in the year that that loss happens.

So it's really important that for your accounts wise they are completely separate and reported separate.

But for VAT purposes if you're a sole trader it doesn't matter how many businesses that you've got if it's all in a sole trade in your name it is the entity that we need to consider for VAT registration, not the business.

So we would add all three of those incomes together and if any rolling 12 month they exceeded £90,000 or they're likely to in the next 30 days you must register all of them for or you must register for VAT and charge VAT in all of them.

And I think that's where people get mixed up as well.

Not on purpose but they go no because one's a dog grooming and one's hair and makeup whatever but it's all combined so just be careful of that if you do have various numbers of income streams.

Another question that I saw online is someone put I started my dog grooming business in March.

Do I register from March and do a small tax return or do I just register from April and then include it in that Tax return.

So you've, the problem that you've got with that is that you're not declaring the income in the correct tax year that it belongs.

And hmrc, with all these new tools that they have the ability to look at bank accounts, you know, they could, they, they have other sources of, of knowing that you've started your business, if you don't declare it in the tax return it should be in, then you potentially will be falsifying your records.

And so my advice would be, if you started trading in the March, fill a tax return in for that tax return for that tax year and then, you know, you start your next tax year in, in, in on the 5th of April when the tax year ends.

And so always declare the income in, in the year that you receive it.

Don't, don't try and hide it, don't roll it over, don't play with it.

Because if you get selected for an audit, it could be at random, it could be targeted, but you won't be able to explain with a legitimate reason why you manipulated the figures to bring it into that one tax year and.

Say, Sandra, Facebook group said to do it.

Yeah, that's it.

And you know, if you, if you earn less than £1,000 in sales revenue, you don't have to do a tax return, but you lose the ability to claim your startup costs, which you can go back as far as seven years and include things that you've bought that you still have in your business.

So that assets, so we're talking computers, phones, laptops, shelving, storage units, basically anything that you've bought, you now use in your business that you still have that thousand pounds might not cover that and you've lost the ability to claim it.

So really important when you look at whether or not you're going to fit in a tax return because you've only earned less than a thousand.

Would your expenses be more than 1000 if you added up all of your startup costs and, and your running costs at that stage.

So really important one there.

Yeah, fabulous.

I'm running out of questions because.

Yeah, he's answering them quick.

Next question.

Oh, this is a good one.

The accounting dates.

I'm just trying to think of what people get wrong and this sort of ties in with the software in that, let's say I start of my business on the 9th of September.

What we tend to see on the software, especially in free agent, is It'll say start 9th of September, tax year, end 9th of September, which it's not.

So can you just explain like if someone was to start their business in the middle of a tax year, what their year end date would be.

So if we roll that back ever so slightly, last year some changes come in and I'll, I'll make it really simple.

Basically there was a change to the, what's called the basis periods.

It was called basis period reform in the past.

When you started a business, you could choose the 12 months that you wanted to run your business to and it was usually from the start date, you know, 12 months on and that was your year.

And it could be from the sort of 1st of September to the 31st of all this the following year and you would work out your taxes based on that accounting period.

Last year HMRC said, right, we're scrapping basis periods.

So everybody in the country now, all sole traders and all partnerships have to have either a 31st of March year end or a 5th of April year end.

So you had to move all of your accounting periods to tie up with one of those two year ends so that everybody now will run from the day that they start trading, which could have been the first of September last year and their first year is going to end on.

And we're going to prepare taxes to either 31 March or 5 April.

And the reason we're allowed to do two dates there is because HMRC sees 31 March as the third, as 5 April.

Basically they're saying that, look, we're not too worried about those, those couple of days in between because it's at the month end, so it makes sense to prepare your records to a complete month.

So therefore they will accept that the 31st of March is the same as preparing it to the 5th of April.

But you, you, you still must report those extra days in, in next years.

If you are using 31st of, of March, you don't just forget about them.

So, so it turns to that question.

Everybody now should be operating from 6 April to 5 April or from 1 April to 31 March with their accounts and their tax returns.

If you're not and you're thinking, shit, I have the wrong date, then please get in touch and we can help.

Obviously if you are a client of ours, this would have all been sorted last year.

So don't panic.

We would have done it anyway.

I think we only had maybe like a handful that had, I think it's probably under five that had the wrong count dates.

But just be careful when you are using software that you do put the correct date in.

Because if you do it on the wrong date and then it changes, all your figures are going to go all over the place.

So just make sure when you're on software that you are putting the correct date on there.

Yeah.

And it's not just as simple as changing the date.

There's things that has to be done at HMRC side.

Oh, it's to Paul this overlap relief that you can ask HMRC to have some tax back if you paid overlap relief, but they've got to tell you how much that you paid originally, which could have been years ago.

It's not a simple case of just making a change of the software and then open for the best.

So yeah, it's a complicated one.

Do reach out if you are one of those people that have a dodgy year end.

But we can sort it.

It's just.

Yeah, it's a bit.

It's a bit of a tricky one.

And what else do I think is a good question?

You're answering these really quick, which is unusual, which is.

Which is throwing me off because usually it's about a 20 minute per question and I'm like, I've only got three questions.

Fabulous.

Can you think of any important, like basic ones.

I'm trying to think what.

So we have a Pet Business Basics course.

So if you are a new business and you're thinking, oh Christ, you know, what do I do with record?

Record keeping could be a good one.

You know, what do I do with record keeping?

How do I register with hmrc?

Uh, all those things.

Then they're all laid out on our Pet Business Basics course, which is basically there's no like, it's not text heavy, it's videos of me Lee going over various different topics that you need to be aware of when you start a business and just to make sure you do it properly.

So if you are struggling or you are new, then please head to the website and have a look at courses and you can grab that.

It's dirt cheap.

I think it's like what, 49 quid or something ridiculous.

And it is full of information.

We do update it when things change.

All the updates are on there.

So go and check that out if you are stuck.

But registerment of HMRC is a good one.

How do you do it on a shoe?

You can do it online yourself or you can get an accountant like us to do it.

We always say try yourself first because we do charge for it because it takes a bit of time, but you can do it online yourself.

I don't even know do they do paper ones still now this.

They're moving away from that.

So a lot of it now is online.

The problem with the online one is is.

Is the ID verification side of things.

Sometimes that fails.

There are things that can go wrong along that.

That registration process.

We do have the ability to bypass some of that but not all of it.

So it's one of those things is we're able to register clients but we do encounter problems sometimes as well depending on what's gone on in personally, if you've had a UTR number in the past or there's been some tax issues, then it does create issues for us to try and register you.

For us.

Yeah, if you try and then it fails and then you go to an accountant to do it.

It won't let us do it if you've already tried.

So it has to be a complete fresh new registration because we just get blocked as soon as we to the end.

And if you've had a UTR before also what let's do it.

Because they just reinstate that utr, they don't give you a new one.

So just.

But we always double check that with people before we take on to do it because that is it.

Otherwise it's a waste of time.

You're paying for something you don't need to.

So we will help.

What is that for?

Because I was like oh, question.

So I hope you didn't answer but if.

No, it's just for you.

I'm the.

I'm the question.

Somebody's already registered for self assessment.

They have one business they want to start a second.

Do they have to register with HMC again?

No, because it's all under one UTR number.

This is why I feel like it's going to catch me out.

And he's got that face where you have that face where like this sound going to catch her out.

This one all under the same UTR number.

And we do get that question a lot actually from clients who've started up various different businesses.

Like oh no, I need to ring H1C and get another UTR number.

You only get one and you're like lifetime.

Even if you stop being the sole trader, you go into Pye and you come back, you still get that same UTR number most of the time.

So no, tell me what it does get activated and deactivated.

So please don't just assume that you can just run with it.

If you remember if you had an old paperwork.

Yeah, you do have to tell HMRC that you are Starting soul trade again.

Or you need to be reactivated for self assessment and so that they, they can turn it on their side.

Otherwise when we try to file something, it'll just kick it back and say declines.

Yeah.

Question from Helen.

I'm a bunny hotel and some non refundable fees were paid in one tax year and the balance is paid on the next tax year.

I've just recorded it as income in two parts.

I hope that makes sense.

Is that still okay?

Yeah, that's.

That's absolutely spot on, Helen.

Because the deposit was non refundable then you declare the income.

Then if it was refundable then you would probably have to declare that as money owed to the client until you delivered the service.

There are other ways that we could have said that was prepaid income and delayed that slightly, which we can do in the accounts, but that's where it starts.

Gets more complex, complicated.

If you're on the cash basis for self assessment.

Recording that in two parts was absolutely spot on.

Fabulous.

Another good question from Helen.

I have a friend who's adamant that because her profits do not go over a thousand pounds, she doesn't have to register.

But her friend.

Unfriend her, snitch on her and you'll get some money, Helen.

But her income total was over a thousand pound.

No tea.

It's.

You can show her the webs, the HMRC link because it does say on HMC's thousand pound is sales, not profit.

So once you generate that 1000 pound in sales, regardless of what your expenses are, you then must fill in a, a self assessment.

And if, if she isn't and it gets reported or gets picked up, then she'll have a hard time and they'll be back dated penalties and self assessments required.

And so it's quite a, quite a big one.

Yeah.

Don't take advice from her.

Helen Tegan and friend, her pointer to our pointer to the group Helen.

Yeah, she'll find the answer in there.

This is a good one.

Which.

This question always comes up all the time and it blows people's mind.

So just bear that in mind, Lee, when you try and explain this because it is the dreaded topic of payments on account.

Okay.

And this is from the lovely Laura who said basically she's got.

She's been asking to make the second payment in July.

Can you explain what this is?

I'm pretty sure I paid half it in January this year.

But the second part is what is technically due in January 26th.

Question mark.

Yeah.

I'm so confused.

Don't worry, Laura, because everyone gets this confused.

It is such a strange way of how they do things and it is quite complicated if you don't understand what it is that they're doing.

But Lee is going to do it and explain it in some simple steps.

Okay, so if we take somebody that's employed, they have tax and national insurance deducted at source by the employer before they get paid.

So their tax and national insurance, their wages is lower before they actually physically get the money into their bank account.

As a self employed person, we have the benefits of not having to pay that tax initially.

So HMRC's argument is that we are at an advantage over somebody that's employed because we don't have that tax, national insurance deducted each month.

The argument that they have is also that in order to cut down on the amount of money that they don't receive through fraud, through people not being able to afford their tax bills because they haven't planned properly, what they now ask for is they ask for two payments in advance of tax that is not yet owed and that goes towards your next year's tax bill.

So in January you, you make half of the tax payment that was due and then in July you make the second half.

So basically you've paid the same amount of tax twice.

And then in January again we add up the, the January payment, the first January payment, we add up the July payment, have a look at what your tax bill was and take those payments away.

So you're left with what's called a balancing payment.

It's the difference that you've got to pay when we take those two payments away.

So you have a smaller tax bill in that January.

However, because you then have to make the first payment on account for the first following year you have another payment bolted on to the balancing payment.

So, so you've got your payment on account and balancing payment in, in January and then you got a second payment on account in, in the July and that continues year on year.

Now when you first have to make a payment on account, that's probably one of the hardest times to save for because it comes as a little bit of a shock because your tax bill has jumped up by quite a substantial amount.

The other times that it catches people out is when they have a boom in sales and a boom in profits.

So if they, if they like had 19,000 of in sales one year and then they jumped to 46,000 in sales the next year and their profit followed suit as well, so double their profit figures, they're going to have a Big balancing payment to pay because they didn't, they quite seem didn't have the sales the previous year and then they got half of that tax bill to pay again as a payment on account.

So you could have, you know, sort of 8, 9 grand tax bill based on 46,000 pound of sales because you've got to make a payment on account and your, your previous ones were nowhere near because of the growth spurt that you're going through.

So if you are experiencing a growth spurt and you can see it with the income that's coming through the doors, start saving more and more of that money for tax because it's going to catch you out come, come January.

And you can get our tax calculator that's also on the website that if you put your information in, it will give you a good indication of what you should be saving every month to make sure that you are keeping up to date with them.

So basically, if your tax bill was five grand, they're going to assume next year's tax bill is five grand and they're going to want half of it.

So two and a half grand in January in addition to the five grand you've already got to pay, plus the other two and a half in July and then like they said, that then comes off the next tax bill, but then you've got that year's payment on account.

So it's just a vicious rolling cycle.

So you're basically paying for next year's tax bill in advance.

And the good thing about the system is that, and like, I don't agree with payments on account, but I can see the benefits of it.

Once you're into a steady rhythm and your sales kind of leveled or there or it's a slight growth, then by making those two payments, you're kind of like, what, two and a half grand in January, two and a half grand in July, two and a half grand in January, two and a half grand in July.

You know exactly what you've got to pay because your, your, your income has now leveled off.

So it makes life easier.

But, but certainly if you fall behind, it's a real slog to try and get back on top of things.

And that's why it is hard because, you know, if you're not making any money then you know, suddenly in next year you've made more money and you've got that payment on account and you can't pay it and then you haven't to pay HMRC monthly.

You start then getting, like I say, into a bit of Deep water because you haven't paid the first one off by the time you get to the next tax year and then you've got another one.

So it is really, really important that you plan for the tax bill.

Get your tax return done early in April so you've got plenty of time to know how much you need to pay so you can save and just make sure you're putting stuff away every month like me and Lee Nellie had with our payments on account.

This year Mary died.

So.

And there's us like, oh yeah, oh dear.

But it just means you've got to plan properly, get the tax calculator so you can keep on top of it, make sure you're putting a big chunk of money away every month.

It is a bit of a shitter, but it's just like Lee said, once you get into the rhythm of it and you keep up to date with the payments, it becomes fine.

It's just that first initial one that no one ever knows about because the first year it might be half a year and they haven't earned that much to trigger the payment on account and then the next year you've earned double and all of a sudden you're having to pay basically two tax bills.

So you've just got to, you know, keep that in the back of your mind.

Robin Dogs.

Hashtag robbing dogs.

Let's make that trend.

Hmrc, robbing dogs.

But yeah, and it is hard because not many people know about payments on account.

But then, you know, it's hard for us as accountants to say, oh, you know, make sure because we only see your tax return after the errands finished, so there's nothing we can do about it at that point we don't see your figures due in the air.

So we can say, oh, you're going to trigger payments on account, you need to start saving more.

Which is why we put stuff together like the tax calculator so that you can monitor it yourself throughout the year if you are just getting your self assessment done.

And again, that's cheapest chips as well, like 20 quid or something.

People always say, oh, accountants will save you money.

We don't have like this magical, like, you know, wand that we can wave over something and it just magically makes your tax bill lower.

The only difference that we do is, is that we know of things that you can claim but it also comes that we can't change the past as well.

So you either did spend the money on something or you didn't.

And if you didn't, we can't add it in.

So it's a case of Frau argument's sake.

Like if you're a higher rate taxpayer, then knowing what your allowances are, so when you hit a higher rate tax ban, start paying into a pension that will give you extra tax relief so that you will not only have a top up in your pension but it will extend your lower rate tax band so that you pay tax more tax at 20% than paying it at 40%.

So that's where the pension will come into play.

You know, maybe look at utilizing your capital gains free allowance.

You know, so if there are things that you're looking to dispose of, maybe you're into stock positions and shares, maybe you have artwork that you're looking to sell.

You know, if, if the, if it is, then plan that accordingly to utilize the tax free allowance every single year.

Because it's a case of use it or lose it, it doesn't carry forward for unused amounts.

And you know, and there's lots of different allowances that there are out there, but you've got to be playing the game and, and having them apply to you.

If you can't just apply them if they, if you didn't buy into it or you didn't dispose of assets or you know it.

So therefore you, you can't lower the tax bill.

But like we see people say, oh, I'm going to buy Lords of stock at the year end because that will reduce my tax bill.

Buying stock at the year end doesn't because we have to add that back in because you've got it ready for next year to use.

So that, that is just a bad idea.

That's.

And that's why you have an accountant is to.

We know all these different loopholes.

We know the things that you can and can't claim for and that's what we do.

We can't magically lower a tax bill.

And I think sometimes there's a misconception of I have an accountant because they'll magically come up with all these things I can claim for that I haven't spent money on.

Normal taxes.

Bill, we are there to help, but in a slightly different way than I think some people do think Pat's got a good question.

How much you have to earn to trigger payments on account when they're triggered.

Okay.

When they're triggered.

Okay.

So it's when you have 1000 pound or more in tax is when you first then enter the payment on account system.

So once we do your tax return, if you owe more than £1,000.

That's when your first payment on account will be calculated.

Although sometimes I've had ones where the tax bill's been like 1102 and it doesn't trigger it.

Right, okay.

That could be the national insurance coming lately.

Yeah, but sometimes it varies a little bit, but it is.

Yeah, about a thousand pound.

Helen, Helen, you're full of the good questions today.

Maybe we just get Helen on the a Q A session with Helen and Lee.

That would be good.

I have.

This is again another one because I've seen people put pension payments in their tax returns in prior years when they shouldn't have done.

I have a private pension.

Should I pay this out of my business or pay it out of my drawings?

Okay, so as a.

So so we're going back to sole trader and limited companies again now.

So as a sole trader, a pension isn't an expense.

Okay.

So so that's something that you organize personally and you pay personally.

It doesn't come into your business incomings and outgoings.

You can pay it from your business account because as a sole trader you are the business.

But in terms of that being an expense, it would just be classes, drawings in there.

So it does nothing to the tax, nothing to your expenses.

It's just somewhere that it gets paid out of.

What that does do is it goes on the tax return side of things and it's not so much what you paid in, but we, we gross the payments up so that you get tax relief.

But only once you start entering that higher rate tax band.

If you're not a higher rate taxpayer, there's really no need to put the pension on there because it's not going to do anything to the tax at all.

However, still pay into one because you're getting tax relief in the pension pot itself as well.

So every time that you pay money in out of your own pocket, the government tops up that payment as well in your pension pot.

So just because you're not getting tax relief on your tax return, you're still getting free money from the government in the pension pot.

So definitely, definitely contribute.

And if you want to know about stuff like private pensions and income protection and things like that, then if you head over to our website on our Trusted partners page, there was a lovely lady there called Romney and she is a financial advisor and she's working with a lot of pet clients at the minute.

So make sure that you drop her a message if you do want to sort a pension or your income protection.

And she'll also be at the Expo as well in November.

So if you do have questions for her, her and her partner, who's always also in the business, will be there to answer any questions.

Oh, God.

So as.

So if you, as my accountant, why is my accountant, can you not help me with pensions?

Because we're not legally allowed to.

Our license doesn't allow us.

You have to be.

What is like a special.

What financial.

Yeah, that's the one.

So we're not allowed.

Not that we don't want to, or we just can't be asked.

We're actually not allowed.

So that's why we point you to her direction.

Here's a caveat for that.

Hang on, Helen, but could you drop the link in for her again, please?

It's just on our website, Helen, if you go to pet website, there's a.

What have you called it on the.

Website, if you head over to science area, which is on the top right hand side and in the drop down, it's got trusted partners and you can see it.

Everybody that we've used personally and like we use Megan for our hr, we've got members of staff that use Romany for a mortgage application.

So they are people that we've interacted with that we know and that we trust.

Yeah.

So with regards to that pension, what we're not allowed to do is make a recommendation of which pension scheme is right for you or make any recommendations with regards to who you should go with.

However, if you had payroll with us, we are able to set up and manage and do all the contributions on your behalf once you've elected which pension scheme you want to use.

So we, we have a little bit of knowledge around pensions and certainly of how they work and how you contribute and how you saw it for the staff side, because we deal with that for you as an employer, but we just can't make that.

We can't say, this one's great, choose this one.

So that's where the financial advisors, the independent financial advisors, looks at your personal circumstances, look at your end, goals of what you want to achieve, what you want from the pension scheme.

And then they go, right, based on what you've told me, these are the ones that I would recommend.

Yeah.

So they're much better placed.

The same as if you tried to go to Romany and said, could you complete me tax return?

She probably be like, no, I can't.

But no, she's really good.

And we did a live with her not long ago.

So check out the podcast, the Pet Accountant podcast, because it was only probably about a Month ago.

It'll be on there, our little chatet with Romany.

And if you're an Instagram fan, she's called Definance, the finance woman on Instagram.

So you can drop her there.

Right, I think we've done a lot of questions for this this round.

You've answered them really quickly, which free me off.

I only had two plans, so I thought it would be at least 20 minutes for each one.

But thank you guys for listening, as always.

The podcasts go live on Mondays, so this one will be out, you can watch it back.

It will be in the group for the next 30 days.

And I am in the process of sorting out a YouTube channel to put all of these live videos on so that if you have missed any and you're more of a visual person and would love to look at our faces for an hour, then they'll all be on there for you to watch at your leisure.

If you haven't bought your expo ticket, please do it quickly because they are running out and that is on the 15th of November.

And again, if you want some more information on that, just go to the Pet Pro Expo website, Facebook page where all the information is on there.

What?

I've got two things before you end today.

Oh, right, yeah, it was just a very, very quick one in terms of if.

If any of you that are listening do trading cryptocurrency, HURC now has a live link to the crypto exchanges.

So they are getting real time information around every single transaction that goes.

They're going to know that you're buying and that you're selling the cryptocurrency.

So it's really, really important now that you do declare that on your tax returns, because obviously some of those cryptos can be worth thousands and thousands of pounds and it's the gains that they're interested in, not what you've bought them for.

But once you bought them and you sell them, it's that difference that you're going to get taxed on now with that live link and they're being fed information from all of the.

The crypto exchanges that are around, they're going to have that information there ready.

So if they, if you're not declaring it, then they're going to find out really, really quickly.

I wouldn't even know where to start with that.

Yeah, yeah, shares are, shares are quite difficult to work out.

This share pool balances and all the rest of it.

But yeah, to send them across, it's a fun afternoon.

So the other thing is, I seen a Question in one of the groups that actually says I'm a dog, a dog breeder, what flat rate scheme do I go on for if I've reached the 90,000 pound turnover for breeding dogs?

No, couple of answers on there, but there is, there's nothing specific in the flat rate legislation that would, that would, that would fall under.

However, if you're breeding them to become pets, they are most likely to fall under.

So other services not listed elsewhere and be at the 12.

Now remember, in the first year of VAT registration on the flat rate scheme you do get a 1% discount, so actually you're only going to pay 11%.

So you need to make sure that your software is set up for that and to make sure that once you've had that 12 months you take that 1% discount back off, otherwise your VAT returns will be wrong going forward.

There is a lower percentage but that's more aimed around farm animals.

So just please don't get mixed up between the tool and there.

We would suggest it would be the other services not listed elsewhere at 12% flat rate for a dog breeder to register for about on the flat rate scheme.

And that's why you come to the pet accountants, because we know things like this.

If you'd asked your normal local accountant they probably wouldn't know.

So there you go.

Right everyone, we're glad to be back.

It's been fun Ms.

Lee over the last few weeks and actually I'm actually not here next week so I'll make sure that Lee has a special guest or someone comes on willing to make sure that he does it.

But I'm selling myself next week in Malta so it's my turn to have a Holly Bob.

So if anyone emails me we'll get my out of office but anything urgent you can just call the office or drop Lee an email and if you want to become a client then again you can DM us, PM us, SMS us, whatever you want to do.

Email, phone, we're on all the platforms so get in touch and drop and booking a call with Tingen, who's our client manager.

We are having a little push at the moment just in terms of once we've done your self assessment, you are getting a little text from us asking if you'd like kindly leave us a review on Google.

We're just trying to build a profile and you know, and get out there because we have so many great clients and we, you know, we do so much for people that it's nice for others to read those.

I'm just mentioning this because I haven't been mentioned in any of those messages yet.

It's always Vicky, even if I do the work.

I know this is the most hilarious thing and I've tried to say bye twice and it keeps coming up with something.

But this is funny.

Even when I don't do the tax return, the person leaves review and goes, vic, Vicky was amazing.

Vicki and the two are amazing.

And I'm like, I'm not sure I did heard tatch turn and then I go and look and it was Lee.

And then I do like to ring him and go, ha, ha.

So if one of our lovely clients would like to leave Lee a review because he feels left out, that it's always me.

It's actually it's usually me and Emily, me, Emily, George, Lindsay are the ones that get the most shout outs.

Oh, yes, Tegan's book.

Could listeners give a review for the podcast as well?

That would be nice.

Maybe put Lee in the podcast once.

But this is an appeal to everyone out there.

Please leave Lee a nice review on the Pet Accountant because he's feeling a bit left out.

Pat did mention Lee.

You did, actually.

It was an out thought, Pat, but you did.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So, yeah, it doesn't always have to be clients.

If you listen to our lives or podcasts and you think we're amazing or you think Lee's amazing, this is an appeal to the UK to please leave Lee Thomas a positive review on the Pet Accountant website or Facebook.

That's why it doesn't get any pads for you.

Pad.

That's it.

Now we're done.

This is the reason Lee doesn't get any.

But no Pet Accountant appeal, please.

If someone could leave Lee a nice review, we might send you a little prize in the post if it's a client because we'll have you address if not.

So.

But if a client needs a lovely review, you might get a little prize in the plug.

I get really excited because I get the email that says something you have to reveal.

I'm like, oh, it's right.

Oh.

He says, well, Vicky, so there we go.

First client.

Really can't leave another review if you've already left one.

Yeah.

But if anyone from now who's a client or oh, who's not and is happy to give us your address, we will send you a little prize in the post for leaving Lee a positive review.

So we've bribing people for reviews as well.

Basically, it's a national appeal on the behalf of the Lee Thomas foundation that he's feeling a bit sad and left out.

So anyone that leaves the first person to leave Lee review on the website review page we will send you a little gift and I know what the gift is but I'm not revealing it.

But there we go.

National appeal.

See what happens.

Right?

We're gonna go and have a good week guys.

I will be next week but they'll be here with someone on his honors lonesome who knows.

But I'll catch up with you in a couple of weeks and yeah see you soon.

Fine.

Thanks very much.

Take care.

Bye bye.

Thanks for listening.

If you've enjoyed my podcast don't forget to subscribe for me and if you want to speak to me please visit my website@www.petaccountant.com.

and if you'd like to join my Facebook group which is full of like minded pet professionals then search accounting for pet professionals in Facebook and I will see you there.