also do i have to declare it to anyone ie the tax man?Starting up a ironing service in U.K..tips and advice please?
OH MY GOD PLEASE COME AND DO MY IRONING!!!!...I DESPISE IRONING...!!!!!!!!!!!!
To answer your question. YES. But I'll tell you how it works:
Your first year of business, don't worry about tax. BUT keep all your receipts...petrol etc. Secondly manke a note of ALL THE MONEY you make whether it's cash or whatever. Try to keep it in a specific book and not millions of papers and put down when you made the money.
Now, you pay tax for the subsequent year of trading...so your first year of trading you don't pay tax...you pay the year after for that year. BUT you must tell Inland Revenue you are SELF-EMPLOYED otherwise you will be fined. Just go to their website, sign up and they send you a pack and job done.
Then don;t worry about anything else...as a sole trader just do your business form home advertising...think of yourself as a window cleaner...ladder/van/clean windows...
IF and only IF you see you start making money...then start thinking of how you will pay tax on it. But CONCENTRATE on making money first....
Because once you start making money all you do is you take all your books (the book you wrote how much you earn +receipts) to an accountant, give him a couple hundred quid and he'll do everything regarding tax for you...and it's worth it cos he saves you at least a few hundred on tax...so it pays for itself. But this is why you should keep all your profits in a seperate book...it's to help your accountant otherwise if he has to sort out your messy bookeeping he will charge you a hell of a lot more.
Good luck
AND PLEASE IRON MY STUFF!!!
p.s. Ignore wannabe Alan Sugar who responded before me...business plan??? lol...for an ironing and cleaning service? PLAN: clean and iron clothes, get paid. Job done. What an idiot. lolStarting up a ironing service in U.K..tips and advice please?
The most important thing to do before you start your business is to write a business plan (which need not be very complicated - how much do want to earn and how much ironing will you need to each week to get that) and before you do that establish if there is a demand for the service in your local area. How many businesses are there local to you offering a similar service, how busy are they and what are they charging?
What equipment do you need to buy, how much turnover will you need
to pay for the equipment? (Some companies have expensive automated shirt ironing machines for example - which is why you can get your shirt ironed for 99p in some areas).
Once you have done that and worked out if you can make a profit charging a competitive rate you can test the water by having some cards /leaflets printed and doing a mail drop to see if you get any business - before spending any money on an expensive ironing machine, only do that after building the business up over a few months.
When you do get some work, then you will need to register as self employed with hmrc.gov, you can download a form and find out all
you need to know from their website.
You might like to consider starting up casually, by undertaking work for friends and relying on word of mouth to reach a wider audience. This will let you know how much interest there is in the service, and by comparing charges with those of the professional launderers in the area, you should be able to offer a competitive rate.
I only wish that the service was available near me, then I could go back to wearing shirts rather than tee shirts/jeans all the time!
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