Working at Home on the Internet » Home Business

Tax Tips for Small Business and the Self-Employed

Joe Hauckes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:47:59 +0000

For those running their own business the exciting, exotic and thrilling world of Tax, VAT and accounting offers many a sleepless night of chills and spills, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even hardened small business men and women can be found poring over coffee stained slips of paper and hefty volumes of tax manuals that can give War & Peace a run for its money in terms of length and impenetrability. For first timers, or even relatively experienced business people, there are some simple steps to getting your tax affairs in order.

The key points

Make sure you have an accountant. In most cases, especially in the case of small business people, tax, VAT and payroll will not be your area of expertise. The regulations are complex and small changes to them can have a big impact. A professional accountant will be able to ensure that all the details are correct and comply with legislation. It may seem like an expense too far, but a professional will ensure you meet your liabilities and might just help to highlight any allowances that you may easily miss on your own. The actual cost of an accountant is money well spent and can save you money in the long term.
Submitting your accounts, tax returns to HMRC, or documents to Companies House, must be done on time. Paperwork needs to be accurate and up to date. Late submissions can incur penalties and mistakes may encourage investigations by HMRC. Deadlines can be found on the HMRC website and the online deadline is normally later than the paper deadline. If you don’t already submit online, now is the time to start, not only does it give you more time, it will soon be compulsory.
Keep detailed and accurate records for at least six years. Income and outgoings should be recorded and records retained, HMRC are strict about this and it can be a costly mistake to make if you do need to produce records for them.
Claim all the allowances you are entitled to – for new businesses this can include incorporation costs, equipment purchase or help with your business rates. This is where an accountant is worth their weight in gold and the cost of employing them can ‘earn’ you money.
If you don’t already use accounting software or bookkeeping software it may be the time to make the investment. Apart from being a cost that can be offset against tax in most cases, accounting software can save you significant amounts of time. In terms of record keeping it allows you to centralise all of your records in one place, have easy access to them and retain them for the required period. Accounting software also allows you to prepare documents quickly and easily for your accountant, which makes their job easier and will save money on their fees. Two main types of accounting software are available. Desktop software or online accounting software are the two main options – the latter means that your accounts are accessible from any computer and you can add your accountant to the users list. The latter feature again saves a great deal of time and effort, in turn saving money.

Take action now

Tax laws and regulations change frequently and even for the smallest of businesses they can be frustrating. The more aspects of tax you need to deal with the more time consuming accounting can be. As the financial year draws to a close, consider employing an accountant and purchasing accounting software if you have not already done so. With the right advice and the right tools, the start of the new financial year doesn’t need to leave you with a financial hangover.

Restarting the Featured Home Business Page This Coming Monday!

Joe Hauckes — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:29:19 +0000

Long, long ago in the annals of Working at Home on the Internet, we had a fairly successful run of Featured Home Businesses. Frankly it’s been way too long. So, this coming Monday will mark the restart of the Featured Home Business project to help other Home Business owners promote their businesses.

Everyone is invited to participate.

You can be a Full Time Home Business Owner, Part-Time Work at Homer, or a Tele-Commuter. Anyone who Works from Home, on the Internet or in the Field and has access to a Computer can participate.

You can submit an article using the Contact page, for your Work at Home Company, whatever pertinent business information and links to pages you would like to be reviewed for inclusion. If they are accepted, they will be posted as a Featured Home Business and included on the Featured Home Business Page.

Rules for Inclusion:

1. Write and submit an article to me using the Contact Form.

2. The article/business information must be original, not just a link to your site or promotion.

3. You may include any links to your site (excluding affiliate links) and various pages. ie. about, contact, articles, posts.

4. No Spam, Splogs or Spages. Anything that can be considered Spam will not be considered and ignored.

All submissions will be reviewed by me for content and relativity to Working at Home and Home Business. Any Company from a Well Established Business looking to expand to a Start-up wanting Free Exposure will be considered. All Honest business people are Welcome.

But, SPAM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

Use the Contact Form to Submit Your Home Business for Inclusion.

And in case you are wondering, there are no strings attached. No unauthorized advertisements, linking, e-mail, spamming or anything underhanded at all. These are NOT Paid Endorsements. This is purely my attempt to help any Home Business Entrepreneur (including me) in any way I can through cooperative exposure.

Is It Time to Kickstart the Featured Home Business Page? [poll]

Joe Hauckes — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:52:15 +0000

Let’s take a little trip in the Way Back Machine to January 2007.

That’s when we started the Featured Home Business Page on WAHI. There were quite a few small business owners that took advantage of the (limited) exposure to their endeavours to highlight their business and let people know what they were all about.

That was a little over three years ago and although it never really ended, there has not been anyone else added since September 2008. I think it may be time to remedy that, but I’ll leave it up to you.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

You can see the original introduction post here or just take a gander at the Featured Home Business page to get an idea of what it’s all about.

Let me know what you think because I am really thinking about kickstarting this at the beginning of April.

Expanding MCBS Consulting in Baby Steps

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:03:49 +0000

The recession has hit us all to some extent in our personal lives and in our business lives as well. Some have decided to just give up. Some have decided to work for someone else if they can find a job. Still others have gone off the deep end and expanded their horizons by expanding their businesses.

I have opted to take the latter step although with a little spice (for me) by taking a leap of faith…

I’m going to start Advertising!

I have always depended on WOM (word of mouth) and recommendations for all of my Computer Consulting business and have (for the most part) done fairly well. Now it is time to expand, albeit in a very measured and baby step kinda way.

The plan is to start off small:

Ask some of my regular clients if they would be interested in participating in my campaign
Design a few square (in the sidebar) and banner ads for display
Find a way to track individual affiliate statistics
Get opinions on the design of ads before actual deployment
Offer you, the community, an opportunity to participate
If successful, possibly use an Ad Agency for future campaigns

Steps one, two and three have already been accomplished. Step four is tomorrow, by asking YOU for your opinion on the Ads I have designed. Step five will be offered to YOU in the next few days, after the poll closes. Six will all depend on how things pan out in the next month or two with the first five.

There ya have it. Hopefully, a step in the right direction for expanding my Computer Consulting business in small, baby steps.

Thoughts?