Tax is a fact of life. Therefore, when starting out in business it is important to get the right legal structure in place for you and your circumstances, as well the right tax and accounting principles in place to ensure that your financial paperwork is in order and is as easy as possible. You will need to consider the following things:

1. Decide on a Legal Structure for your business

When setting up a new catering business you will need to decide on the business structure that you will use.

The options available include:-

Limited Company
Limited Liability Partnership
Partnership
Sole Trader

Each one has different advantages and disadvantages depending on your situation and circumstances. For some you have to pay more tax but get more protection from losing your personal assets, others are set up differently. You can read more about the different types on many websites including the Central Government website.

2. Register with H.M. Revenue & Customs

Having decided on the legal form of your business, you will need to register the business with H.M. Revenue & Customs and attend to matters such as taxation, Vat and PAYE where applicable. This is relatively straight forward to do, but will vary depending on the Legal Structure that you have set up.

3. Set up a Book Keeping system

Finally, you will need to decide on the book keeping system that you are going to use for your new business, which may be either manual or computer based. Having a proper system in place right from the beginning will save you a lot of time, hassle and money.

Obviously tackling these issues is quite taxing (excuse the pun) and therefore we recommend that you use an accountant to help you get all of these matters right from the outset. They will be able to advise you on what is the right choices for your and circumstances and can actually help you save money.

If you Contact Us we can put you directly with a firm of accountants who will be able to help you.

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