When I started, I had no clients, nor any obvious means of gaining some.
I went out and literally ‘knocked doors’ of small businesses. I even walked the length of taxi ranks - anywhere that had self employed people.
No doubt, you will get some rubbish, but that’s a learning experience (besides, during the early days, can you afford to be choosy?).
Eventually, one or two said they were unhappy with their existing set-up and were happy to give me a try. I can think of at least three who are still clients.
Keep persevering and eventually you’ll start picking up work.
Good luck, I wish you well.
PS. It helped that I came from a sales environment, so rejection wasn’t an issue.
Not sure how much ‘mileage’ (no puns please) is in this, but by keeping the instrument out of the company, should the business go badly wrong, then the instrument is ‘protected’ from potential creditors. At £40k, I suspect it’s a mean piece of kit.
If we make a rental profit of say £1,000, then the tax relief claim would be £200 (20% x £1,000). Therefore reducing our UK tax liability by £200.
If we make a profit of £2,000, our tax relief will be £400, thus reducing our UK tax liability by £400.
In other words, the greater our Spanish rental income, the greater our tax relief, and therefore the lower our UK tax liability.
I accept that it is likely that the Spanish tax paid would be higher due to the likely higher rents taken, but this may not always be the case.
We are presently in a position where our income has been taxed at 24% on turnover, and yet, when we bring expenses into the mix, we have actually made a loss (we had a lot of maintenance & repairs).
My answers
When I started, I had no clients, nor any obvious means of gaining some.
I went out and literally ‘knocked doors’ of small businesses. I even walked the length of taxi ranks - anywhere that had self employed people.
No doubt, you will get some rubbish, but that’s a learning experience (besides, during the early days, can you afford to be choosy?).
Eventually, one or two said they were unhappy with their existing set-up and were happy to give me a try. I can think of at least three who are still clients.
Keep persevering and eventually you’ll start picking up work.
Good luck, I wish you well.
PS. It helped that I came from a sales environment, so rejection wasn’t an issue.
I agree!
Not sure if I agree with the ‘not really built for volume’.
Have a client where the quarterly VAT reports run to over 35 pages. No trouble at all.
I run in excess of 100 transactions per month.
I generally find that businesses tend to buy from the same suppliers and tend to buy the same things.
I would run a search in the bank account using a common term and start making the alterations accordingly. You can change the VAT rate in bulk.
Please forgive the ‘teaching to suck eggs’ advice.
Not sure how much ‘mileage’ (no puns please) is in this, but by keeping the instrument out of the company, should the business go badly wrong, then the instrument is ‘protected’ from potential creditors. At £40k, I suspect it’s a mean piece of kit.
We have many clients on FreeAgent, and some have explained transactions as Out of Scope in error.
The search facility that David Ross had suggested is by far the easiest and quickest way to correct multiple entries.
Hi All,
Thank you for taking the time to 'get involved' with this.
Clearly, it is not an area with which I am fully 'up to speed' with.
Will have to go and do some further reading!
Thank you all again.
Spoil-sport :-)
Thanks for all your help.
So why not simply ignore my costs, calculate greater profits and therefore, claim higher tax relief?
Is this ‘doable’?
Hi Richard,
Thank you for all your help with this.
Been having further thoughts about this.
If we make a rental profit of say £1,000, then the tax relief claim would be £200 (20% x £1,000). Therefore reducing our UK tax liability by £200.
If we make a profit of £2,000, our tax relief will be £400, thus reducing our UK tax liability by £400.
In other words, the greater our Spanish rental income, the greater our tax relief, and therefore the lower our UK tax liability.
I accept that it is likely that the Spanish tax paid would be higher due to the likely higher rents taken, but this may not always be the case.
We are presently in a position where our income has been taxed at 24% on turnover, and yet, when we bring expenses into the mix, we have actually made a loss (we had a lot of maintenance & repairs).
All seems a bit ‘not right’.
Are we missing something really silly stupid?
OOPS!
Yes you are correct, and yes it is!
Thank you for easing my mind regarding this.