LEAP TRAINING TAX
Frank Wharton came in to talk to us today on Tax. Great guy and good presentation. No flaffing around. Straight to the point.
Tax is errr Taxing! Tax is something everybody hates paying. So when you get the opportunity to find out ways to pay less of it (legally) you tend to listen.
The advice from Frank is simple.
- Know what you have to pay, when you have to pay it and pay it.
- Be aware of the tax breaks and what you are entitled to.
- Avail of all the tax breaks!
- Avoid fines, which the revenue are happy to slap you with if you are late on payment
- As Ltd. Company know what is valid expenditure and what isn’t.. if you’re a tech startup and looking for a 50 plasma tv as a monitor it may raise some questions
- If you have a registered company office in your home you can claim a percentage of domestic bills. (Calculate the % of the house used as an office .. roughly) and then claim this % as an expense
- Keep receipts for every
- Try not pay by cash
- Pay by Credit card/ Laser/ Cheque
- If you drive around to meet you customers etc you can claim back mileage at the current civil servant rates
The bottom line for me is .. unless you look at this taxing stuff day in day out you won’t know all the tricks of the trade. As a startup you have to be able to juggle as many things as possible so you don’t spend every day thinking about .. is this tax deductable? Should I claim mileage or diesel vat back ? If you do then you are spending less time thinking about sales, clients, customers, development work and coffee.
One of the best advice we’ve received in the past (and taken on board) is – know you strengths and weaknesses. When your one of weaknesses can result in your company losing potential hard earn money you should really think about getting the experts in. Of course you should be aware of the rules of Tax and paying the Taxman but not have to worry about every little detail!
Some of the things that surprised me:
- The fact the 3 year corporation tax break for start-ups may not be applicable to a lot of start-ups.(I’ll do some more digging on this and post again at a later date)
- Directors taking money out from the company is considered Net Salary
