[derek west]

When I went full time CC 2 months ago I saw an accountant who advised me to just use my personal bank account and ask for any cheques to be payable to "wayne zabel"

He said I dont need to open a business account,was this bad advice?

he's obviously oblivious to how much carpet cleaners can make. he probably thinks its just carpet cleaning, he'll never turn over more than £500 quid a week,

believe it or not, having a business account makes life so much easier when it comes to doing your books,

[wayne zabel]

£500 a week I wish

Us newbies are lucky to turn over half that.

Seriously I did tell him that I would be happy to make 20/25k a year whilst I was trying to get established,and quite honestly thats all I'm expecting for the first couple of years.Whether thats why he told me not to bother with a business account I dont know.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

A few thoughts......

If you can find a bank which will give you free business banking then fine but like everthing else in life (including using a cc) there will be pluses and minuses to it.

When we buy chemicals some will be more expensive than a competitor's chemicals, but we pay the extra because we believe the ones we purchase will do a better job.

Forget bankers and bonuses when thinking about the present problems-that's investment banking and nothing really to do with high street, retail banking which is what this thread is about.

Retail banking is like any other business and it expects to be paid for the service it provides inter alia converting a piece of paper ie. a cheque, into the means that you can buy other things with it. They're non too pleased if you try and evade their published tariff just in the same way as we as cc's aren't too pleased if our clients try and barter down our prices or short change us or get us to throw in a rug clean for free or.....you get my drift.

Neil, technically I think you mean tax evasion not tax avoidance. Avoidance is legitimate, evasion isn't.

Nothing wrong per se with an accountant advising you to use a private account but if you get investigated then trying to seperate out your private transactions from your business transactions in this personal account becomes one heck of a difficult job. And guess what your accountant will charge you for his time in trying to remedy it (his bill will almost certainly come to a lot more than the costs of running a business account) whilst you are bricking it that HMRC will be thinking that you are trying to evade taxes and will maybe charge you a penalty.

Clarity does have its advantages.

Rog

[M.Acorn]

Just about all the stuff going through the account is business related in my case,i also have a joint account for the running of the house,personal stuff.
All my fuel,even a % of what goes in my Scirocco,gets claimed back,as i use it for going out to quote jobs,at £1.27 p per litre ,i need too

[Neil Williams]

Just about all the stuff going through the account is business related in my case,i also have a joint account for the running of the house,personal stuff.
All my fuel,even a % of what goes in my Scirocco,gets claimed back,as i use it for going out to quote jobs,at £1.27 p per litre ,i need too

I give up on giving you advice on this.
Go and get a 2nd opinion from a charters accountant.
Failing that join the FSB just incase you get an inspection.

[Neil Grainger]

Neil

I am with them, always payment on completion and payment in my name. Never walk from Job without payment be domestic or commercial. People that dont want to pay on the day are just trying to drag it out in my mind. Even British Gas want payment on completion for emergency boiler repairs if you dont have an account with them. It the way the world should be.

Most companies wont mind and have never ever had a problem. My chartered account said to do this I have 2 personal accounts with lloyds and one busines that the DD are in i just transfer enough every month to pay them.

Banks earn enough from me so why should i pay for my own money to be paid to my acount. Alot of my customers are doing Direct transfer now and not any cheques at all.

[M.Acorn]

Banks earn enough from me so why should i pay for my own money to be paid to my acount. Alot of my customers are doing Direct transfer now and not any cheques at all.
   

2nd` ed

[Neil Williams]

My final word on this.
Let's get this right, there is nothing illegal or technically wrong with using your personal account for business transactions, BUT, from an administration point it can become a nightmare and drawn out process if at the end of the year you have business and personal transactions from the same place.
This in turn makes the accountants job untangling all this a much more drawn out process, which will probably cost you more (accountants fees) than paying a few pounds per month in bank fees.
I'd like to know how you get paid for all your comercial jobs on the day. What do you do? Hold the PA at gun point until the cheque book is found???

MD. I might have misread your comment about claiming fuel back for the car, if what you actually meant was that you have a 'nominated' private vehicle which you keep a milage log for, and then claim back the 40p (or so) per mile when using it for business use.

But like I said those of you who want to do it that way just carry on.

[Neil Grainger]

Wont do the Job Neil if they dont pay, its that simple. Always explain that payment on completion and most are happy with this.

I todays market why would you leave yourself open to a business going under or not paying because they have no cash flow. You just got to look at connaught for that. Even the area's biggest Estate agents i work for are payment on completion.