CDCs...limited company.

lynjo

Full Member
As a relatively new CDC my business has taken off rather well and my accountant has suggested that i might want to change to a 'limited company' rather than be a sole trader. Please can anyone else tell me more about this and what it entails. He did baffle me a bit with all the info and to be quite honest i didnt really understand it at this point and thought it would be way way in the future so didnt worry too much about what he was saying at this point....(that'll teach me eh!!!!) So based on my lack of knowledge please could anyone tell me if they are a limited company rather than a sole trader and if so what are the differences and the benefits for me.
Obviously i will ask my accountant in more depth about it but would like to get an honest opinion from someone who is a 'limited company'.

Thanks in advance

lynjo
 
I've got two limited companies (although I'm just a sole trader as a CDC as I haven't really seen the need for limited liability). Personally I wouldn't bother unless I was making a heck of a lot of money from it and paying myself only part of that as a salary.

If you've not been trading long the main differences are in the way you pay tax and deliver accounts. You won't benefit from limited liability, because as a new company any lender would require personal guarantees anyway.

I guess it depends on your plans for the future and for your counselling business. What is your accountant's reasoning?
 
Hey there.

My accountant bought this up today because of the volume of sales and the increase since i last saw him. I work as a CDC full time and have just been approached by a local medical board to advertise (by recommendation - they contacted me) as their main recommendation of weight loss on a brochure they are currently getting together. 7 companies have been approached all with the 'health' area.
My accountant thinks this will be quite big in business for me (the local health centre has 5 suites each with about 4 - 5 drs in it.) and that my income would suffice being a limited company. I currently have 103 clients on my books of which 73 are current so business is going well. So this is his reasononing. He only mentioned it as a possibility but obviously i want to see all the pros and cons of this. What do you think given this reasoning?
 
As an Accountant and a CDC I cannot see what advantage there would be in you "becoming" a limited company. Usually one has a limited company to limit your liabilities say if a customer reneged on a deal and left you unable to pay your debts. This does not apply to CDCs as cleints pay for their packs as they receive them. Also if you become a limited company you would have to operate a PAYE system which would mean You would have to deduct income tax and both employee and employers NI from anything you paid yoirself. A lot of loopholes have been closed recently such a taking a small income and then paying yourself dividends. Obviously I do not know your circumstances but if you were paying 40% tax on your income there could possibly be an advantage.
This is only my opinion and your accountant would have a greater knowledge of your affairs. I suggest you question him more closely as to why he is suggesting such a move.
 
Thanks for that. I will certainly dig deeper and wouldnt make any rash decisions. I am very 'blond' (no offence meant) on financial legalities etc so was after info. Fo r now i think i will push it aside and continue as i am then as this is working for me quite nicely. If there had been mega benefits i would have certainly given it serious thought. I wont panic just yet then and will investigat in my own time. Not that i have much of that at the moment.

Thanks all
 
Hi Lynjo!
Kinda off the main reason behind your mail, but curious about the company who approached you to advertise in the health brochures. This happened recently to myself and one of my CDC's I sponsored. They wanted to arrange for one of their salespersons to come out for an appointment, show us the advertisements/brochures, discuss the areas that could be covered etc, etc. It sounded fabulous, but ended up a nightmare! I cancelled my appointment, but my other CDC did meet and discuss everything, and was told she could think about it before making any decison, and they gave her a deadline. She promplty decided against it, and called the next day to say so. However, they still tried to claim her Direct Debits for the monthly installments, by FORGING her signature!!!! :eek: Yep! The bank got involved, and luckily no monies taken. They'd also changed the amount to the full amount payable on the DD mandate and scored out the monthly amount! :mad: Can't remember the name of the company who called, but if any of this is sounding familiar, please let me know, and I'll ask her what the name was.
Hope your offer is a genuine one, but it sounds very like the company who called us!

Lainey xxx
 
Hi Lainey.

OMG. What a bl**dy nightmare for you both.
Firstly thanks for letting me know this but the first thing i did was contact the health centre direct and they confirmed everything i had been told over the phone. So i agreed for the salesteam to come out but only at the health centre and to be with the office staff. Luckily everything was fine.
I am sorry that you and your friend had to go through this and there are still some unscrupulous people out there.

Hope it never happens to anyone else out there.
 
Redpam - thanks for your info - does that mean that you aren't able to pay the directors upto the tax threshold and take dividends now?
 
Just not sure about the limited company bit. I've got 132 current medical cards at the moment and probably 200 more that I haven't seen in over 6 months. If there are no benefits from being a limited company, I'm not sure I'd go through it.
 
Hey guys

I can only see your accountant making that decision because of the volume of sales that you are doing at the moment, and maybe he/she has suggested this to save you money from that tax man..

Im not 100% sure myself but i think that it also depends on how much you are drawing out of it as well. As a sole trader your paying tax on net profit...thats after your drawings, and as a limited company, you work as an employee of your company and get a set salary. As this salary comes out of the company accounts as an expense and then company's pay a lower tax rate on their profits made. However at this stage dont forget that you still have to pay tax on the salary that you get from the company so it near enough works out the same thing.

But as suggested before, sit down with your accountant and see exactly how it could benefit you, also consider if your business increases/decreases by say 30%... thats the nature if counselling!!!

Good luck, and keep us posted
 
Blimey Debz.

How on earth do you get time for everyone????


Well time is very short, hence it took me 6 days to reply :(. I mainly work in drop in sessions because people found they didn't want to be tied down to a certain time each week because of other commitments, or problems with the traffic. Works quite well. And of course I don't see all those numbers every week. Just over 40 a week in fact, something like that, but it's seasonal and sometimes I'm not as busy.
 
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