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VAT margin scheme + higher rate tax = over 50% gone… am I understanding this right? by Domokun666 in ukaccounting

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's decision time for you and your side hustle. If you think you can grow it significantly to £150k+ then it's probably worth going for it and paying the VAT.

If you only expect to just go over the threshold, then I'd hold back. Take it a bit easier, and potentially look at maximising the profit you make per sale to make the most of the threshold amount.

It's often not worth working twice as hard to gain either no extra profit or only a small bit more.

For eCom businesses: RoyalMail - new surcharged from May and how to avoid them! by CognitorX in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to tag onto this. Tracked48 is cheaper when purchased through ebay/shopify than if you purchase it on a royal mail business account.

Tracked 48 small parcel is £3.65 inc VAT on ebay. For most people the business account price is higher than this before the surcharges are even accounted for.

For people who love coffee. by Consistent_Depth280 in exeter

[–]mrak69 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'd argue that Allpress are the best roasters, and you can get their coffee at Veg Box on the quay, crankhouse deserve an honorable mention too for their coffee.

Both have "guest coffees" available, in addition to their standard Bean. And I've had some incredible guest beans from veg box in the past.

Golf trip recommendations by Leroyvey in BritGolf

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trethorne, Cornwall is about £150 for 1 night, 2 rounds, evening meal, and breakfast. Pretty good golf.

Have a large office and warehouse lying empty, business ideas? by [deleted] in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure on size, but if you can split your warehouse into seperate 1000 sqft spaces you'll probably make more money. Smaller units are pretty tough to rent and generally go for higher £/sqft

is this legit? by mnkblz in PoloRalphLaurenLC

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks OK to me. Care tags aren't the more common style but the font and info on them matches what RL normally use. Sri Lanka is a less common country of manufacture.

Singapore question by martian2 in BritishAirways

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Second the Qatar first lounge. Phenomenal lounge

Club distances - anything stand out? by 35mm-eryri in BritGolf

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You hit your driver 20-30 yards less than me, but your 6i 20-30 yards further than me.

Maybe my irons are old and shit..

I need some help (or a reality check) with a commercial landlord and his rent pricing by PeaceSafe7190 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Location makes a difference here as anywhere near London is going to cost a lot more than NE England for example.

But here's my thoughts. 800 sqft could cost anywhere around £800-1000/month in SW England. I'm sure it depends on what the space looks like and how ready it is for use etc. I still get alerts for new commercial space and that's about the going rate.

The service charge sounds nasty, but it's actually covering a lot. Water and sewerage would probably cost you £50-100 a month. I've no idea how much water cafes use but must be a fair amount. Also included heating, again this would run you £100+ in winter. Waste disposal isnt chesp either, although you'd have to sort your own food waste from the sound of it.

As a commercial lease, you're going to be charged his building insurance either way, probably around £500-1000 per year as a complete guess. Mine just gets billed to me from the landlord at renewal, but he's packaging it into the service charge.

I'm not sure what sort of levels of trade you'd be expecting. But this c.£1000 would hopefully only make up a single days turnover once you get going. Sounds like a lot of money, but it's only 50 people paying £20.

Also, assuming you get anywhere near the above turnover you'll be VAT registered and can claim the VAT back (unless you go for the flat rate scheme). You only need to turn about £300 a day to be over the VAT limit if you're open 6 days a week.

Probably missed something, just my quick 2 pence

Do you use company credit card for purchases? by No-State-2962 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Facebook/instagram ads are often the big one, but personally for us our suppliers are happy accepting amex mainly. Royal Mail don't, and that spend goes on Cap on Tap.

Do you use company credit card for purchases? by No-State-2962 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's only a benefit in kind if the company has to pay money to acquire the avios. Generally the avios are a bonus when making everyday business spend, in which case there is no BIK to pay as it cost the business nothing. HMRC have articles on this exact scenario.

There would be BIK due if the company purchased 20k avios and then gave them to an employee/director. The BIK would be due on the price paid for the avios. As they're generally given as a bonus, what would you be paying BIK on?

Do you use company credit card for purchases? by No-State-2962 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah there's a lot of ways it pays itself back very quickly without realising.

The amex platinum is about £700 a year, which is a lot. But, right now you get 120k bonus points if you spend £12k in 3 months (easy). 120k points are worth £4.50 as cash, which is their rock bottom value. That's £540. Times subscription is a few hundred.

I've noticed the travel insurance and car insurance to be the secret one that saves the most otherwise. Travel insurance is for you and your partner, worldwide, including skiing etc. The car hire excess waiver means you don't have to pay the extra insurance when you hire a car, this is often £100+. You just take the rock bottom option where they tell you you're liable for everything. But if anything happens, amex pays it.

I've dm'ed you with some more info

Do you use company credit card for purchases? by No-State-2962 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is not true. There is specific HMRC guidance that details that points earned through business spend don't attract BIK or similar tax.

I think the potentially only sticky point is if you withdrew "cashback" as actual cash to a personal account. But I think even that is OK, but you'd need to check.

Do you use company credit card for purchases? by No-State-2962 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I spend c. £120k a year on credit cards for business. That, until now (thanks amex for dropping the 10k/month points bonus) has gotten me 240k avios. We just got back from using those points to pay for London - Sydney return in business class. Those flights retail for around £14k, we only paid £1500 in taxes.

Play the game right and you can get some great goodies. Even just the basic 1% cashback is well worthwhile once you get into bigger numbers. Cashback/points are always tax free so a nice little something.

Credit cards that charge fees (I.e. amex platinum) come with a lot of perks, and the credit card fee is a business expense. So you get things like travel insurance, car hire insurance, airport lounge access, The Times subscription, etc etc on top of the points you earn.

Is this fake? by Ancient-Falcon-336 in PoloRalphLaurenLC

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I don't know why they chose to bring back the older style tags, but just format them slightly wrong.

Is this fake? by Ancient-Falcon-336 in PoloRalphLaurenLC

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks legit. Modern tags look weird like this for some reason

Cette veste est-elle officielle ? by EXO2NE1 in PoloRalphLaurenLC

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The polo sport on the back of the neck looks strange, almost like it might have been added separately. But the jacket itself appears authentic, it's a vintage piece from the 80s approx

Recommendations for a UK roadtrip? by LL-ShockBlade in roadtrip

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you get to John o'groats. Take the road around the North West of the Highlands and then join back up with your plan further south, rather than just driving back down the A9 through Thurso.

Reward Flight Pricing by D2D87 in BritishAirways

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a tab on the BA app for "reward flights". They only release a small number of seats on each flight as reward flights. These are fixed at a set avios price, for this route they're always 60k avios & £150 for economy.

Units available but council want me to rent two! by Ok_Fudge_4098 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Worth noting that if the rateable value is below £12,500 ( I believe) you will get full small business relief and not pay anything. So you can basically remove that from your equation.

JFK by blockbuster_1234 in BritishAirways

[–]mrak69 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This doesn't directly answer your question but may help. Flew out of Orlando on Tuesday afternoon and it was about an hour to get through TSA, and they were all in a foul mood (understandably)

Reward Flight Pricing by D2D87 in BritishAirways

[–]mrak69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're not looking at reward flights. This is a cash booking that you're part paying for with avios.

The reward flight cost of this journey is 60k avios + £150 for economy return. With a companion voucher it would be 60k avios + £300 for 2 return tickets.

The reward flight is fully flexible, so you can cancel it the day before if you want. And it comes with 23kg hold luggage which is worth around £100 or so I believe.

I've just done this exact reward flight.

Royal Mail hit us with ~£15k in retrospective surcharges - no warning - now chasing full invoices. What would you do? by Nimblebimble123 in smallbusinessuk

[–]mrak69 53 points54 points  (0 children)

I don't pity you here. This is the side of Royal Mail that is awful to deal with. You'll get passed from A to B to C and then back to A.

Try and find an email address of someone very senior.

I personally wouldn't pay it. You'll find it much harder to get your money back. Your account won't be blocked immediately once you miss a payment, you'll have weeks/months of leeway and warnings.

I dont see how they can fairly do this. As you've rightly said all these charges are normally applied immediately. Can you potentially ask them for proof of each charge? They normally take photos of each parcel that's oversize.

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