Re: FN-FORUM: tax / sole trader names question

date posted 21st January 2005 20:28

The Company Secretary is responsible for keeping companies house informed of
any address or name changes or changes in trading classification as soon as
it happens, there are penalties if you don't but it doesn't mean records are
correct because some people don't update their records.

and

Our registered address is 200 miles away from our actual address so the
reg'd address means nothing much, a lot of people use their accountant's
address.

Carla
www.naughtymutt.com

on 21/1/05 7:18 pm, Richard Monk at [EMAIL REMOVED] wrote:

>
> Sorry one last question on this...
> Do companies have to keep their records at Companies House up to date? For
> example, if they change address?
> If so, can I take it that the information available at Companies House's
> searchable database, is also up to date?
>
> Richard.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] Behalf Of Marc
> Wilson
> Sent: 21 January 2005 15:21
> To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
> Subject: Re: FN-FORUM: tax / sole trader names question
>
>
>
> On 21 Jan 2005 14:44:37 -0000, Richard Monk [EMAIL REMOVED]
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Just another question for the day, partly in relation to what some of you
>> were discussing in earlier threads concerning using a 'business name' to
>> describe a sole-trader, accepting cheques under this name, etc.
>>
>> I have been in contact with a colleague in the past who has been using two
>> different 'trading names', call them 'GraphicsCo1' and 'GraphicsCo2', and
>> accepting consultancy work from a variety of employers whilst billing under
>> these names. There are two questions I have relating to this - obviously if
>> he is paid to 'GraphicsCo1' then the bank were willing to accept cheques
>> payable to this name, but does the inland revenue view this as ok?
>
> within reasonable limits, you can have as many trading names as you need,
> as long as there's no intent to defraud. If he's splitting the income
> between the two names to avoid registering for VAT, for instance, he's
> heading for a world of pain- there are rules about "artificial separation".
> Penalties can exceed 100% of the tax owed, plus compound interest on the
> lot. Custodial sentences are not unknown.
>
> Even if you are a sole trader, you should maintain a separate business bank
> account (or accounts, if trading under different names). IIRC, it's
> actually now a criminal offence to run a business from an individual
> account- it certainly breaches the T&C of any bank. Just from the point of
> view of documenting what money is going where, and why, it's a good idea
> anyway.
>
>> Equally, does he need to register these trading names with Companies House
>> or anything?
>
> Only Limited Companies (including PLCs) are registered with Companies House
> (there's sort of a clue in the name).
>
> There's no requirement to register as a Sole Trader or Partnership.
>
>> I had noticed that both names were already the names of
>> existing companies.
>
> That *may* be a problem- he might be found to be infringing a copyright or
> trademark. If he's trading as GraphicsCo1 Limited, and he's not Limited,
> he will be in deep doodoo. Otherwise, it's only a concern if he is
> attempting to "pass off", i.e. pretend to be another organisation to get
> trade.
>
>> I am convinced that he may be trying something a little dodgy on in terms
> of
>> IR, but I have no real idea of how a lot of this works.
>
> It could be a bit of a "shell game"- keep the money moving in a confusing
> way, and no tax gets paid. I know an Ozzie contractor that managed that
> not once, but twice: paid no tax for 5 years, ran away to Oz, did a "take
> it or leave it" deal with the IR and C&E- for about 10% of what was owed.
> --
> Marc Wilson
>

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