Business

No, but you should still have a business plan stating what you are planning to do and what you want to achieve. Prepare a table including your planned figures, for example, the prospective number of customers, the average value of each sale, your sales income, materials bought, overheads, profit, etc.

Any debts or losses incurred by the business.

Prepare a notice and display it where any customers, visitors, etc. can see it.

By completing and sending HM Revenue & Customs forms CWF1 and CA5601.

For most businesses, when your turnover exceeds £64,000 a year (2007/08 figure).

Contact your local National Insurance office, listed in the phone book.

Yes, unless your profits are below a certain level. You need to register either way.

By completing the relevant parts of a tax return.

In principle, you can either pay yourself a salary (which could be in the form of a bonus or other remuneration) or, so long as you hold shares in the company, you could be paid a dividend.

If you are paid a salary, normal PAYE rules apply. If you are paid a dividend, the company doesn't have to pay any tax over at the time of making the distribution. This is because dividends can only be paid out of profits which have already been taxed. In principle, dividends are now a more tax-efficient way of withdrawing profits from a company than salary. If you have lent money to your company and that company wishes you to be able to withdraw some of that loan (to have it paid back), there would be no tax involved with any such repayment.

If you are self-employed, while you will be paying into your state pension by means of your National Insurance contributions (assuming you are paying them) you won't have any other pension scheme available unless you are paying into one. You are strongly advised to consult an independent financial adviser to set you up with a scheme most suitable for you.

If he is employed by you, yes. If he remains self-employed, no.

It depends on the space occupied by your business - contact your local authority for advice.

If you are an employee, so long as your employer agrees that you can work from home (and whether or not your employer provides you with equipment to carry out such work), you may be entitled to seek a reduction in council tax on the ground that the room you use as an office can no longer be used, for example as a bedroom. It would be advisable for you not to hold business meetings at your home, because too many of those might constitute a change of use and cause other problems with your local council.

Work out the area of your home taken up by your business; apply that as a percentage.

You must register with your local authority environmental health department at least 28 days before opening.

No, but you still need to apply the principles of the Act. See the Information Commissioner's website for more information.

It's always best to have a partnership deed so that if anything should happen to one of the partners, or you should fall out, there is a legal agreement entered into at the start which establishes how the partnership should be dissolved and how the assets and liabilities allocated.

Lawpack has it's own Business Partnership Agreement Form Pack or its Scottish version - both can be purchased for only £4.49.

In principle, it's illegal for a director to borrow money from his or her own company. Small expense sums are allowed to be borrowed in advance, but if a substantial sum is borrowed, not only does tax have to be paid on the sum borrowed (this sum is repaid by the Inland Revenue when the loan is repaid), but in addition, interest has to be paid on the beneficial effect of enjoying what is normally an interest-free loan. The short answer to this question is 'no'.

This is a tricky one - it all depends. As a general rule, it's inadvisable to incorporate if your profits are under £50,000 for sole traders and £100,000 for two people in partnership, but with the rates of corporation tax as they currently are, many businesses are incorporating with profits lower than these.

In principle, you are liable to Capital Gains Tax in respect of any assets used in your business. However, if further business assets are purchased within one year before or three years after the sale, you can claim 'rollover relief' as a result of which the gain on the disposal is deducted from the cost of the new business assets acquired. Therefore, no tax is paid until the new business assets are sold, unless they too are replaced. For these assets to qualify they must either be land and buildings, fixed plant and machinery, milk and potato quota or other agricultural quotas. Please note that motor vehicles or any vehicle on wheels don't qualify.

Corporation Tax is the tax that limited companies and unincorporated associations (such as clubs) pay on their profits. It's a tax on the profits of the company; profits include interest and capital gains.

Corporation Tax is accounted for in 12-month periods, unless the accounting period from its commencement to the first accounting date, or the last period of operation, is less than 12 months. (You may already be thinking that it's time to consult a professional accountant and, in our view, if you have a limited company and you are dealing with Corporation Tax you should certainly seek professional advice.)

Every company has to fill in an annual Corporation Tax Return (Form CT600) and this Return has to be submitted by the company secretary or the directors within 12 months of the end of the accounting period. However, tax has to be paid, assuming we are dealing with a small company, nine months after the end of the accounting period. Big companies have to pay Corporation Tax at more frequent intervals.