HMRC Employment Manual paragrah 31835 says“The tests that apply to travel expense relate to the nature of the expense and not to the amount.” It goes on to say: “You should not refuse a deduction for first class rail travel, if that has been incurred, on the basis that the same journey could have been made more cheaply in standard class”. As long as the travel and hotel costs were incurred wholly and exclusive for your business the full cost is tax deductible.

If you decide to rent a room in your house or flat to earn some dosh, the taxman cannot touch the rent you receive up to £4,250 per year ie this is tax free income. He has called this “Rent a Room Scheme”. This scheme would apply if you rent a room in your furnished family home where you live. Your lodger can take up either a single room or an entire floor of your home. If you charge extra for meals and laundry, you would need to add this to the rent you receive. If the total amount of money you receive from your lodger exceeds £4,250 then you have two options:

• You pay tax on any income over £4,250 without deducting any expenses or

• Take the rent you receive and deduct your expenses to work out your profit. You then pay tax on this profit.

This scheme will not apply if you split your home into separate flats and you let out the separate flat(s). If you do this than you declare the rent you receive from this in the normal way.

I have had some clients who at the start up stage of their business were concerened that they would not be able to open a bank account due to their poor credit rating.  This rating was as a result of difficulties in the past meant that they were unable to pay their debts. They had agreed repayment plan with all their creditors.

Most of my clients, with a bad credit rating, were able to open a business bank account. It is important to talk to your bank and in an open and honest way so they will be able to help. However, you may not be able to get credit from the bank till some time has passed since you opened your account. This is one way for them to check your credit worthiness.

This is a question we are asked very often. There is no simple answer to this. It depends on the type of business you run and the type of person  you are. There are certain records you need to keep. However, you have several options how you keep these records. The following link will take you to a Business Link website that explains this area extremely well:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.s=m&r.l1=1073858808&r.lc=en&r.l3=1073860617&r.l2=1073859227&r.i=1073789114&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1073789112&r.t=RESOURCES

Income Tax

For the tax year 2009-2010 you can earn up to £6, 475 per year before you start paying income tax. If you are over 65  you can earn a bit more before you start paying tax.

National Insurance

For the tax year 2009-2010, you can earn up to £110 a week before you pay any National Insurance contributions.

After your credit period (for example 30 days) there is no hard and fast rule on how long you should wait before taking further action.

The following is an excellent link that  provides an interactive questionnaire on process to follow when chasing a debt.

Link http://online.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/logicToolStarting?r.l1=1073858790&r.lc=en&r.l3=1075135408&r.l2=1074453392&r.i=1077731036&type=BLTTOOL&itemId=1077731036&r.t=BLTTOOL

The short answer is no, you do not have to be an accountant to submit accounts to Companies House. However, it is would be best to employ services of an accountant. He/she would ensure all the changing regulations are complied with. Further, the accountant will be able to identify any tax savings. These tax savings may outweigh their fees.

It would be best to employ a Chartered Accountant for this.  There are many people calling themselves accountants. However, they have not undertaken any professional examinations and are not monitored by any one.  Chartered Accountants are monitored by their Accounting body. They are required to keep up to date with changing regulations.

Before employing an Accountant please check that they are a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Email marketing is an attractive marketing option for small businesses since it is a low cost way of reaching a wide customer base.

However, spam (the unsolicited sending of emails) is illegal. The law on this area is governed by the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

The key rules are:

• You should not send marketing emails without recipients prior consent. This should be in the form of an opt-in or an extremely explicit opt-out.

• Where contact details are collected through the course of a sale or in sale negotiations, emails can be sent if emails relate to similar products or services and when the address was collected the recipient was given the opportunity to opt-out.

• You as a sender should not hide your identity and you should provide a valid email address for the opt-out for future emails.

Breaking the spam law is serious and could result in fines up to £5,000.