Sole Trader or Business Page: 2

[Holohana]

Ive been with mine for ages and now pay for my banking and dont plan to move! Barclays, v good!

Guess if people dont wanna pay they can move but can be a bit of an arse!

 

[TonyJ]

I have heard that you don't have to set up a 'business account' to start your business. a seperate 'normal account' will do. but what are the benifits to using a business account from a normal account. it sounds like you need to watch what you pay in and out of a business account. maybe they should call it a 'easy money for the banks' account.:teeth_smile:

Tony

 

[grumpygrouter]

I have heard that you don't have to set up a 'business account' to start your business. a seperate 'normal account' will do. but what are the benifits to using a business account from a normal account. it sounds like you need to watch what you pay in and out of a business account. maybe they should call it a 'easy money for the banks' account.:teeth_smile:

Tony

There is no legal requirement to set up a "business bank account" for sole traders or partnerships. Ltd Co, are slightly different as they are legally, "a person" in their own right and banks will require a separate accounts to comply with their own and money laundering regulations.

What happens however, is that if you end up with a tax investigation for what ever reason, the Revenue are only legally entitled to look over your business records. If you are running your business through your personal accounts, these then become business records and they are able to access them ALL without further recourse. If you operated a business account only, they need to get a court order to have access to your prersonal accounts.

Banks also do not like people running business through personal accounts for the obvious reason that they are then losing income. You may well find that the terms and conditions of the personal account do not accept the account being used for business purposes and that many bank will actually close down a personal account being used for business.

As mentioned previosuly there are business accounts available that do not charge if you stay within their (generous) criteria.

 

[McP77]

A further (minor) detail is that you can't pay cheques into a personal account that are made out in a business name. For example, if your company is 'dial a tiler' then any cheques to that name would have to go into a business account of the same name.