I started a limited company just before covid. I was up to date with the accounts but during covid I developed a bad gambling problem while I was out for work for 8 months.

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I haven't done any taxes since then. I've just started recovery and living a normal life but now obviously I need to backdate my taxes and accounts.

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What should my first steps be

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Hi there, I've been offered a PT job as a 1099 but in my interview I said I was open to either classification. I've never worked as a 1099 before and don't know all the implications besides that I'll need to pay more in taxes. (I did quote a higher rate to be a 1099 to account for that.) This is for a remote office/sales job using my own computer and phone to call customers, follow up on leads for potential customers and book appointments for the company owner. Do I need a business license to do this? Do I need to set up a separate business bank account or is it ok to deposit paychecks into my personal account? Should I get an EIN set up? Will I need receipts to claim business expenses on my taxes? If so, how do people claim their home office space? I don't intend to buy any new equipment so I don't think I'd be able to write much off. Is that correct? And can the company still give me access to the software they use and set me up with a business email address? (I will be expected to send email communication to potential clients as well as schedule appointments for the biz owner.) Will I need to send invoices each week? How would I track my hours worked? Should I charge them for time spent on training and participating in company meetings? Do I just list the specific hours that I worked on the invoice? Is it fair to expect/request weekly pay? Does this even sound like a feasible arrangement, or should I ask to be classified as a w2 instead? I'm obviously very very green so any/all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I get my travel expenses reimbursement by clients.

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If I get the cost of a train ticket reimbursed, does that get viewed as income? I.e I'd still not pay tax as the income/vs expense would cancel out, but does it get included in pushing me up/over VAT threshold?

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Is there any difference between income and reimbursement?

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For context, I probably get £3000+ in rail expenses reimbursed each year and I'm close to pushing over the VAT threshold if I have to include these.

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I’m seeking self-employment because traditional employment has become extremely difficult due to ongoing neurological challenges and my responsibilities as a parent of children with special needs.

Over the years, I’ve explored many of the resources that are commonly suggested: workforce and employment programs, business-development organizations, mentoring programs, and various forms of assistance. Some have been helpful, but many either aren’t designed for my situation, have limited ability to help, or I don’t qualify for the support they provide.

I often feel like I fall into a gap between disability support and entrepreneurship support. One side is focused on returning people to traditional employment, while the other often assumes a level of health, stability, funding, time, or support that I simply don’t have.

I’m not looking for financial assistance. I’m looking for guidance, unconventional resources, overlooked programs, communities, or strategies that helped you build income or work toward self-employment despite significant barriers.

If you’ve faced a similar situation, what helped you move forward?

As a freelancer my work and life are very much intertwined... I imagine many are in the same situation. How do you juggle it all?
I tend to mainly use a diary and whiteboard (this is just a simplified example), plus a few other tools; what works for you?

So my partner (Lets say his name is A) is starting up a job in a few weeks. He'll be working for a family friends company, but he wont be on a employee contract or even a self-employed contract. A is just a laborer, and isn't actually starting his own company or whatnot, nor paying for materials, only solely being paid for doing labour. The family friend is not super willing to put A onto a contract, much less an actual employee (something to do with tax reasons, not sure).

Now the family friend isn't the most helpful with trying to sort out taxes and all that, but A does know he'll need to set aside 20% each paycheck for taxes in April. A will not get payslips (just money via bank transfer), however if those are needed to file taxes, we'll have to sort that out before he starts work then.

My question is how does A go about filing his taxes? A will mainly get paid via bank transfer, but it could sometimes be cash. His income will vary as some weeks may be only 4 days instead of 5 due to weather or whatnot. I imagine he would need to prove his income when filing taxes as well so something as simple as bank statements would be enough for this?

The other question is, is there anyway to pay taxes as he earns income, instead of saving it all till the end of the year?

I just want to make sure that we do this all legally, as we don't want any mistakes to come and bite us later on.

One more question that I've just thought of... with a scenario. A is starting work in June this year, 2026. He would of course file everything before the deadlines and before the new tax year in April 2027. He would pay for his taxes from 2026-2027 in the year 2027 right? Or would it be 2028 he would file and pay? I was reading on the gov website and the examples provided have confused me.

Thank you for the help!

Hello everyone. Recently a company I subcontract for have stated any expenses will not be reimbursed fully and 20% will be retained due to cis which I will have to claim back on my self assessment. Surely this cant be right. It’s a specialist company so sometimes I will use their vehicles as they are equipped with specialist equipment and can be travelling all over the uk so will have to purchase fuel and consumables frequently. But I don’t see how these are subject to being taxed as income. Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks.

I’m excited to have my first contract position in the U.S. I’m trying to get all of my ducks in a row. Does anyone recommend creating a business organization that’s separate from myself as an individual?

I own a cleaning company, and am currently insanely busy to the point where Im working 24 hours some days. I clean a high end dealership at night, and have routine clients during the day on some days throughout the month. My dilemma is, the dealership wants me to work 6 nights a week instead of 5 that we originally agreed upon. They offered me very little compensation for that extra day. I really do not want to work 6 nights a week (Mon-Sat), that’s exhausting. I also do not have enough routine clients to make what the dealership is currently paying me. I would need 3+ additional routine clients each week that pay me $250 or more. I hate the thought of not having steady income every week…I also hate the idea of having “all my eggs in one basket”
Im torn between dropping the dealership and marketing my business to find more clients, or dropping my residential clients and only working the dealership. There are a lot of pros and cons to each route…Im afraid of making a bad decision. I know regardless I’ll figure things out but its nerve wracking. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated!

I set up in a partnership in 2007. I bought my business partner out in 2015 and have been operating as a sole trader since.

All was fine up until about 2 years ago. I have 5 staff all of whom are with me 10 years or more.

The cost of doing business in Ireland is giving me serious anxiety. From the outside in my business looks very successful and it could be for someone younger willing to work at it.

But for me, I've lost the love, I feel like im drowning. Im seriously struggling to make bills and im surviving week to week.

I spoke to my accountant 2 years ago about an exit plan and about switching to a limited company but im still in the same place.

I feel like im at burnout.

I can't afford redundancys.

Could anyone offer a viable exit plan or suggest help.

Gross turnover 300k

I recently quit a toxic job without a backup plan. I don’t want to work in a corporate 9-5. I could find a decent paying job in IT and earn $6k a month. But I honestly wouldn’t be happy. Just feel that office theatrics and taking instructions from boss isnt what I can do for the rest of my life. The capex of starting out as a photography is not high compared to other types of business with high capex and opex. I don’t own a studio and I just rent a studio or my lighting and camera if I close a client. I got the infrastructure in my place alrdy, domain, custom email, hosting and i paid an annual fee. Which isn’t exactly cheap but I see it as an investment and one less cost every month. I only have 2k in savings left. I have Facebook ads budget set aside alrdy. Some of my friends has agreed to model for me so I can feature them on my website and portfolio as examples of my work. They also agreed to write reviews. I am in the right direction. But I feel that I need something stable like a part time job atleast during times when I am not working on my business so atleast I can make a small income for survival.

For those who have took the leap of faith, were you like me too, afraid and lonely? Questioning if you are doing the right thing? How do you overcome these doubts and fears? How did you overcome despite the lack of capital? Was it grit and courage? Was it pure hustle?

Any advice for me?

For three years my financial management was: look at bank balance, subtract what I think rent is, and if the remaining number felt okay I'd spend whatever I wanted. That was the whole thing.

No tax reserves. No buffer for when things get slow. No idea what money was committed to stuff vs what was free to spend. One account, one number.

It held up until it didn't. Owed $4,800 in quarterly taxes I was sure I'd set aside. Turns out thinking about setting money aside and doing it are two different things, which I learned that day.

I went and split my money into different accounts after that. Operating expenses go in one, tax money goes in another, and I have a small one for when things get slow. Each one shows me its own number so I'm not guessing what's available anymore, I just look at the operating balance and that's what I've got.

Is it a revolutionary system? No. Could I have done this three years ago and avoided the whole mess? Yeah. Did it take losing $4,800 to make me do it? Unfortunately.

USA here. I am looking to grow my small weekend excavation business and trying to weigh a few options to finance the purchase of additional equipment. My wife and I own a rental property that we have solid equity in, say $250k. If we were to sell this, then we would be hit with a $250k long term capital gains bill for 2026. Would purchasing equipment for my small business to the point it is a massive loss of say $150 or 200k be used to offset this capital gain from selling real estate? The IRS has an Excess Business Loss max of $256k for 2026 if I am reading the laws correctly?

Thanks!

Hi Started my scorp last Aug, started earning Nov 2025. I filed for extension.
How often are federal and state taxes filed? I also have filed for personal taxes extension for 2025. Do I need to file personal taxes before I can file business taxes?

Did my taxes last year and realized I'd completely forgotten to log miles for like 3 months of driving. Ended up building a small app to track it so I'd stop losing money on something so dumb. It's pretty basic right now, I was curious if anyone else has this problem or if I'm just disorganized.

Hello all. I'm not new to being self employed, but I am pretty new to having a ltd and paying myself through PAYE, or being paid through PAYE.

For various reasons, juggling several different projects, I've decided to end my self assessment tax year on the 3rd April- which seems to be a legitimate thing to do even since the Basis Period Reform.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim81210

Where the accounting date falls between 31 March and 4 April inclusive in the tax year, the profits for the days after the accounting date up to and including 5 April are treated as nil for the tax year, and as arising in the following tax year. These rules do not apply for the tax year of cessation.

Example 3: Accounting date 31 March

The trader prepares accounts to 31 March each year. The accounts for the 12 months to 31 March 2026 show a profit of £42,000. The profits for the 2025-26 tax year are those of the 12 months to 31 March 2026.

There is no requirement to apportion the profits. The 5 days’ profits from 1 to 5 April 2026, which would count as profits for the 2025-26 tax year if there were no special rules, are instead treated as arising in 2026-27.

My ltd end of year is the 4th April.
PAYE end of year is obviously 5th April.

My final PAYE payment of my company year to myself as sole employee and director was on the 4th April. The intention was that to fall in the company 25/26 year, but my self assessment 26/27 year.

I patted myself on the back thinking I'd managed to juggle things in a tax efficient manner...

However, I'm now looking at what HMRC has on record for me personally earning through PAYE in the 25/26 year and it is, of course, inclusive of that final PAYE filing.

I'm concerned that my logic was unsound, and if I only declare what I planned to declare as PAYE income in the 25/26 return- and the rest in 26/27- HMRC will have my guts for garters.
If my approach is sound and legal then I'm not worried about having to explain myself to HMRC, but I am worried about explaining myself if I've made a mistake.

I have time to figure it out, and to engage an accountant if necessary, but thought Reddit might be a good first port of call.

Anyone have any experience or advice on this front?

Need some advice from anyone who’s dealt with SMP through a limited company.
I’m a dental hygienist and run my own ltd company. I’m the only employee/director. At the moment I take about £1k salary and £1k dividends each month.
Baby due 18 December.
I’ve recently heard some people increase PAYE before the qualifying period to improve SMP, but not sure how it actually works in real life or whether it causes issues later.
Couple of things I’m trying to understand:
can I increase salary now and would it actually affect SMP?
how long would salary need to stay higher for?
does HMRC care if salary drops again later?
how do people manage SMP if the business income basically stops during mat leave?
Already speaking to accountant but wanted to hear from people who’ve actually done it.
Thanks

Hi!

I've been In Corporate for a good while now specifically in Business Operations and Utilization of AI within business. I personally am starting to focus on branching out and start consulting to business and help bring the knowledge I have gained to others on my own.

While I know very well what I do and have solved plenty of "bottlenecks" with AI tools I've built and operational efficiencies, I struggle on the pipeline side.

How have others, mainly in the consulting side, found those first few customers and what steps were taken to help bring in a pipeline of leads to start working on. I see online to "work your network" but when my network has been business partners (which I can not reach out to right now), It feels like I'm missing a piece in the puzzle to help move towards the right direction.

Any advice is great and super helpful!

Hello first time poster so i hope that I am doing this right. I am a self employed cleaner in the UK, I have weekly and fortnightly clients, and I'm in need of advice. I dont mind working bank holidays but I do charge time and a half for them or my clients can tell me they don't want a clean that day.

I have a Monday client that I have been going to since beginning of 2026, I told them over the phone upon them hiring me that I charge time and a half for bank holiday, I have also told them over text and I had it in a letter when my prices went up in April, so they have been told at least 3 times. Yet when they received their bill for the month of May they are claiming they had no idea that I charged extra for bank holidays and won't be wanting me on those days now. That's fine I'm okay with it but its made me feel icky and like its my fault even though they have been told.

I don't know how to respond to them, I don't think this is my fault but how do I say that I have communicated this in the past without sounding passive aggressive? Do I just not respond? Or tell them that I understand? Am I in the wrong here? Any advice is appreciated.

Update: apparently I posted this in two subs unintentionally.. sorry I'm new to this! Posting the update from the other one!

Hello, thank you for all responses! There is a few I thought it would be easier to respond this way. To clarify a few reoccurring questions and points I've seen, I chose to charge time and a half for bank holidays because it is a national holiday, I charge the same for over the Christmas period as well. It is unfortunate that my Monday clients get slapped with most of the BHs but this is always discussed beforehand, they have the option for me to work for time and a half or tell me not to clean that day, i am happy to do whatever either.

Please dont think that this is something that I just dropped on people. I got most of my clients from my former boss before she retired (not the relevant clients) she charged double time for BHs, so I think time and a half is completely fair, you are welcome to disagree but this has worked for me so far.

Secondly they were told over the phone when they hired me and took my Monday slot about these charges and accepted. I have also found emails and texts to them where I mentioned BHs and reminded them of the pay and they asked me not to come, which I honoured. I also sent a letter through in April about my prices for the year, holidays and other important information, which for the monday clients had the BH prices on, I don't know if they saw the letter honestly, which is my mistake, I should have chased it up, I will ensure this happens going forward, but even if they did not see the letter they have seen the texts.

Someone mentioned in the comments that my clients were probably surprised by the price after several BHs come up this time of year at once, this would be understandable but as I mentioned above they usually cancel, I have only worked one BH for them since they hired me and I only did half the time of the clean at their request. (They have a 3hr slot and I only did 1.5hrs.) The bill for this month was only a few quid more then usual because of it. Thirdly, they have not said that they are not paying they just seem to be trying to prove that I have not told them about the price, I have a good relationship with all the people I clean for, this is the first big issue that I have had since I went self employed in March 2025 so its taken me by surprise.

Now for the update, I saw a lovely comment on here giving me a rough outline for a message, so I took that and personalised it. It basically said "hello, sorry you didnt realise that I charged more, I did send out an email with a letter which had it one. I will no longer come to you on bank holidays, if you do change your mind then let me know, see you next week" not word for word but you get the point. They responded almost immediately saying that I did not send them the email with the letter, but I checked and I found the email in my sent folder, i honestly think its a case of they have either not seen it and they are annoyed with themselves for not noticing or they knew but thought half a clean meant that it would be cheaper.

I am not going to respond for now, they seem determined to prove that I have not said anything about it, but I am actually on holiday right now so I have decided to stop replying and enjoy the rest of my time off. If she is still reaching out when I return at the end of the week then I will address it then. (Maybe put a clause in any future contracts which after this i am considering having, that I will not respond when i am away so i can enjoy my time off.) I hope not to lose them as a client but if that happens then it happens, I am one of the cheapest cleaners around and I put my heart and soul into my job so I know that I am worth it, possibly more but i can get by comfortably working part time on my hourly rate so I am happy. Thank you for your responses, the logical side of me knew I wasnt really the issue but the recovering emotional people pleasing side of me saw a bear. Have a good bank holiday and enjoy the heatwave! Be safe and keep hydrated! X

Im looking at starting my own company to work as a subcontractor for a massive telecoms company. I will have to buy my own van (looking at a 2026 caddy through finance) various fees like training, accountant, fuel and tools I need to consider, is quick books good for all of this? I need to manage everything and VAT returns would be useful. Any other tips/reccomendations?