2.5K tungstem instrument free if collected
- Thread starter Tim Sewell
- Start date
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
I'm just waiting for some Chroma-Q Daylight PARs to pop up in the UK at a workable price.
Last one was £450. Ha!
Last one was £450. Ha!
paulears
Veteran
If we must get back on topic - the Antares are amazingly good Fresnels - a beautiful softness to the edge beam, and a damn good range from spot to flood - but the killer is the size AND the weight. Wish I'd been closer!
VAT is simply not a big deal. I have no idea why anyone would find it so, unless you do shoebox receipt accounting!
I get the reminder via email. I wait until the week after the quarter break to get last minute receipts in place, then I push the button in my accounts software. It produces the figures. I log into HMRC, it asks me for the values to put in the boxes, and calculates some for you. It then lets you download the return as a pdf. I enter these onto a spreadsheet for the history. I transfer the money I need to pay them to the designated account with the direct debit set up - and forget it. It total maybe ten minutes.
I realise some people just don't do their accounts regularly, but as from April next year every self-employed person will HAVE to submit quarterly summaries of their business status anyway - using software HMRC can read, being regular in your accounting becomes normal.
My accountant doesn't even do my VAT - it's too simple, and from time to time at year end he may uncover a mistake, and get me to correct it, all has gone smoothly.
VAT simply should not be a big deal. The first few times I did a return I was concerned, but what it actually requires is just totals isn't it, and if you have the paperwork, these are easy.
If you are adding them up with a calculator, that's plain silly. Even people who use simple spreadsheets have the figures to hand. What is hard?
As for personal and private - surely this is simple? I have two business accounts - one I use for day to day activity, and online purchases and money in from online invoice settlement. The other is a storage account, for the VAT, perhaps tax to be paid - money set aside for new kit etc. That is the business. Everything uses these accounts. Drawings get transferred out of these accounts to my personal account - and from that point, HMRC aren't interested.
Most of my work is to other VAT registered businesses, so VAT is largely irrelevant. It gets added at invoice and removed on purchases with VAT content. I think about 50% of my purchases are from non-registered sources, so I cannot recover the VAT from those, but VAT works for me. I registered before I hit the ceiling, because it works well for me.
VAT is simply not a big deal. I have no idea why anyone would find it so, unless you do shoebox receipt accounting!
I get the reminder via email. I wait until the week after the quarter break to get last minute receipts in place, then I push the button in my accounts software. It produces the figures. I log into HMRC, it asks me for the values to put in the boxes, and calculates some for you. It then lets you download the return as a pdf. I enter these onto a spreadsheet for the history. I transfer the money I need to pay them to the designated account with the direct debit set up - and forget it. It total maybe ten minutes.
I realise some people just don't do their accounts regularly, but as from April next year every self-employed person will HAVE to submit quarterly summaries of their business status anyway - using software HMRC can read, being regular in your accounting becomes normal.
My accountant doesn't even do my VAT - it's too simple, and from time to time at year end he may uncover a mistake, and get me to correct it, all has gone smoothly.
VAT simply should not be a big deal. The first few times I did a return I was concerned, but what it actually requires is just totals isn't it, and if you have the paperwork, these are easy.
If you are adding them up with a calculator, that's plain silly. Even people who use simple spreadsheets have the figures to hand. What is hard?
As for personal and private - surely this is simple? I have two business accounts - one I use for day to day activity, and online purchases and money in from online invoice settlement. The other is a storage account, for the VAT, perhaps tax to be paid - money set aside for new kit etc. That is the business. Everything uses these accounts. Drawings get transferred out of these accounts to my personal account - and from that point, HMRC aren't interested.
Most of my work is to other VAT registered businesses, so VAT is largely irrelevant. It gets added at invoice and removed on purchases with VAT content. I think about 50% of my purchases are from non-registered sources, so I cannot recover the VAT from those, but VAT works for me. I registered before I hit the ceiling, because it works well for me.
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
I think the entire purpose of avoiding issues like VAT is so as to be able to do shoebox receipt accounting, avoid having to run multiple bank accounts, and so on. It should not be necessary to do any of this if you are a straightforward self-employed provider of services as I have been for fifteen years. On very rare occasions I have had to pay subcontractors (that is, crew) and ended up handling large lumps of money, but that hasn't so far actually caused any problems.
Ultimately my approach is to minimise my exposure to genuine mistakes. HMRC can financially destroy you for any reason or none with the stroke of a pen if you've done nothing more than make an honest mistake. I have always been profoundly disquieted by the fact that it is essentially impossible to fill in a self-assessment form honestly because there is no "I don't know" option for the questions to which I don't know the answer, which is almost all of them. I have always done my best to be honest, I'm not an idiot and I have survived to date by assuming I'd know about these things if they applied to me, but that is an assumption and it terrifies me. Inadvertently pissing off the tax Vogons is one of the few things that has the potential to keep me awake at night, and I have always taken the position of absolutely minimising my interaction with them.
Again, all this VAT stuff really applies most practically to businesses, to limited companies. I am not a business and I do not have a "business status," and I suspect this goes for a lot of other people too. The union has been warning us about this quarterly submission thing for a while - they are still trying to oppose it - and it is absolutely horrifying because it multiplies the opportunity for error, and the not-insignificant workload, by four. Assuming it does actually happen, it will be the single worst thing to happen, livelihood-wise, during the time I have been self-employed.
Ultimately my approach is to minimise my exposure to genuine mistakes. HMRC can financially destroy you for any reason or none with the stroke of a pen if you've done nothing more than make an honest mistake. I have always been profoundly disquieted by the fact that it is essentially impossible to fill in a self-assessment form honestly because there is no "I don't know" option for the questions to which I don't know the answer, which is almost all of them. I have always done my best to be honest, I'm not an idiot and I have survived to date by assuming I'd know about these things if they applied to me, but that is an assumption and it terrifies me. Inadvertently pissing off the tax Vogons is one of the few things that has the potential to keep me awake at night, and I have always taken the position of absolutely minimising my interaction with them.
Again, all this VAT stuff really applies most practically to businesses, to limited companies. I am not a business and I do not have a "business status," and I suspect this goes for a lot of other people too. The union has been warning us about this quarterly submission thing for a while - they are still trying to oppose it - and it is absolutely horrifying because it multiplies the opportunity for error, and the not-insignificant workload, by four. Assuming it does actually happen, it will be the single worst thing to happen, livelihood-wise, during the time I have been self-employed.
jamedia.uk
Well-known member
As you said you are not a business and do not have business status, It's not about size just how you see yourself and just as importantly how others see you.
I can't see a problem with the quarterly thing. You reconcile monthly and send in VAT (online) quarterly. No hassle. You have to do it anyway. End of year is usually a breeze as we have 11months already reconciled and the last 3 VAT quarters done. That's when the accountant drops in for an hour. though to be fair most of it is exporting the end of year reports from the accounting SW. get the right software and it exports a file the accountant imports into his and it is all done.
BTW I don't have multiple accounts. I have one personal one. The business has one bank account. Ditto with credit cards. Makes things so much simpler.
I can't see a problem with the quarterly thing. You reconcile monthly and send in VAT (online) quarterly. No hassle. You have to do it anyway. End of year is usually a breeze as we have 11months already reconciled and the last 3 VAT quarters done. That's when the accountant drops in for an hour. though to be fair most of it is exporting the end of year reports from the accounting SW. get the right software and it exports a file the accountant imports into his and it is all done.
BTW I don't have multiple accounts. I have one personal one. The business has one bank account. Ditto with credit cards. Makes things so much simpler.
Tim Sewell
Well-known member
VAT's a bugger. And an Antares ain't a fresnel.
jamedia.uk
Well-known member
I think the arguments for being self-employed rather than a proper business disappeared yesterday afternoon thanks to Hammond 
It is also more expensive to be a self employed than a director of a ltd. Co. in the UK I can't see any upside to being self employed vs a Ltd Co.
It is also more expensive to be a self employed than a director of a ltd. Co. in the UK I can't see any upside to being self employed vs a Ltd Co.
morgan_moore
Major Contributor
Been vat reg for 20 year.. 20% back on fuel and kit. Whats not to love.
morgan_moore
Major Contributor
My lights test (last year) the ChromaQ 'falied' on tint.. it was green.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X68SIDZJs7xo3Cnoat7QvNpQCyJLEgtO0CK_WAIO7Pg/edit?usp=sharing
jamedia.uk
Well-known member
Apparently that makes you naive.....
BTW not just fuel and kit a lot of other stuff too though for me it is not choice as I am well over the VAT threshold anyway.
Also as a ltd Co a lot is tax deductible too and with a separate business account the accounting is easy. At least a lot easier than having to unpick personal and business out of a singlet account. That is just making work for yourself.
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
Assuming we're talking about the same thing (A modified ETC source four PAR with a 575W metal halide lamp in it) that's not the light, that's the bulb. Actually, though, many HMIs are also green. It's just that nobody tests anything with "Arri" written on it, they just assume it's guaranteed perfect.
Sigh.
No, it makes every 19-year-old who thinks they're going to be a camera assistant and get 20% off beer naive (this attitude is commonplace.)
The costs of being a limited company would exceed the total tax liability of most of the people I know, although that's probably because most of the people who do film and TV work in the UK do not work on big American movies or big broadcast drama, and therefore do not make enough money to pay much tax. The idea that these people should be spending a noticeable proportion of their income on the accountancy fees associated with limited status or VAT registration is absolutely demented.
It works for you because you are already a fairly complex organisation with a lot of paperwork which you have to do for other reasons, which most of us don't know how to do, can't afford to have someone else do for us, and don't really need anyway.
P
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jamedia.uk
Well-known member
As stated my "fairly complex organisation" is me and the wife. We use other people as and when on contract. Working out of an office at home, often off a laptop in a cafe. As you are not a VAT Registered Ltd Co and I have been for well over a decade. I think of the two of us I am better placed to know the costs and paperwork.
THERE ARE NO FEES associated with paying VAT. ITs on-line and paperless.
Lt Co end of year statement filling is also on-line and simple We also do that ourselves in 20 minutes a year. I think it is 13 GBP pa
The accounts do require an accountant. However the accounts SW produces all that automatically.
The accountant takes away the two boxes (payments in in and costs out) and the only charges are his time once a year.
What is the difference between the Ltd Co annual accounts and the Self Employed ones?
Ours are fully automated and there is no unpicking personal and company suff from the same account. That would be time consuming and prone to errors.
morgan_moore
Major Contributor
Sounds like not the same thing.. the lamp I tested was similar size and form to a Cineo/Area 48.
Simply without correction you would not use it in daylight.. Im not a CRI geek but my subject looked sick.
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
Yes, that's not a Daylight PAR.
As to the paperwork issue, jagraphics, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. This seems to be coming down to our perceptions of what "a lot of paperwork" is. I think you're overlooking much of it on the basis that it's become second nature to you, but someone new to it will find it onerous and be at significant risk of getting themselves in serious trouble.
P
As to the paperwork issue, jagraphics, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. This seems to be coming down to our perceptions of what "a lot of paperwork" is. I think you're overlooking much of it on the basis that it's become second nature to you, but someone new to it will find it onerous and be at significant risk of getting themselves in serious trouble.
P