I operated as a sole trader prior to starting my company, and just counted hosting and domain costs at invoice time rather than as prepayments. They are small costs overall (hosting £53/3years and some of hosting is for private use (e.g. church, personal domain), domains just lease costs) but could be classed as material as business is still small. I have read warnings about including costs incurred before company starts and would rather ignore it and pay slightly more tax to avoid this being a problem, but concerned in case it’s a worse offence to not account properly for expenses.
Any thoughts?
I suggest speak to accountant of your choice and dont miss out on potential business incorporation relief and yes you can claim expenses prior to incorporation of company provided they are pure business and for the company
The costs aren’t huge and it would cost me far more to speak to an accountant than it would save me in tax. My primary question is it a problem not to claim expenses against the business? Essentially, during the first 6 months, no expenses were incurred by the company (because they were done as part of my sole trader business and claimed on Self assessment) - is that ok?
You cannot double claim expenses, it has to be either under company or SA
I am aware of that. I presume that then it is ok that my company accounts won’t have any expenses? That is what I am getting at - I am not trying to claim them.