# Starting as Sole Trader - Questions



## bjarvis2785 (Oct 4, 2008)

Guys,

As there's a fair few self employed people on here I thought I'd ask a few questions.

I run a couple of websites here and there, and whilst I'm not making money from them yet, I have a few plans to monetize them in the new year.

I realise to do things properly I should be setting up as a business so that I can give details to HMRC for tax, NI etc.

It will only be a minimal amount to start off (say £5k in first year).

My current position is, employed, earning very close to upper earnings limit.
Wife, employed, earning approx £18k per year.

So, here come the questions.

1) I would only want one company name and set of details etc However, the revenue would be coming in from various different online and offline avenues. Each website would have it's own name, so would I just use a '123 trading as 456' for each site, but when it comes to payment, the customer would just pay 123?

2) It would be me doing all the work, but would I be better setting up the company in wife's name for tax purposes?

3) Bank account - I don't particularly want to be paying bank charges etc for a business account that quite frankly to start off with may not see any cash flow for a month or two. I've read about people just setting up a separate personal account?

Think that's it for now... 

Any help appreciated as always


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## justina3 (Jan 11, 2008)

ref bank account lots of banks are looking for new accounts and offer free banking for a year i would go this route as it will start you off with a good record with the bank. 

dont see the point in setting up anything in the wifes name


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