My name is Shane Ryan. I’m a recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin.
I’m starting my working life proper as a self-employed sole trader. This blog will follow and document my progress as I try to make it working for myself. What I hope to do is create a valuable resource for other Irish entrepreneurs, who wish to register and operate as sole traders, and provide insight into what it takes working for yourself!
At the moment, I’m concentrating on getting the website up and running and getting this blog working the way I want it to. Updates may be sparse, but they will happen…
Written by shane on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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I recieved my first VAT3 form (for VAT return purposes) the other day. VAT returns are done on a two-month basis ie January/February, March/April, May/June etcetera. If doing VAT returns by post, the Revenue Commissioners send out the VAT3 form with a prepaid envelope for the return. VAT Returns are due on the 19th of the month directly after the VAT period. For example, the VAT Return for May/June is due by the 19th of July.
VAT Returns may also be completed online using the Revenue Online Service. Another option (if VAT is likely to be the same for each period) is to do a monthly direct debit. One pitfall of this is that any VAT deemed due to the Revenue Commissioners will be due at the end of the year plus interest calculated on that amount from the period it was due…
The VAT3 form includes details on how to fill it out on the reverse side. Quite a helpful thing for someone starting out like me!
Currently, I think I’ll stick with doing the two-monthly returns, but since I’m registering for the ROS, I think I’ll be doing them online as soon as I can.
Written by shane on July 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Operating as a sole trader, one invoices for wages instead of getting paid with a payslip. If you are registered for VAT (as I am…) you will need to calculate your wages and then add VAT on afterwards.
If you are invoicing on a weekly basis (rare) the invoice total would be
(hours x rate) + ((hours x rate)* (21/100))
on a monthly basis the formula is the same but obviously will be for the entire month instead of just the week. Monthly invoicing is more common. Invoices are usually given a period of 30 days grace. This means that the company or individual invoiced has 30 days in which to pay the invoice total.
It is important if you want to recieve payment quicker than this to make note of it on the invoice. If you need the payment by the 5th of August put the due date as the 5th or 4th of August.
A good tutorial for creating your own invoices is here. (Although the link goes to a UK-specific site, the same info applies here except for the VAT rate).
If you prefer payment by cheque or cash (some companies don’t like paying in cash…) you should state so on the invoice.
Changing the templates linked from the above link is recommended also…
Written by shane on July 9th, 2006 with no comments.
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My free (free printing, postage only) business cards arrived from www.vistaprint.com the other day. Quite nice, although the ad on the back is slightly worse that I had been expecting. I had expected just ‘www.vistaprint.com’, however, in nice crisp writing it says “Business Cards are FREE at www.vistaprint.com!”
Takes away slightly from the whole business card, but on the whole not a bad job of printing. It’s one of 40 free templates. Prices are decent enough for orders of 500/1000 but the stock (paper quality) leaves a bit to be desired.
One interesting caveat is that, while vistaprint.com offers 250 free cards, vistaprint.ie (their Irish operation) only offers 100 for free. After conversion from US$ to Euro, and choosing the slowest possible postal service 250 cards came to around €5! Hopefully they will come in handy while I’m awaiting my new business card design. I think I’ll try www.printing.com to see how their cards are…
Written by shane on July 26th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Irish Revenue Commissioners now provide most of their services on-line, through Revenue On-line Services at www.ros.ie
Firstly, you must be registered for VAT/TAX or be a PAYE employee. The next step involves getting a RAN. This stands for Revenue Access Number. This is sent to your postal address. Mine was delivered within a week.
Once you have the RAN, you can apply for a digital certificate. This ensures communication between your computer and the ROS website is secure. The final step then involves retrieving and installing the certificate to your computer. This is all quite easy. The only requirements are that you have a web browser (I use Mozilla Firefox but Internet Explorer can also be used) and that the Java Runtime Environment is installed on your computer (it most likely is…).
Then, instead of filling out forms like VAT3 or Income Tax returns by post, you can do them from your desk! Payments to the Revenue can still be done by cheque, but there is the alternative to use an RDI (Revenue Debit Instruction) which transfers money from your account to the Revenue electronically. All payments and reciepts are available as pdf downloads (for records purposes) once you’ve logged into the ROS site and the Revenue even email you to let you know when there is a return due and when the reciept for that return is available!
Written by shane on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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So I’ve been working for myself for just over three months now. I’m only beginning to organize things but I’m slowly getting there. I have my home office up and running. The addition of a printer last week nearly completes it. All I need now is a scanner so I can copy documents using the computer. I’m not going to buy that scanner just yet though because I want to budget for it in next months outgoings…
Which brings me to thinking about my Salary. I know I work for myself, so all money coming in is mine (less VAT and Taxes obviously) but I’d like to plan for the future just in case a business expense arises which I need to cover… There are two options: draw all money I’m entitled to, leaving only VAT and Tax in my business account, or draw less than I’m entitled to (yet still enough to live on etc) and have the business turn a profit.
I’ve gone for the latter, wanting to have a decent salary but still have my business turn a profit so I can expand in future… Paying myself needs to be specific. I’ll pay myself the exact same amount every month just as if I was employed under PAYE and also pay myself during a fixed timeframe. I’m setting that timeframe as being between the 20th and 25th of each month. Keeping pay a regular thing will be good for me hopefully, so I can learn to budget around a fixed amount rather than spending according to earnings.
So, my tips for paying yourself are:
- Pay yourself a reasonable fixed amount each month/week (in proportion to your earnings and living needs)
- Have a fixed date every month on which you are paid (base this on a date some time after you recieve invoiced monies)
- If you don’t earn enough to pay your fixed amount, adjust accordingly for that month
- Try to keep your business turning a decent profit in case of unforseen costs/expenses
Written by shane on August 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Revenue and VAT and Income Tax and Thoughts on business.