Incorporation

[Nick Charlton]

What do the members of this list think about incorportating as a
company?

I'm thinking mostly as a process of releasing on either of the App
Stores. Do you think it would be a good idea to become a fully
incorporated company at the the start, or only after passing a certain
revenue stage?

Kind Regards,

Nick Charlton.

[Will Jessop]

It worked for me, but then I needed to for my contracting. My
accountant costs me £1k/year, but saves me that, plus being VAT
registered means that my equipment costs less.

Not sure how relevant it is if you are just releasing software on the
app store though.

Will.

[Vero Pepperrell]

I'll be interested too in hearing what others say. We took the jump
and registered as a Ltd company before we started selling software as
I was already aware of the implications, having run my consulting ltd
company for a couple of years already.

It's a reasonable amount of paperwork and, as Will said, it costs
about £1k/yr for the accountant to help you out. However, I just
signed up for FreeAgent last night, which gives me a hint of hope that
accounting paperwork might get easier this year. (If you sign up,
shameless plug, please use my referral as we both get 10% off as a
result: http://fre.ag/3wpeqsah)

When selling mostly through the App Store, it's less complex as Apple
pays VAT on your behalf to the appropriate country, but if you
anticipate to supplement your revenue with consulting work, it's
probably worth registering as a company to take the liability out of
your hands personally.

Vero

[Will Jessop]

My accountant* handles the calculations for me and being VAT
registered doesn't add any cost so for me it was an easy decision.

On the subject of liability you will need to get some sort of
corporate insurance, I *think* (I'm not a business guy) that the
director(s) can still be made liable for the actions of a LTD company.
Not sure if this is new or has been around for a while.

Will.

* http://www.sjdaccountancy.com/

[Nick Charlton]

On 31 Jan 2011, at 12:09 PM, Vero Pepperrell <vpepp...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll be interested too in hearing what others say. We took the jump
> and registered as a Ltd company before we started selling software as
> I was already aware of the implications, having run my consulting ltd
> company for a couple of years already.

Would the list recommend paying a lawyer or a service to file the paperwork, or do it yourself?

>
> It's a reasonable amount of paperwork and, as Will said, it costs
> about £1k/yr for the accountant to help you out. However, I just
> signed up for FreeAgent last night, which gives me a hint of hope that
> accounting paperwork might get easier this year. (If you sign up,
> shameless plug, please use my referral as we both get 10% off as a
> result: http://fre.ag/3wpeqsah)

I'll be interested to see how you get on with FreeAgent, I had a look at it the other day, it looks like it's a good method to keep track of the amount of tax you are likely to have to pay, which is rather interesting.

>
> When selling mostly through the App Store, it's less complex as Apple
> pays VAT on your behalf to the appropriate country, but if you
> anticipate to supplement your revenue with consulting work, it's
> probably worth registering as a company to take the liability out of
> your hands personally.

That's good to hear. It certainly cuts down on the amount of paperwork to file.

>
> Vero
>
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[Simon Maddox]

On 31 January 2011 15:16, Nick Charlton <nickcha...@gmail.com> wrote:

Would the list recommend paying a lawyer or a service to file the paperwork, or do it yourself?

I used CompaniesMadeSimple.com to register my Ltd company - I think it cost something like £80, and that included a registered office. I've since switched from using their services to managing it myself, but it was very handy right at the beginning.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with FreeAgent, I had a look at it the other day, it looks like it's a good method to keep track of the amount of tax you are likely to have to pay, which is rather interesting.

I've been using FreeAgent for a year and 4 months, or so, and I can't recommend them enough. I genuinely wouldn't be able to run my business without it. It surprises me (in a good way) every time I use it - everything is just so easy. I started out not knowing a thing about running a Ltd company too.

 

>
> When selling mostly through the App Store, it's less complex as Apple
> pays VAT on your behalf to the appropriate country, but if you
> anticipate to supplement your revenue with consulting work, it's
> probably worth registering as a company to take the liability out of
> your hands personally.

That's good to hear. It certainly cuts down on the amount of paperwork to file.

Well, I'm not an accountant, but from what I understand that's not exactly true. It's correct to a point (and it's how I described it to Vero last week), but I guess it's always best to understand the "why" behind it too. My accountant has written a fantastic blog post here which covers this. Replace "iPhone App Store" with "Mac App Store" where necessary. Apple still pay VAT on sales of your app where necessary, but that's not passed down to you. There's other complicated stuff that I don't particularly understand, but that's the long and short of it.

[Will Jessop]

My accountant handled that too, for about £100. Worth it as far as I
was concerned. Tax/VAT/Accounts whatever filing they do for me too.

Will.

[Steve Strong]

I'd also recommend Clear Sky Accounting, they are excellent for both company setup and the ongoing administration & accounting.

Cheers,

Steve