Steve.Richardson - Profile

Welcome aboard Kirsty 

Well I've definitely stopped watching the news on terrestrial TV, and haven't missed anything. Instead I get excerpts from  Sky, AlJazzera, Beeb and others on YouTube, more focused on my interests, rather than absorbing doom and gloom around the globe which I can't do anything about.

Business wise has been an incredibly busy year with our largest ever growth, hence my total lack of focus and attention on the forum  

The bit I don't understand is why? The outlook still isn't overly rosy, inflation is still high, Ukraine war rolls on, the Government seem to have slowed down on the self manufactured drama front, but there is a whiff of change in the air.

Most of my contracts are with local authorities, so I suspect things have finally stabilised post-pandemic, and the new way of doing things, staffing levels and budgets has stabilised so decisions are being made.

But talk to small businesses daily and the cost of doing business is still high, tradespeople are still battling with materials, recruitment across the board seems challenging, and I know a number of people that have had enough and are retiring early.

How about anyone else, how have the first 6 months gone? As planned, better, worse? Why?

Welcome aboard Diana 

Lol, I couldn't agree more. Retirement and tinkering with an old Landrover, no laptop required, just a big hammer and a few spanners!

The AI reference has been overused and been made many times (me included), but all this development does make you nervous and think about Skynet 

Hi Frances

When you say "took out", it depends if as a salary or dividend. If salary then you will pay 20% after your £12k tax allowance until you reach the next threshold, assuming you don't have other income. If dividend, then this would come out after any declared profit and you would pay tax at the dividend rate - Tax on dividends

Van wise, that's one for your accountant as there are all sorts of tax implications. You can't just expense back £25k, unless you put the money into the business as a director's loan, and are drawing back the money. If the business was VAT registered, then you could have claimed the VAT back against the vehicle (assuming its owned and used by the business).

Deffo one for an accountant though, as there are a lot of variables and you don't want to upset HMRC.

I'm sorry Barry, but your SEO credibility disappeared as soon as you started link dumping in every post 

Hi Mark welcome aboard.

I'll be honest with you, this is a question for your accountant. There are the obvious VAT rules, ie you meet the threshold of turnover which is around £85k (guess not fact).

But when it comes to products and services, that's interesting. Does this mean you will never be offering any other kind of products or services in the future which would be potentially vatable?

Regarding suppliers, I've never been asked to provide a VAT free invoice. It doesn't matter if you are a sole trader under the threshold or VAT exempt, I still have to charge you VAT. It just means you can't reclaim it.

I can't see any advantage for not charging VAT, other than you are 20% lower in price, but this means you take the hit with your suppliers.

Like you, it's a new one on me, so be interested to find out what proper advice you received, rather than my non-accountant ramblings! 

Originally Posted by therefugee

“Alas, I mean no offense to Quora, nor to cats for that matter ”

I get so frustrated with Quora 

There is some genuinely fascinating stuff on there, I've learned loads, and there are plenty of subject matter experts for whatever your topic, interest hobby etc. People you would never normally meet or come into contact with, thats the beauty of Quora.

But they now feel the urge to bombard the platform with awful low quality AI, confrontational type questions, which reads more like a Moscow bot farm. Then people feel the need to respond and rant, which is exactly the what Quora is after. Manipulated link bait to drive low quality interaction, which drives advertising revenue.

Instead, just go back to the quality human-driven interactions. You cannot beat the interaction of someone who knows more than you do, which informs or can even change your opinion. In my case, that's quite often 

 edit - going back to human interactions goes against the theme of a thread talking about AI, but I meant in a Quora specific light  

Originally Posted by therefugee

“Nevertheless, these are truly exciting times for anyone with a slight interest in digital marketing, and last we forget - anyone who has a lot of homework to do or school essays to compose ”

Well it's starting to hit the mainstream media, currently listening to Nick Ferrari on LBT who is discussing Chat GPT.

It's fascinating to hear feedback from those that have never come across it. Initial reaction is terror, end of the world, all kids will be cheating, it will make us all lazy etc etc. Then after a little thought, the ideas and potential start coming forward.

I prophesied the end of Google search, or at least in its current list of links format, now callers to LBT are saying the same thing. I do think we are witnessing the evolution and maturing of the internet as it grows and we finally work out how to harness and use this amazing resource. Other than using it for cat memes and rambling 

I know, we send out a lots of paperwork, vehicle stickers, and packs of review forms for our Trusted Trader business. Not only do the prices keep going up, you then get disruption or missing post  

I'm fascinated with those laser printers! The kids use them in school, but it seems like something out of a sci-fi film to me! I was watching a YouTube video recently showing a recent British Army exercise, focusing on the attached REME (Engineers), and in their mobile workshop, they were trialing 3D printers to fabricate replacement vehicle parts in the field. Amazing stuff.