Starting a small business

Archeotech

So I'm setting up a small sole trader online business with a .ie domain and I'll probably be running the occasional trade stand selling hobby goods.

I registered with the CRO but do I need to register with revenue if profits are only going to be about 2000-3000euro a year?

I'm quite new to this but what accounts should I keep? I assume I have to submit an annual return to the CRO? Do I need to get a tax exemption or something cause I'm earning very little?

Any help would be fantastic! Thanks!

adrianw

Annual return to the CRO is only of Limited companies.

No, tax exemption due to earnings being small (assuming you mean profit and not turnover).

Records required - sufficient documentation to show revenue how you calculated your taxable income. So sales, purchases, expenses such as cost of renting trade stand, website development, hosting, maybe travel and other expenses directly related to the business of selling hobby goods.

You can register with Revenue by completing a form TR1.

Kind regards,
Adrian.

Archeotech

Thanks, so you do need to register with revenue? I saw someone said you didn't have to if profits under 3000euro a year. Then I saw something about not needing to register if profits under 35,000 and 75,000 but I assume that meant not needing to register for vat?

Can someone confirm? Thanks!

_Brian

OP you seem to be confusing registering with Revenue for income tax and registering for VAT.
These are very different things.

You need to register with Revenue and make annual returns showing your profit / loss.

Making VAT returns is dependant on your turnover and I think it's in the €75k region.

Archeotech

Thanks but do I still need to register if earning under 3000euro a year? Someone said they asked revenue and they said they didn't but wondering if anyone can confirm this? Thanks

Pat2

Yes you need to register with revenue regardless of what you think you will be earning. You will need to submit a tax return each year.

My understanding is that you register with revenue regardless, even if you never make a penny.

As far as I know, the first €5,000 is not taxed, but everything beyond that is (but I'm not sure why the figure is €5,000 in my head. I'm open to correction on that). You don't have to register for VAT but if you touch a turnover (ie; not profit, just money in general) of €35,000 then you must register for VAT, even if you don't want to.


I've been doing my return for a few years now and it's always very shoddy, but Revenue, to be fair to them, have always taken my pitiful mess of a return and kinda 'do it for me'. Then they send me out what I owe them. They've been good so far (though I think next year I'll get an accountant to do it. Revenue are pretty sound from my dealings with them, but I have no head for maths and when I see 17 different types of income tax listed I tend to put off filling in the form for months on end, even though I know it'll only take me 5 minutes ).


So yeah.. I'm probably not the best person to get advice form :pac:

jimmii

I have found Revenue very helpful in the past as well. It sounds like its goods you are dealing with so the VAT threshold is €75k so you probably won't have to worry about that if you expect to just do a few markets each year. As mentioned you still need to register with Revenue if you are still a PAYE earner you will have to file an additional return with the figures from the business. When doing your yearly return best thing to do is file it before the end of August that way Revenue figure out the tax due whereas if you file after August you have to figure it out yourself which sucks! For accounting you could use Bullet HQ its free until you have employess and should keep things in order if done properly!