Breaking Down My Business Expenses for the First Time! 

Very pleased to see a pension in there, although I shouldn’t have expected anything else. I know too many people who have their own businesses and are like “of course I don’t have a pension, I can’t afford that” 😬

Evaluating our businesses expenses is what saved our business during/after 2008. We made so many positive changes after that. Comparing expenses to the previous year became part of our yearly review.

I'm not financially savvy enough to understand any of the comments on this video but I loved how informative this video was and how you make stuff like this interesting! Normally I'd never watch videos on people's expenses but you have such a way of speaking about said things where I stay engaged the whole time and actually learn things

Really interesting video! Also as an accountant that works in tax, very funny to hear you trying to explain depreciation/capital allowances haha (the "fancy accounting thing" where you get a tax deduction for using assets in your business over a long period of time and spread the cost over those years :P) Also, as it is more tax efficient to give charitable donations as a company, would it not make more sense to do that, and you could therefore give more since its being paid pre tax rather than post, which would offset the lack of gift aid?

I'd be curious to see what the breakdown was between your dedicated / full-time and part-time-regular work partners vs the recurring-but-irregular and one-shot arrangements... and possibly the breakdown in the first group between those who have you as their only or majority client vs those who are completely freelance where you're one client among many. For tax purposes it's all one lump, but logistically, knowing this breakdown might make it worth examining what the impact would be of switching your full-time co-workers from contractor to employee, for both you and them. While employee medical benefits are presumably not currently a thing in the UK, there might be other services could might become more cost-effective to get collectively for the group as a single firm rather than each of you obtaining them individually (e.g. software license subscriptions, liability & property insurance, professional services like accounting)...

As a creative freelancer I similarly have zero idea where others are at for stuff like this!? My work feels so ad hoc it changes month to month pretty dramatically - which is my own issue that I'm okay living with! Thanks for bigging up the pension, also not a financial advisor but I know it's super important!!

Totally unrelated to anything in this video but you look really pretty in this colour. ☺️

as someone going through early college accounting classes I found this very interesting! And somewhat understand the concept of equipment depreciating over the course of multiple years 🙂

Will this be a yearly video? I am very curious to see the differences year to year and hear your thoughts on whether certain slices that grew were worth it

8:16 The term you are thinking of is public liability insurance :)

Thank you for talking about money!

The spreading out of capital equipment costs is called amortization, IIRC. I don't know how British HRFC handles it, but in the US the IRS doesn't allow a business to count the entire expense of new equipment in the year of purchase. I suspect the per-year apportionment varies by type of equipment but for most computing and tabletop office equipment I believe it's 3 years, and 5 years for things that are less subject to obsolescence such as furniture...

Legal and professional was subtitled to Legal and unprofessional 😂 (also "replacement for moi" got subtitled with "replacement for more" which is a bit confusing)

As another freelancer, i'd be very interested to see how you track your income and business expenses - anonymity of course!

I love the new studio and new look of More Hannah and Hannah Witton and Friends. Although super expensive, it was worth the studio upgrade, so Rowan, who is so adorable 🥰, could have a lovely nursery. A lot of income is also going towards Rowan, so he can have the most magical and wonderful childhood, with a loving and caring family. I remember your old studio, as I started watching your channels soon after your stoma surgery (late 2018)

So for both of my husbands businesses he donates alot from the business in the US. This helps with taxes but also trying to suport our community. We live in a small town so any time there is a funraiser something is always done. Either monitary or what happens most of the time offer something to be raffeled off or provide a space for cheaper.

Accountant here, what you described at 9:52 is indeed a thing and it’s called a “writing down allowance” :)

I love watching these! As an individual I try to track my expenses, and I'm thinking about doing some side hustle/freelance work in the next year, so it's definitely something I want to commit to. This gave me some food for thought!

This was very interesting! I'm a freelancer and I usually check my expanses monthly, but hardly ever yearly, but I thinl I'll do that now, the video made me want to do it haha

Not a freelancer but my finance obsessed mind loved this video ❤

9:52 You are talking about fixed assets and capital allowances for tax purposes 😂 as a qualifed chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser never heard it explained in that way before but i like it!

Loved this video! How do you track your expenses? How do you collate your receipts with some being physicals and some digital?

Thanks

Thanks for sharing!

Calculating tax on depreciation of assets is the legal way of doing things, otherwise people take advantage of the system too much. Eg if you buy a brand new laptop every year and sell the previous one for cash, you could theoretically put 100% of the cost on every year’s tax and ignore the fact that you sold the last one,, so that’s illegal. Charitable donations - I would say do through your personal account if that allows you to effectively donate more. But if the tax savings were big enough that it would actually mean the charities would be getting more money at the end of the day then do that. Big businesses use charity to avoid taxes which is why I prefer to donate directly rather than ticking the box at checkout or agreeing to round up the bill to donate to whatever charity - it’s all just so that the business avoids taxes while simultaneously making themselves look good. It’s similar to “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) campaigns that are just ads except they’re tax deductible.

I was surprised to see life insurance as a business expense

love these kind of vids

Did you get a new camera? I feel like this video looks extra crispy (in a good way 💕)

Leaving a comment for he algorithm

Not me watching along with one eye on my self assessment tax return that I haven't submitted yet 😅

hi

i'm not sure why this is different from your previous videos but the constant zooming in and out to hide jumpcuts does not make for a pleasant watching experience :( a shame since it's a really interesting topic!

Fun!

public liability insurance??... maybe

What software did you use to make your pie chart? :)

I watch and enjoy your videos but I do think you make a lot of content around making content and there is less focus on other types of content because there are so many videos talking about how you make content #content. The word content is no longer a word. I’d enjoy seeing a broader range of vids on this channel 😊

How can your insurance be so low? Is the health insurance there as well? Feels like, in Germany its higher 🤔

So interesting, thank you for sharing

💖

If you are ever doing work that you discount as a donation I think that would be a great way to donate through your biz!

I'll be honest I was confused when you mentioned your pension, but also said this doesn't include paying yourself? I get that your pension comes out of your business accounts. It feels dishonest, or like you don't seem to understand that your pension IS paying yourself, even though it's money you can't access right now