I'd advise against that, because it buffers you from knowing just how simple it is - and gets you in the habit of wasting money getting accountants to do things which you can do yourself in 10 minutes.
Do you know if I can file my own taxes? I keep everything in QuickBooks, and my company isn't really making enough money to justify spending thousands on an accountant. I wonder if I can do my own return, but the HMRC site is not helping.
On the other hand, I wonder if I can just register as a sole trader, invoice my company and enjoy the free tax bracket, as I didn't make more than that last year.
An accountant shouldn't cost more than 60 quid or so a month for a Ltd company. It will pay back the investment many many times over if he's even in the least bit competent.
On the specific question about registering as a sole trader - no this isn't the way to do it. You should be paying yourself a salary from your Ltd Co to make use of your tax free allowance. Even if the Ltd Co hasn't got the cash to pay you- this is still fine, as you will build up a balance in the Directors Loan account which you can draw down on when you need to.
Ah, thanks for the advice. I considered paying myself a salary, but then I'd have to register and pay for employee benefits, no? That's just wasted money for me, since I don't live in the UK :/
Life is much simpler as a sole trader though. As far as I can see the main reason to form a ltd company is if you want to employ people. I started a company because its the most tax-efficient way for me to invest consulting money into a future business.
But if you're going to get an accountant anyway and it's going to be free, it's a more effective use of your time to let someone else do it. Although I agree the process is pretty simple.
In many cases you should be substituting money for time, for most startups time is more valuable than money.
