Post BJC

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Revision as of 16:58, 31 May 2010 by 95.150.81.49 (Talk) (changing tense (debated changing "a BJC" to "the BJC"))

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After your BJC it is easy to want to take a week or two off, you have worked hard and deserve it.

But,

Now is the important time to collate any financial data/receipts/invoices etc. that might not have been filed during BJC.

You will have a lot of balances to pay with your venues, your performers may have outstanding expenses.

Also, if your BJC made a small profit, then now is the time to consider refunding anyone you consider deserves it.

For the organisers your BJC will last over 2 more years before you can file your final accounts and close down your limited company.

Profits

If you have a limited company, then any profits are legally yours to put in your pocket should you so choose.

There are many different opinions on the moral side of things.

Either way, if you don't spend the profits on tax deductible things before the end of your tax year you will need to pay tax on them. Ask your accountant about this. You will also need to pay the accountant. Theoretically you can do your accounts yourself; in practice, limited company accounts are complex and difficult to complete without a lot of very specialised knowledge. Doing them wrong can get you in trouble with Companies House, and with the tax man.

Some things that have been done with surplus:

  • Giving/lending it to the next year's BJC to cover their early deposits.
  • Reimbursing people for assets they bought. For example, if someone had to buy a computer in order to do BJC work, the company can legitimately pay for this computer (keep the receipt). It will depreciate (for tax purposes) over three years. It is the property of the company, so if the company closes it needs to be sold or given to that person. At this point there may be tax liabilities if the computer is still worth anything.
  • Reimbursing people who did a lot of driving, for example to the venue or to a far away convention for marketing purposes. They can legitimately claim this as an expense.
  • Buying gear that will be useful for future BJCs. For example, various conventions have bought parts of a large sound system that Mini Mansell owns and brings to BJC each year.
  • Giving it to local circus outfits.
  • Paying people money to do things that are helpful to "The BJC", for example, people from BJC 2007 paid themselves to create a website that they felt would be useful for a BJC.

Note that some of the things you can spend money on are tax deductible, so they reduce your tax burden at the end of the year. Some things are NOT. This means that you can't just spend all the surplus within the tax year and assume that you will have a zero tax bill. Ask an accountant.

If you pay money to directors for their efforts, it is not sufficient for directors to invoice the company as they would for other freelance efforts. You may need to register for PAYE to do this properly. Ask an accountant.