Running a successful pub is not just about serving great ales and fantastic food, it’s also about running a tight financial ship. This series of guides will give you an understanding of the regimes you will need to follow and an understanding of business taxes you will have to pay.
As with all aspects of your financial operation you should seek professional independent advice from an accountant. Click on a link below to take you to the relevant page:
Choosing An Accountant ♦ UPDATED
How To Analyse A Stocktake Report ♦ UPDATED
There are two types of taxation that pubs commonly need to deal with: Machine Game Duty (if you have games/skills machines in your pub) and PAYE/National Insurance (if you employ staff).
See my separate articles: Machine Game Duty and Real Time Information & PAYE.
Top Tip on Tax: from the very outset you need to understand that VAT, Machine Game Duty, PAYE & National Insurance Contributions you collect or are liable for are not your money.
All this money belongs to HMRC and you should avoid “robbing Peter to pay Paul” at all costs, Whilst it might seem like an easy fix to use some of this quarter’s VAT money on essential bills or to otherwise ease your cash-flow, it can soon lead not only to penalties and fines but can ultimately lead to the demise of your pub business. Since HMRC’s status as a preferred creditor was changed and they have to wait in line with all other creditors, HMRC has started demanding, what in effect are, security deposits for VAT in certain circumstances. Defaulting or being continually late with payments can trigger such a demand, so my advice on this is to create a separate interest bearing business account and deposit your VAT / PAYE/ National Insurance / MGD there until you need to draw down the funds to pay those amounts to HMRC.
