income support after being self-employed

[thehurty]

I have just split with my husband I was self-employed until July 2014. I never made much money only a few hundred pounds a year!!! I have put in a claim for income support but they are asking for copies of profit and loss account, trading account and balance sheet.

My question is what are these things, I kept records of my in goings and outgoings and did my tax returns, I also had a business bank account for 18months but I'm still not sure what they want.

They also want company registration forms??? is that just a letter from the tax office saying I registered the business?

thanks for any help

[bramblina]

If in doubt, send them everything you have. Profit and loss basically refers to a financial satatement disclosing your net profit or loss. Trading account shows your income from sales and the direct costs of making those sales. It includes the balance of stocks at the start and end of the year. A balance sheet lists all your assets and liabilites eg stock/capital (assets) you hold plus all you liabilities eg debts, overdrafts, loans (liabilities) and a final statement of the financial situation of the business.

A company registration form is only issued to a company that is registered at Companies House, eg if you were a registered company- you would have a registration no of so and would have been called XXX Ltd. Sole traders/partnerships would not have one.

HTH?

[atticusclaw]

You wouldn't have had any of those things as a elf employed person. They all relate to companies.

[atticusclaw]

Self employed sorry. Elf employed might present you with a completely different paperwork challenge.

[bramblina]

Ha ha ha I think I might try going elf employed!!!

I'm self employed but can produce all of the above statements! Just no registered company number. You could still keep similar records even though you are only elf/self employed or a partnership.....no need to have been registered.

You could take all your records to an accountant and ask them to run off reports for you.