dense question about profit...

[soak]

Morning all!!

Bit of a dense question but here goes anyway!!

At the end of the tax year and you have worked out what profit you have made (if any!) and you pay the tax on the profit, can you then spend the profit on what you want (e.g give yourself a big bonus) or do you have to plough it back into the business???

am watching this one with interest this is my first year minding so would like to know the answer to this one.

Hopefully one if not more of the regular CM on here wil be able to answer it for us.

apologies soak to hijack your thread but please can I have your opinion as an accountant jura - I know businesses donate to charity but if, as a sole trader self employed as a childminder I donate to charity would I have to include the value of the donation in with my profits (it was my personal choice to make the donation) or can the business list this as an expense (I may not have received a plea for a donation from any children's charities if I weren't listed as a childcarer in so many business listings)

TIA

SOAK - For the last year I've used a separate business bank account (free with Abbey) and I use this account to pay for anything I need for childminding purposes and I transfer regular amounts to my personal account which I treat as my salary. Its going to be interesting when I get round to doing my accounts to see how much difference there will be between the amounts I've paid myself and the total profit on paper! I've also put aside 20% each week in another account to pay the tax bill (in the hope of not having to pay that much and being able to give myself a bonus!)

thanks all - I thought that might be the case but thought I would double check - I'm not even registered yet!!! just wanted to get stuff straight in my head especially as they have removed the surestart start up grant and you now have to do a business plan including a 2 or 4 year profit plan!!!!

Thanks Jura.