One business or divide them?

[Evergreentree]

I am going freelance in the new year. The business is what I have done for 20 years and is connected with writing court reports. However, I have also retrained in alternative therapies and I just want to do court work part time as it’s quite stressful. Given the businesses are quite different I wonder how well do they fit together and how would I amalgamate them onto a business card? But are running different business more complex in terms of tax etc?

No idea about tax pov.
But on a business pov, you want

• two business cards as the activities are so different.
• two sets of accounts so you know which activities brings you, what is actually the most profitable for you etc....

If you are self employed, I wouod imagine it’s not going to make a big difference on tax pov tbh. But I wouod check with an accountant

Simply keep them separate as long as you're doing both as self employed/sole trader. You''ll need to keep two sets of "books" and complete two self employment sections in your annual tax return, so pretty simple, just two lots of everything. (All assuming neither is a limited company - that's a completely different scenario).