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By miguel-ingles
- In Uncategorized
Running a business is a complex process in which there are plenty of responsibilities and legal requisites that the directors must take into consideration in order to comply with the law and to ensure the rentability of the corporation. In this article, I will explain the process of managing a company in the UK.
Differences between Legal Structures when Managing a Company in the UK
Taxes
Depending on the legal structure of a business, the taxes and fees it must pay will vary. For example, every type must pay VAT if their annual income is superior to 90 000 GBP. However, only private and public limited companies must grant Corporation Tax, while partnerships are exempt. In this article, you can find more information about the taxes each company has to pay depending on their legal structure.
Funding
The way of asking for funding is also different among business structures. All types can access bank loans and, if they comply with certain requisites, they can also ask for public subsidies. Nonetheless, the law does not allow partnerships to trade shares for funding with people that are not members of the company. Authorities permit this for limited companies, although they cannot sell shares publicly.
Managing the Employees’ Work and Salaries of a Company in the UK
It is likely that you may need to hire employees to ensure a correct and efficient development of the company’s business activity. In the UK, there are rules that determine some aspects of the working time. Not fulfilling them may end in legal actions against the enterprise, which may result in fines, prison sentences for the directors or even the dissolution of the business.
Working Conditions
The legal weekly working time of an employee is set at 40 hours. However, at most, they can labour for a maximum of 48 hours per week if the average working time in 17 weeks is lower than 48 hours.
The law also establishes the rest periods and paid holidays. A worker has the right of 24 free hours per week and 5 or 6 paid-holiday weeks per year.
Another thing you have to take into consideration is the retirement age. The default retirement age at 65 years is no more. Now, there is not a limit on the maximum age to work. Currently, in the UK, the retirement age is set at 67 years, and it is possible that it may go until 68. That being said, it is possible that a younger person might obtain a pension if they comply with certain requisites.
Wages
The minimum wage in the UK is set at 1220 GBP per month. The average salary is at 2930 GBP per period.
About extra hours or night-time schedules, it is not compulsory for companies to offer an additional pay, but it is a habit that most employers provide.
National Insurance
The National Insurance grants access to workers to pensions, parental leaves and other types of subsidies.
Employers must pay a 13.8% of the annual income that surpasses 9100 GBP as National Insurance fees. For employees, it will depend on the money they earn each year. You can consult the different fees in this link.
Managing the Protection of Intellectual Property of a Company in the UK
Designing a business image and offering quality products and services will distinguish our company from our rivals, in addition to making the corporation profitable. For this reason, it is important to keep your intellectual property protected, so, in case someone copies any of the characteristic elements of the enterprise, you can start legal actions.
Depending on the type of product, you can apply a type of guarantee or another. For names, logos or jingles, we will register a trademark. For designs and decorations of an object, you will record a design. In the case of artistic content (literature, painting, music, etc.) or for web documents, you will need to get the copyright. At last, for inventions and products, you will have to register a patent for them.
You have to keep in mind that, for each process, the windows will be different.