interesting discussion

Ibblebibble

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was having a chat with an aquaintance and she was gossiping about someone she knows with lots of horses and ponies who charges people £60 a month to loan a pony blahblahblah,:rolleyes: i was just doing my normal' oh really' non commital sort of replies lol but then she started going on about how it should all be declared to the tax man as really the woman was running a business and making money from these people. My reply was that with the amount of ponies this woman allegedly has she certainly wouldn't be making a profit unless she was getting £60 a month for every single one of them!
Now this got me pondering, at what stage does something where you are taking money from someone become a business rather than a personal arrangement:confused:
posed this question to hubby and he said that really even receiving money for the share/loan of one pony should be declared but that seems a bit OTT to me. There would be a fair few of us having to hand ourselves over to the tax man for a spanking if that were the case:eek:
be interested to see what others think as to what constitutes a business in something like this:)
 
If she loans a few out then yes I would say it was a business seeing as you don't usually pay to loan. Surely she is offering a service which would class as a business
 
the ponies have to stay at her yard and i really have no idea how many she does charge people for, you know how it is when someone is having a biatch about someone they obviously don't like;) But using her as an example if she only had 2 people paying would that still make you think business or just a thing between friends:confused: this is what had me wondering, where do you draw the line, if there is a line to be drawn:confused:
 
Any money that you receive in any form or fashion - 'horse loan money' included should be declared on your tax returns ! This I am assuming is what is classed as 'unearned income' -But I'm Not a TAX expert

If this woman is loaning out or hiring out equines then yes I would say that it would be veiwed as a business and all earnings should be declared. I would also presume that she has all other aspects covered such as health and safety and insurance.
If she is giving lessons that this would be classed as Hire or reward and thus she would need a licence - which is a whole different bag of spanners !!
 
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/selling/badges.htm

HMRC guidance on what will constitute a trade for tax purposes-mainly to do with selling goods, but gives an idea.

I think your friend is pretty close to the borderline on this, depending on the precise nature of the situation. If they buy horses to rent out to make profit, (even just one) is def. a business. If they owned a horse that no longer works for them and are leasing out on a short term basis, there is more of an argument that this may be ok.

Also, if they have one horse leased at profit and a personal horse which is costing them money, unless the personal horse is also available for lease as part of running the same business of the other, you cant offset the personal horse costs against the income to calculate whether the trade is profitable.
 
If it counts as a business then surely feeding,vet,farrier etc are tax deductable which probably leaves her with no tax liability.
 
Hmm, I may be thinking of the same person, does she own about 16 ponies. I don't know her, just heard on grapevine.

My daughters friend shares one for £60 a month, think a couple of others are shared.

You can probably guess I'm from Wiltshire.
 
I would have thought that if the ponies were staying on her yard it would like a share? Otherwise all sharers would have to be declared even if you are not self employed?
 
if she takes 60 pounds a month, what of that money goes towards expenses for the pony, or do the leasers pay for all of the expenses? if the former she is hardly making a profit, in fact it could be said she is subsidising the loaners use of the pony, at 15 pounds a week they are getting a good deal.

if she does'nt show a profit but probably a loss taking into consideration a capital writing down on the value of the pony and maybe the tack it hardy constitutes a business
 
Hmm, I may be thinking of the same person, does she own about 16 ponies. I don't know her, just heard on grapevine.

My daughters friend shares one for £60 a month, think a couple of others are shared.

You can probably guess I'm from Wiltshire.

could be the same person, i don't know her myself either, i can't see what she does is a problem but the person who was talking about her seemed to :rolleyes:
 
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