Aren't there any other matters to consider in deciding whether to incorporate or not?

Higher administration costs to comply with company law, payroll and bookkeeping is one factor. Another issue is pension planning. Extracting profits out of company as dividends rather than salary means that there will be no "net relevant earnings" and therefore pension contributions can't be made. But advent of stakeholder pension plans has meant that contributions up to œ3,600 per year can be made without need for any earnings. If a person does not wish to transfer funds in existing plans into stakeholder because of high charges, there is a way out: best net relevant earnings (i.e. salary) in five consecutive years can be used for making contributions for next five years, even if there were no salaries in remainder four years. It is comforting to know that entitlement to basic state pension is not affected by taking a salary from company at level of a person's personal allowances i.e. œ4,615.

Furthermore, an individual may decide not to bother with pension plans and instead invest in ISA. Often, these can be more efficient than pensions but that's beside scope of this article. If that option is taken, no salary is necessary.

Another factor is business motoring. It might be tax advantageous for an unincorporated business that owns many cars not to incorporate because if these cars have some private use there will be benefits in kind taxed on users. These are generally higher than straight apportionment between private and business for all car running costs in case of sole traders.

The conclusion is that there can be considerable tax savings waiting sole trader who decides to go down road to incorporation. But, one needs to proceed with caution and careful planning. And don't forget biggest advantage of incorporation, which is Protection from Personal Liability. Incorporating is one of best ways to protect a business owner from personal liability. Shareholders of a company are generally not liable for obligations of company. Creditors of a company may seek payment from its assets, but not assets of shareholders. This means that business owners may engage in business without risking their homes or other personal property.

Thank you for taking time to read this Article. I hope you've found it useful. If you have, please drop me an email and let me know what you think.

You can email me at...

constantinesavva@accamail.com

Alternatively, you can visit our website at http://www.tax-accounting-london.info and read a series of other full length articles that present complete picture on a variety of interesting topics.

If you would like to know how to save tax and make sure that more of your hard earned cash stays with you to expand your business and increase your profits, we have a Free Special Report addressed to small businesses either starting up or already in business. This Exclusive Free Special Report is available automatically when you subscribe to our regular series of Free Newsletters on finance advice and tax planning by visiting our subscription area on our website www.tax-accounting- london.info. It is complied from real life situations dealing with small business tax affairs for over 10 years and it is loaded with down-to-earth advice and practical, understandable examples.

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Do all of that, and you have a fighting chance.

If you can differentiate your product as unique, develop a website that targets only those people who would be interested in that product, and then construct pages that clearly demonstrate to SEs quality of content, I can assure you that your page(s) will rank very high.

You won't be on page one or two for every search for a product that is similar to yours. But, if your targeted prospect uses your specific keywords for your niche product, your chances of being on page one or two are very, very good.

And, it doesn't matter whether there are nine hundred or nine million pages out there, with similar products!

Now comes really hard part...

Next time you punch in any set of search words or phrases and then follow links to sites on page one of your favorite SE, critically assess each page you view.

Do you "buy" from first page you view? I doubt it - that would be very rare. Especially if you had my recent experience - I clicked on number one and got back a 404 Page Not Found! Sheesh, can you believe that (a problem with SE's housekeeping, perhaps)?

Anyways, I persevered and finally got to what I wanted waaaay down in list. Maybe my search term should have been more specific? Whatever...I had to look through a few sites before I got to one that was talking to *me*.

That's crucial.

When you walk into a store, you expect sales help to talk to you, and to answer your needs and wants. You would expect no less from any website that is trying to sell you its particular product or service.

In fact, you'd probably want more! And that's what you've got to deliver to your own prospects.

If you're good with words, you can construct your own sales copy. In fact, you should construct your sales letter before doing anything about a website page.

If not, hire a professional to do it for you. When you're satisfied with that, only then should you construct your web page(s).

If you do that, you have half a chance of actually getting sale when your prospect finds your link on page one or two!

Now...if you don't have a niche product or service, then you'd better get one from some-one else or develop one yourself.

But, just remember five points above when you've got your niche product and your sales copy ready.