The belief seems to be that if they go on holiday anywhere, but post a photo or make a promo video while there, then it can be written off as a business expense. No idea if that holds up though.
Limited company funding lifestyle
- Thread starter MelF
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If an influencer (dislike that term) is accompanied by other non-business related people and those costs are excluded, I don’t really understand what the problem is.
I don’t see what’s so different about a solo influencer who travels to different places to promote beauty or fashion products versus a large company that photographs or films their products in exotic locations. The scale may be different ie., a company uses professional models, photography teams, make-up and wardrobe teams, incurs travel and accommodation costs etc, whereas one influencer probably does all those jobs personally or maybe with a single assistant.
If all those advertising and promotional costs are legitimate expenses for a large business, why not for a sole trader or micro business. Unless an influencer’s place of work is specifically limited in some way by revenue rules. Or non-professional modelling activities (ie using family or friends) is prohibited.
So maybe my wife should just become an influencer herself and fund our lifestyle through her own company. That I could get on board with!
Steven Barrett
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That is a mistaken belief. If it was like that, everyone would do it. I know lots of people who have gone abroad for conferences and stayed an extra few days. Those extra few days are at their own cost, not the business.
If they are paid to go to that location and promote it, that is work. If they travel to say Thailand and do a paid promotion of a restaurant while they are there, that paid promotion is taxable. The whole trip isn't an expense. Most of the work of influencers in unpaid. Their goal is to rack up followers and then be able to get ads on their channel and get paid promotion work. There was an article about Irish influencers in the The Irish Times recently. They do alright but it's not a career and it could come to an abrupt end at any time. Ireland isn't big enough for them to scale like some of the Americans can.
That's interesting re the expenses thing. So what do you reckon's going on with O'Connor's company I wonder? Paying herself and the husband too much like Brendan's example maybe, and that funds the lifestyle. Which is fair enough. I'll tell the wife to stick to the day job for the moment so.
That's your belief, not "the" belief.
You really know nothing about their affairs. You are implying they are doing something underhanded. You should probably drop it and talk in more general terms
No. Don't ever do this. My father did this all his life and ended up having to work til he was 78 because of it.
Well if you owe money to a bank its probably going to be eventually written off (though they will repossess any loan securing properties), but Revenue won't, so you'll probably find that Revenue will continue to chase for its share. That's what usually finishes these off. What my Dad used to do was make drawings on the total income without deducting a percentage for revenue, so he'd end up unable to pay his tax bill in full, end up with late penalties and borrowings to catch up, and so end up losing a good chunk of profit due to late penalties and punitive interest for being late.
losttheplot
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Exactly, that company may not be the only source of income.
Not in the slightest, I'm using at as the example and reference point for my query.
Steven Barrett
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I have no idea. I don't know about her company or what she is doing. In the accounts that were published, the business had a turnover of €3.7m and a gross profit of €1.5m.
Going back to your original post, I have no idea if she is funding her lifestyle through her company. I would assume the opposite and that she is not...like every other director is not.
Profits rise at Pippa O’Connor’s Poco Beauty as firm expands into Selfridges
www.businesspost.ie
Are there no rules and regulations about when company accounts are filed? With penalties for late filing?
Brendan Burgess
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Yes, there are.
And the Companies Office or whatever they call it these days, enforce the rules very stringently.
In the case at hand we are talking about end of year Oct 2021 being submitted 4 months ago. Nearly 5 years later. That doesn’t sound stringent to me.
Brendan Burgess
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No, but they will be fined or otherwise penalised for late filing. For example, a small company is exempt from an annual audit. If they file late, they lose the exemption for a period. Which is very expensive.
(I am out of this area for 15 years, but that is the way it was then. Before that, the Companies Office didn't care. Annual Returns were often years late or not filed at all with no consequences for the company.)
(I am out of this area for 15 years, but that is the way it was then. Before that, the Companies Office didn't care. Annual Returns were often years late or not filed at all with no consequences for the company.)
It turns out that she's a lot more than just a pretty face, which, fro what I've heard, is obvious to anyone who ever interacted with her. Well done Pippa. The appetite for risk and hard work has paid off.
A far cry from her company funding her lifestyle.
A far cry from her company funding her lifestyle.