'Trading as'

[Arif110]

Hi all,

Was wondering what the rules (if any) there are about the above?

Is this a way for a company to have a nice name (that might be taken at Companies House)?

What's the purpose of this phenomenon?

Does it allow one company to exist in several different business areas? E.g. You have Another Ltd - which does photography and, separately - web design. Can you have Another Ltd, t/a Affordable Websites? Even though, for example, the domain affordablewebsites is taken, in various form? And then of course also, Another Ltd, t/a Great Photographs ?


Thanks in advance - and essentially as much info as possible as this would be great.

Arif

[FUBAR]

Im no expert in the field, but I believe youve basically got it right. You can give your company's departments (or shops?) different trading names, but only have the one company.

As with actual Ltd Co names (but not as strict) there maybe some names Companies House wont allow, such as J. Bloggs Ltd t/a ToysRus etc, but can see no reason why you couldnt have J Bloggs Ltd t/a Lovely Toys etc (may even get away with Toys4U? )

Have a look here http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gbf2... and see Section 6 referring to 'Business Names' or more specifically this link here http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gbf3...

HTH

[Pot Bellied Fool]

It's fine, so long as the trading style isn't that of another company in which case you could be accused of 'passing off'.

For example, I'm involved with industrial imaging and SME IT Support so I use xxx Ltd for the imaging and xxx ltd t/as blahdeblah Computer Repairs for the local SME stuff & make it clear on invoices that cheques should be payable to xxx Ltd.

[Arif110]

Interesting. As to what counts as passing-off – what if your field is exactly the same as the field of the company name you’re ‘trading as’. E.g. Someone else owns the domain and business name of affordablecomputerrepairs.com/.co.uk - & I want my company name to be able to trade as ‘Affordable Computer Repairs’. Obviously – I won’t own the domain – so my unrelated domain will lead to a website with ‘Affordable Computer Repairs’ as its title – but with the ‘trading as’ thing made clear in the banner.

What would be the score here?

And the Companies House advice is of limited relevance – as that’s all about actual names – which is arguably more black-&-white.

[FUBAR]

The second link deals with 'business names'

[Eric Mc]

Any business entity (limited company, sole trader or partnership) can adopt a trade name and therefore style themselves as, for example:

XYZ Ltd t/as ABC Wholesales
Joe Bloggs t/as Ripoff Plumbers & Sons
J Smith and T Jones t/as Shady Solicitors & Co

These "trading as" names are not legally limited in any way unless the name used is deemed to be offensive or, as someone else has already mentioned, another business thinks you are using a "trading as" type name to pass your business off as their business - and thereby cashing in on their established name.

There is no formal method of registering "Trading As" type names in the UK.

If you have a limited company which carries out separate and distinct trading activitioes (which would obviously be the case if you had a number of separate "trading as" type operations going on, you might find that the company would be restricted in the utilisation of any trading losses it incurred. It might also have to prepare more complicated accounts in order that the financial performance of each area be properly disclosed.

[CatherineJ]

My business is a T/A.

In my case it is because I have a franchise and I don't physically own the franchise name.

[Simpo Two]

I'm a sole trader and use T/A because 'Simpo Two' isn't a very helpful business name!

[Glassman]

Not too O/T, but does it also mean that by two t/a names you can have more than one bank a/c?

A carpenter who did some work for me earlier was telling me how he has two bank accounts to keep under the VAT threshold... like 'Mr Carpenter' for one and 'Mr Carpenter Limited' as the other...??

[Eric Mc]

An INDIVIDUAL cannot split his biusiness into two elements to keep both or either under the VAT registration threshold. This is called "Disaggregation" by the VAT authorities and is a definite "no no".

However, if an individual runs one business as a sole trader and another as a limited company, then the two could never be recombined by the VAT man as they are both distinct legal entities and cannot be amalgamated.

[Simpo Two]

Glassman said:

Not too O/T, but does it also mean that by two t/a names you can have more than one bank a/c?

VAT aside, I don't see why not.

Glassman said:

A carpenter who did some work for me earlier was telling me how he has two bank accounts to keep under the VAT threshold... like 'Mr Carpenter' for one and 'Mr Carpenter Limited' as the other...??

If as Eric suggests, the 'Ltd' one is actually a limited company, then he can act as a self-employed person as well, as long as HMRC is informed. I'd be very surprised if any bank would give you an account called 'Ltd' if you weren't a limited company. However I suspect that in this case one is the official business and the other is a 'cash' business. In other words, Mr Carpenter may be running the risk of being turned over.

Edited by Simpo Two on Monday 17th September 20:22

[Glassman]

Simpo Two said:

In other words, Mr Carpenter may be running the risk of being turned over.

Let's hope not. He had to put up with the missus calling him Ewan for three weeks when his name is Eoin. One man and a Peugeot estate full of tools. Good luck to him.

[jamesuk28]

Ok then. Say I have a bank account set up under the name achme ltd.

I have cheques coming in payable to achme ltd, but I also have to other trading names in different sectors ie, achme bog cleaning and achme strip clubs. If I receive cheques payable to achme bog cleaning or strip clubs can I bank them (will bank be OK) in the Achme ltd account, or do the cheques for these two need to be made payable to achme ltd????

[pugwash4x4]

depends on your bank in my experience

I have a limited company with 3 related but different arms and they are all called XXX ltd T/A "susbsidiary"

My bank allows us to cash any cheque in any of the bank accounts, because in reality it is all one company. BUT if you have a number of seperate businesses entities then you "should" lose this ability.

[Eric Mc]

If your company Achme Ltd was actually running all the separate trades outlined in your post, then the correct thing to do would be for all monies received from those activities (no matter what they are) to be banked into bank accounts named "Achme Ltd". If you tried to bank into non "Achme Ltd" bank accounts you could in effect be committing fraud as you would be taking money from the company without it ever having passed through the company first. There are legitimate ways of recording such transactions but, by bypassing the company bank account, the recording of the transactions would become very messy and it would be highly likely that control of the company income would be lost.

A limited company can run any number of different trades - and it can use separate "trading as" names for those separate trades if it so wants. However, you must be aware that there are complicated tax and accounting rules which apply to companies when they carry on separate and distinct trading activities - especially in the ability to offset trading losses incurred in any one of those activities.

[Glassman]

Can you open / run more than one bank a/c in the same trading name?

[Eric Mc]

Of course.

It's not that unusual. Many businesses will operate a current account and separate deposit or loan accounts as well.

[Glassman]

Eric Mc said:

Of course.

It's not that unusual. Many businesses will operate a current account and separate deposit or loan accounts as well.

To keep bank charges down on deposits etc?

[Eric Mc]

If they are in the good position were they can keep surplus funds in a separate account - then they should do so. Especially if the separate account gives them better rates of deposit interest. It won't cut down on current account bank charges though.

[pugwash4x4]

we operate 3 accounts, an every day current account, a tax liability account and a franchisees account.

This allows me to know, just by looking at our current account just how much cash i have to hand (of course that's usually none, but it's nice to know lol )