Hello The Instructor and welcome.

You may or may not need to change the articles to remain a Director, it depends what is in there already.

I'm puzzled about the sole trader advice; lots of sole traders sign trust deeds.

What line of work are you in?

This page provides further information about company directors and Scottish trust deeds:

https://www.trust-deed.co.uk/self-employed-company-director.html

Driving Instructor,,, i thought just what you said,,, with the addition of the account fees that would be incurred i dont think i will be able to afford it,

Loan £9k
Car Finance - £13k (HP , so not included in TD)
2x credit cards of £1500 total
Inland rev. (gulp) £4k

sorry, hope the details help a bit more

Hello The Instructor. Your debts are high enough for a Trust Deed to be an option.

How much do you think you can pay towards your debts and could you tell me if you own a property? and if so how much equity you have?

It is right that you need to continue paying your hire purchase,how much do you think your car is worth?

Hi The Instructor & welcome

I agree with TDA. I can't understand why you can't remain a sole trader, I have a couple of driving instructors who are sole traders and they are no problem. The only criteia is that you must keep your accounts, tax etc. up to date. As TDA says, you must maintain the HP, particularly as you need the car for your job. I would imagine your car has pretty high mileage, and will therefore have a lower value than an average car of its age. The last thing you want is for a Trust Deed to start incurring you extra costs, as that defeats it's purpose.

the car was bought in sept 2010 so almo0st a year old, now 35k on the clock.

No property involved, council tenent.

to work the TD out, they have taken a salary of £1500 per month,, thats great for the summer, but in winter that can reduce to less than 1000,, and thats if we can get on the roads, during 2010/2011 i was off the road for almost 2 months due to the bad weather,, they dont seem to be taking that into account.

Should i look at another IP that understands my industry ?

Hi The Instructor

The level of contribution should be calculated on the average monthly income and this would then account for fluctuations over the year. This should be evidenced by your accounts and would seem a sensible approach.

Mark

Hi

Another way of doing it is that you pay more in the summer months, and less in the winter months. As long as this is put to your creditors and an explanation of why, it shouldn't be a problem.

Spoke the the IP the other day and suggested that i provide them with my annual tax return for last year and then to deduct the holiday period of 2 week in summer,, they then said,, "yes, that sounds like a good idea".

I'm really not confident that they are the ones i should be dealing with !

Thanks for your advice and comments so far.

Hi The Instructor.

I've been thinking about your last post for a while today.

Whether you carry on with this process with the current firm, or you look elsewhere, I don't think you should sign until you have full confidence in the team you are appointing.

The nature of your relationship with a Trustee can subtly change once you have signed a trust deed. Right now it's about agreeing a way forward with the Trustee, once you've signed you've handed control on a number of issues (including the basis that contributions are worked out) over to them.

You could read their reaction to your suggestion very positively or negatively I think?

Hi

As TDA says, you don't sound 100% confident with how things are being worked out for you, so do not rush into anything. You should not be the one to come up with a 'good idea'. Your Trustee is there to inform and guide you of what is expected by both parties, and you need to be sure of those expectations before you sign a Trust Deed. I would also add that I think 2 weeks holiday in a year is a bit unrealistic, you should give yourself a minimum of 4 - like everybody else who works! Hope this is of help.

thanks guys,,, i really do need to do the TD, but as you say, it has to be right, because if not it could be a very difficult 3 years.

Shona,, i thought about 4 weeks but thought it would be a bit cheeky,, for the last 4 years i have not taken any holidays as i've been trying to build it up and make the business work.

Lots to think about,, thank you so much for all your input.