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My wife and I would like to visit the UK in the future, but I was wondering whether my situation is going to be an issue or not (I would hope not, but you never know).

I am self employed, and I make a nice amount of money working as a contractor. I have two bank accounts: the personal one, and the business one.

The way it works is I can use the funds in my business account same as it were my personal account. There's no dividend or anything – my government only cares for the taxes I pay as self employed when the time comes. It's perfectly legal – any money I withdraw doesn't count as expenses, but anyways.

I usually have a specific day of month (+/- a day) when I transfer a fixed amount of money from the business account to my personal account, which I intend to use as living expenses. Sometimes I have some extra expenses (e.g. unexpected trip to the doctor), which I then again transfer from the business account to the personal one.

I'm wondering if such a setup can make it difficult for me to convince the officer I have enough funds to cover my expenses while in the UK. Can I even use my business account statements as proof of my income?

user113826
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1 Answers1

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This is not a rare situation, and there are two reasonable ways you could go about it.

The first is to report your income as what you transfer from your business to personal accounts, including any personal expenses you pay directly from your business account. Report your expenses as the total of what you pay out of your personal account plus whatever you pay directly from your business account. Where a personal expense is paid direct from the business account, state in notes exactly what it is for.

The second way is to not distinguish between personal and business expenses. Report your income as all the money coming into your business (plus any income not related to the business), and expenses as everything you pay, including for your business. This is best if your business expenses are low.

Write notes of explanation saying what you are doing, and in either case include your business account statements, and some documentation to show that you are the sole owner of the business. Make sure that the transfers between business and personal match, especially that there are no unexplained transfers into either account.

DJClayworth
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