trade vet

That’s awful,£15k you have got to claim for that plus the stress and shock etc...You will still get insurance .Alternatively I recall a trader near us who had his Porsche stolen who had offered a grand ransom to some local bad lads to get it back.He got it back.

That’s good......By the way, I bet you had to fight to get £250 out of BCA !

Sorry to be a ‘doubting Thomas ‘,but will you not need 2 VAT accounts and 2 different stock books to keep that going.I like Justin’s comment,I can identify with that ! We are just trying to keep you right,car dealers get no leeway with HMRC,you are not allowed to make mistakes.

So fast forward 5 years,business doing well.....question from HMRC inspector.’Do you pay all your business income into the company account’ ‘Yes of course’ you answer............Then the inspector produces the above......

Hi Mark Warranties..we started doing our own over 20 years ago,we throw them in.Upselling warranties,service contracts,Gap ins and other stuff is easier for main dealers.In the past,when we have done it,it just seems to cause bad feelings with the punters down the line.

Definateley not sub prime.....we never offer sub prime.....we tell them ‘no sub prime get your own’.....no commission or volume bonuses,horrible swappers ....the job is hard enough !

OK........The thing is when you have a pitch ,sales staff can get a bollicking for doing a straight sale for full money on something that has made the phone ring.The reason of course is they have probably cost you a grand,because they have not been listening when you have told them,we need a good swapper and chucky on this one.

FAP......does that mean full money ?

Half term and bank holidays,I have always hated them.Have you noticed that public sector workers now appear to finagle a bank holiday Monday into a weeks holiday on full pay.Good for pubs and restaurant trade but no good for our job.Looking ahead to May,the way the 2 bank holidays fall probably means 3 poor weeks trading in the month....Then there is a Royal Wedding of course...On the other hand prices at the block might ease a bit,apparently BCA are back up to 25000.

Dan appears to have gone to ground......our advice may not be what he was expecting.....he probably thinks we are like the crimplene guys at the main dealers !

Hi Stephen It does not work like that.Chartered Accountants are like GP’s,they cannot know everything but do their best.You just have to look at how the HMRC inspectors manual is written, to give you an idea.The other thing is tax inspectors can often interpret tax regulations differently amongst themselves.......In the last year or two there have been several multi millionaire footballers declare bankruptcy having been faced with massive HMRC penalties after being advised by top accountancy firms to set up legal tax avoidance schemes which were later outlawed, not the accountants fault.As for HMRC,we had a case for instance where we (our company) being from the North East bought a flat in London which was handy for staying during the week as we bought most of our stock down there.After 10 years,HMRC made a ‘discovery assessment’ that because it was ‘availible to us’ at weekends,it was a taxable benefit although we were never there at weekends.I was taxed personally on 2/7ths of the open market rent ( which was a lot) backdated for 10 years with interest/penalties etc.I argued that how was it therefore ok for Arthur Scargill who had allegedly awarded himself on retirement a rent free for life multimillion pound London apartment.It is apparently owned by his employers the miners union yet he must be getting away with it as he would have had to pay a grand per week in tax on the benefit......Of course they cannot comment on other taxpayers.....I am sure you get the picture now.

If he has taken out a big balance on finance,will he not still be liable for any early settlement charges.If he had a good swapper,I would just keep that and charge him 45p per mile for the Audi......I have found that with these types who are completely unreasonable,there often is another story and they won’t come clean.

Good accountants .....if you pay them a lot of money they may be able to make your accounts look better.Just look at Carillion and what about that wiz kid Essex dealer with little experience who was getting all these awards before his balloon burst. HMRC will tell you,if you employ an accountant and he makes a mistake or messes up,you are responsible for his actions and you will have to pay up.......I have been there !

Hi Simon Welcome to the Jungle.....I have looked at your website......I like it....However,it may be a good idea to mention and embellish your franchised dealer sales manager CV,punters will identify with that,it will increase your credibility. ...I bet you have some good contacts for buying stock direct......Good Luck in your new venture.

High Screenman....You know quite a few ?...I have to say,if you press the button on them at Companies House you may get a different story.I know guys with the big pitches,talk the talk and walk the walk etc,nice houses,big rolex’s ,keep up appearances etc and the truth is entirely different.....they are treading water ! not like 40 years ago.

Dan.....All that stuff is straight forward.....it’s stock buying techniques newbies want to know about.

£750 p/m in London area for 10 cars with outside parking......’cheap as chips’

Hi Lee Everyone gets a few declined every week.You don’t want to be chasing ‘chucky duffers’ if you are running a good business.In my experience,you want prime finance punters who create better commission and volume bonuses,they have better swappers and better still they are more likely to return.When these sub primers default and get snatched back,they don’t blame the chucky company,they will blame you for stitching them up ! ......I will stop there.

Are there any successful,wealthy and profitable car dealers left out there,I cannot think of any..... can you ?

I’m impressed.....that talent will save you £25k per year.

Hi Mark.....I have always found academics to be awfull slow punters.Nice people,very polite and proper but not in the real world,usually lacking in common sense aswell.I have never seen an academic with a Q7 probably because they are not PC.Volvo estates or Audi Avants yes.If you did manage to do a deal with this guy,his money would probably be tied up in some ISA or similar and you would not get paid for a while.However the type of college lecturer types I like usually do bricklaying or joinery and they are usually from the real world and are streetwise.......I have known quite a few college academics and outside of college they often struggle with the most basic things in life....So a mature college lecturer viewing my stock would get little encouragement from me.

Mature college lecturer ? With make up all over.......wife had a ladies clothes shop.

I have just remembered a case we had years ago before there was any on line buying.( bit of a long story)I had asked a trader friend to buy a full spec Galaxy at Newcastle,the deal was go to £x for it and if it was cheaper that was his profit etc.Anyway,buys it for our max bid price so he would only get £50 profit from us.He goes to pay for it and the price has gone up £200 or 5% because it was entered by the Police.Apparently the auctioneer confirmed that but had never said it was + 5%.So I told him to request to hear the tape to confirm and we would pay the extra.BCA refused to let him hear the tape,so I told him to refuse to pay for it and ask for a rerun.They suspended his account immediately.So I informed the manager that as he was acting on my instructions,he should reinstate his account and suspend ours instead.I also said they should be aware that I would be making an official complaint to the chief constable so I gave the manager 24 hours to decide .The next thing I get a call from someone with a grand title from BCA head office who was very concerned that I was about to complain to the chief constable.He agreed to reinstate my friends account and rerun the Galaxy......However they removed the Galaxy from Newcastle and must have rerun it elsewhere. Since then we must have had dozens of run ins with BCA,sued them and won in the small claims court and they still try to give us the runaround....It’s just their company policy regarding fobbing off traders and it appears to work well for them....So when there is a problem,don’t be frightened to take them on.

Andy.....Would you mind letting us know what previous evidence you have of BCA closing accounts.....They have threatened me before,I just told them to go ahead....they backed off.

Owners.....I remember when you could get away with all sorts........one titled owner.....Sir Robert McAlpine,.....even ex police panda cars were always stated as being owned by the chief constable .....punters believed it and it was legal.