Supplementing income with freelance work - LTD?

[3rd]

I'm currently a contractor with an umbrella company. My contract ends in July and I'm not sure whether I'll be going perm or continuing as a contractor.

I was recently offered some additional work by a friend - he wants me to maintain his website for £100 a month.

Is it necessary to set up as an LTD for this? Register as sole trader?

[Quagmire]

If it's a good friend - beerware

[northernladuk]

Personally I wouldn't touch it for £100 a month. The old mantra of never mixing business with pleasure can often prove right but if I was going to do it and risk falling it out over it would be for either a lot more than £100 or I do it as a favour and be owed one so he can't complain if he doesn't like what you do. You can also back out when he wants an hour, then another hour, then a full redesign, then full SEO all for nothing. If he is paying you he could feel short changed and problems start.

But... If you are going to do it I would invoice him, ask him to pay it in to my business account and pay every penny of tax owed on it

[3rd]

Yes, I normally wouldn't bother with this sort of thing, except I don't really have to do anything other than make sure nothing bad happens to the site on the server (which takes automatic backups anyway)!

Also, he's more a friend of a friend so I'm not too worried about fallings outs.

There's a possibility I could be asked to 'maintain' more sites after this. So was wondering whether LTD (or other) was the way.

[theroyale]

I'm currently a contractor with an umbrella company. My contract ends in July and I'm not sure whether I'll be going perm or continuing as a contractor.

I was recently offered some additional work by a friend - he wants me to maintain his website for £100 a month.

Is it necessary to set up as an LTD for this? Register as sole trader?

Shouldn't think you need to register as anything for this as long as you declare the income and the source on your next tax return.