Is it really worth it?

How is baking a few cakes a higher risk than simply cooking for yourself?

And people routinely do work-related email from home.  Anything risky there? Do THEY report this to their mortgage company?

Do your consultations with customers outside of your home. A customer falling on a slippery step or sidewalk is the only risk that the insurance company could care about. Bake according to food regs but don't trouble the others for occasional "hobby" work at home.

I expect you would have to disclose ONLY if this was your primary source of income.

I think it upped our household insurance by about ten quid a year!

But you DO need to get registered with your local authority.  And you DO need to let HMRC know - even if you're not making much of a profit.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjeffery 

It does all seem a bit over the top! I read on a lawyers website that the increased use of the oven is why its high risk as there is increased risk of fire but there are only two of us in the house and the additional baking would be no more than a family of 4's baking.

 

The world's gone a bit crazy if you ask me, apparently you can't even give out cakes to work colleagues without being registered with the council, its stopping people being able to enjoy a hobby.

 

I honestly thought the only worry would be telling the tax office and since its such a tiny amount i thought it would be easier enough but i'm thinking now its just not worth it.

i perfectly agree with you--could not agree more--it's nuts

It IS crazy!  Can't do a thing without registering and getting 5 different permits and whatnot!

I know what you are saying and I'm sure everyone totally agrees, I think it's just the extent that the laws are enforced. With the UK Government coming down on ebay sellers and who knows who else for selling things in an 'illegal' way (as in if you sell so many things a month/year on ebay you are a business and will be treated as such) it gets very hard to want to do anything. I'm not saying there have been many prosocutions or any but we are told there will be, all scare tactics.

I love making cakes and have done a few for friends and family for birthdays and such but by UK law if I was to ask for any compenstation of costs, i.e. 'the ingredients cost me so much so just give me that' and I wasn't making any money from the cakes, its still technically selling and I'm out of pocket. I know the tax man isn't going to start banging on my door just because my dad gave me a tenner for making my little brothers birthday cake but they are saying they can. Also, even if I wanted to, because I rent my home privately, I can't set up a business at home if I wanted to because the landlord's mortgage will be affected. As for food poisoning, I have taken a course of Food saftey and have the certificate etc and even baking cakes for free for family I want to make sure no one gets ill. I'm sure there are some people out there who aren't as aware of it but that's really down to the person, checking ingredients/kitchen/equiptment etc. I know mistakes happen and supermarkets can even sell food that isn't to standard sometimes too.

It just seems easy enough to do somethings when your already qualified or set up but getting qualified or set up for yourself is getting harder and harder. Practice makes perfect? yeah well its also insanely expensive.

just a small idea to help the medicine go down

if i think of doing cakes as being catering it helps me with the big picture

it's the vastly different rules and regulations from area to area about cakes that make it hard/painful to swallow

some can do it from home some cannot--intensive degrees of allowances/non-allowance -- not fair but that's the way it is

and i don't want my neighbors to run egg farms or mechanic shops on their property either

so while it can/does sting

because if you bake one cookie you gotta hoard of well intentioned people/ignoramuses chanting "you should open a business you should open a business etc, etc...."

y'know fanning the flame that is already been scorching you

then you have to explain to them blablablablablablabla "oh sure you can" no you can't (maybe that's a u.s. thing)

but it's for those who take the big plunge or are in areas where it's allowed below the 'pay rent/big overhead business level'

we can still do a cake or two--that's the real beauty of the thing

but it's a very good thing to put that 'sell' thing firmly down, tuck it in, turn off the light and close the door

then go design and produce the killerest cake of all !!!! buwahahahaha

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikiandkyle 

Nobody's stopping you from baking cakes as a hobby and giving them to friends. The law is about selling them. People think its silly until someone they know gets food poisoning from something that was baked in an unregulated kitchen and then they're livid that they were breaking the law. That's how these laws come about in the first place.

And if you get sued and are responsible for hospital bills, and anything having to do with a result of someone getting sick...how on earth will you pay it? It can bankrupt you. Ruin you. Yeah, it *is* unlikely. But it's possible. 

I don't like Pina Coladas,

but I DO like

dancing in the Rain. 

please

nobody is poisoning anyone

the point here is dreams not disease/sanitation

the sky is not falling

we all know plenty of fully regulated places that are serving pond scum

the fact that if i lived a few miles from here i could work out of my home and i can't from right here is frustrating

that's not a hygiene issue it's an unrelenting head f___

dreams just don't go away just because of your address

we are commiserating with each other

we're all gonna move just any minute now--i'm heading for ohio--except it's colder than tn--hmmm...

You need to have your ducks in a row if you're going to sell cakes or anything else. I know two people right now in the wedding industry here who are being sued by clients for stupid things, but it doesn't matter how crazy, nuts or stupid it is, they're still being sued. Get licensed, get insured, then sell away. There was also an article in the paper this week about some guy in my state who's a guitarist. He'd been playing in bands on and off then started booking more gigs on his own, but of course he didn't get a business license since "I don't make that much money." So the state found out and he got hit with a bunch of fines. If you need to be licensed just get licensed, it isn't that big a deal and it will prevent problems down the line.