Well, there's the completion certificates that we've already mentioned, plus associated paperwork such as results of insulation, loop impedance tests, etc. That's not required by any rules and regulations, but all part of the technical side.

As far as the PoCo is concerned, there are the forms for a new service or change of service. I don't do much in the way of brand-new installs around here, so it's not often that I have to get involved with that. Last one was well over 6 months ago when we had to apply to change the meter position in a High Street shop due to building work. (I do have to call the PoCo quite regularly to report corroded connections on their side of the meter, however, but there's no paperwork involved, thank goodness!).

Obviously there's invoicing, accounting, and orders from suppliers as in almost any business.

Then there's all the usual government paperwork associated with being self-employed. The main departments we have to deal with are:

1. Inland Revenue (equivalent to the American IRS, although people are perhaps not quite so scared of them! [Linked Image]). They deal mainly with income tax, of course, and the forms can be complicated, but not too bad so long as your accounts are fairly well organized. I've never been audited or had any major problems, and although the overall system can be rather slow and laborious, I've found that the local officials are mostly quite reasonable people and ready to help as far as their position allows them to.

2. Customs & Excise. These are the people who deal with VAT (Value Added Tax). Every 3 months we send in a form which summarizes how much VAT is due and how much is being reclaimed, along with other totals of sales and purchases. The VAT system and rules are horrendously complex, not to mention being full of inconsistencies and some things which just seem downright unfair, but once you've worked out what's needed in your own line of work it usually runs pretty smoothly. On occasions when C&E owe me money, I've found that it usually appears in my account fairly promptly after I've sent in the quarterly return.

3. Dept. of Social Security, as it was. It's been recently renamed the DWP - Dept. of Work & Pensions. We pay "National Insurance Contributions" into the social security system (a tax by any other name). The Inland Revenue Dept. is actually charged with collecting the contributions along with income tax, but everything else is handled by one of many branches of the DSS/DWP.

In my experience, the whole lot of them are hopeless. They will send you endless forms which ask the same questions in different ways over and over. Or in many cases, they will not send you the forms, then write a nasty letter eight weeks later asking why you've not returned their stupid forms! [Linked Image]

They seem to conveniently "lose" paperwork on a regular basis. Trying to get any sort of straight answer to a question is next to impossible. If you do get an answer, don't rely on it, because the next person you speak to will probably tell you something completely different and deny that anyone in the system could have told you what you had already been told!

And should you dare to get sick for a week and decide to claim some of the benefits for which you've been paying for years, expect another large batch of paperwork, pointless questions, and several trips to their office to sort it all out.