earning a small income from our woodland???

[Terry]

Looking for advice regarding legal issues with regard to earning a bit of income from our woodland to put towards upkeep.
Have identified a few potential income streams, mainly craft products incl. using interesting pieces of timber that would be a shame to put into the fire wood pile, bean poles, pea sticks, bit of excess firewood as well as hosting courses. Basically, there seem to be some value-addable resources which would be a pity to waste.
Will be chatting to a friends accountant to discuss financial aspects, but any advice on this would be appreciated. (always been employed, so know very little about this side of things)
We currently do not have any insurance in place, so also open to advice on this as well as any planning issues we might run up against - .
Will be speaking to the likes of the SMA et al as well as doing more reading here.
Is it pie in the sky, or worth pursuing?

[tracy]

Hi Terry

I don't know much, but others on here do earn a living from their woodlands. I would think that making creative stuff is a good start!
Tracy

[splodger]

it is possible to earn a few pennies from your woodland - how much £'s would depend on what sort of wood you have available to use (and what quantity)

time is also a major issue - as looking after even a small patch of woodland is extremely time consuming - so having the time to make stuff to sell on is not always possible

we have mostly chestnut on our site - so can make a multitude of products from the timber, but it is very labour intensive and time consuming (last year we calculated that our basic hourly rate for making a traditional trellis panel works out at about 50p an hour)

what sort of timber do you have to work with?

[Terry]

Thanks for the responses.
Am looking at anything low impact as not keen to damage the place. As for shooting - even if I was inclined to allow that I think I would end up on the endangered list as the wife might temporarily forget she doesnt like guns and turn one on me
We have quite a variety of timbers - predominantly ash & hazel as well as hawthorn, elder, field maple, oak, holly, sycamore, a few elms and other species. Appreciate the comments on time required, but luckily my day job only occupies me for just over half the year so plenty of time to potter about and more importantly I enjoy doing things in the woods. Would be nice to combine this with a bit of income to help cover costs.
Regardless of what we do, mainly looking for advice on how best to deal with the taxman as well as planners and potential insurance implications.

[splodger]

re insurance - i guess it depends on who you are going to have on site - we have had public liability insurance for two or three years - but only because my dad was doing a bit of tuition on site and we had a few overhanging trees on our roadside boundary, but these are down now so unlikely to get sued for tree falling on car etc - although we have just renewed the policy, i doubt we will bother to renew again when it runs out, although it's not expensive

as for taxman - don't know who he is

[Bulworthy Project]

The 2 of us live entirely from our woodland and our income is derived from charcoal and courses. The only reason that we can do it is that we have very low living costs due to living on site and getting much of our food for free or with little expense (foraging, keeping chickens etc...)
Charcoal making is a hard way to earn your entire income, but as part of a woodland business it makes a lot of sense.

[Terry]

'splodger' - unfortunately the taxman has a nasty habit of poking around other peoples business

Thanks for the response regarding charcoal from 'Bulworthy Project' - appreciate the hard way of life and well done for getting things up and running to the degree you have, particularly planning wise
Not keen to extract sufficient volumes for charcoal at the moment, but certainly intend to look into it in the future once coppice is more fully established.
Presume you run things on the basis of a normal small business as regards accounts etc?

[splodger]

'splodger' - unfortunately the taxman has a nasty habit of poking around other peoples business

yeah - i know - what i should have said is my dad is retired and doesn't pay tax anymore (not that there would be tax to pay on the meagre earnings from our patch - especially if rated as only income) - message is posted specifically for any trolling taxmen out there

[Meadowcopse]

For those with an income directly or indirectly from your woods, do you use an accountant or find the 'sole trader' aspects of HMRC self assessment adequate?

Was an accountant particularly useful (worth their fee) and did they spot anything particularly helpful such as management of capital expenses / large equipment purchases, even efficient management of the purchase value of the woods?

[Bulworthy Project]

We do use an accountant but only because as a sibling she doesn't charge. It's fairly self explanitary if you have a go at the form. If you need to you could always use one as a one off and then copy what they do. It is necesarry to keep good records though.