A grand design

I have taken on as a client a new small limited company that trades as an interior designer. There is a rented office near the shareholder/director’s home but no separate showroom.

Instead the company has spent some £20 000 on improvements to the director’s house incorporating some of the interior designs – such as a computer-controlled lighting system as well as designer furniture joinery and a deluxe bathroom.

Customers are taken round the house to see these design ideas in practice. The overall effect is better than a showroom as it is a real house.

Business has grown considerably and the director is certain that this is due in no small part to the house acting as a ‘super showroom’.

However no advice seems to have been taken before incurring the expenditure and the result seems to be something of a potential minefield of benefits in...