EU funding for beekeepers, not in UK?

Surely commercial beekeepers lay off their costs against tax so in a way they are being helped by the government! Some manage to do this so successfully they rarely make a profit and so pay no tax.

masterBK said:

Some manage to do this so successfully they rarely make a profit and so pay no tax.

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You mean they have devised a way to control the weather, like the last couple of seasons, very cunning.

But cannot see what that has to do with EU funding.

masterBK said:

Surely commercial beekeepers lay off their costs against tax so in a way they are being helped by the government! Some manage to do this so successfully they rarely make a profit and so pay no tax.

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Like any other business, they pay tax on their profits..........if they do not make a profit then they pay little tax.

However......depending on your business structure.....you pay tax and NI on everything you take out. Just like everyone else.

ANY beekeeper can declare their activities as a business and offset costs against returns and only pay tax on the profits. Ditto you can VAT register your enterprise voluntarily, no matter how small.

Most of the little guys, however, cash trade..and most do not declare it, hence THEY are the ones most likely to be escaping tax.

masterBK said:

Surely commercial beekeepers lay off their costs against tax so in a way they are being helped by the government! Some manage to do this so successfully they rarely make a profit and so pay no tax.

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I expect that is just the multinational bee companies then?

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I think that forum is not a right place to handle each others taxes or who makes profit with his bees.

I think too that it is every body's advantage if you keep on rumour about "catch and release beekeeping in Great Britain".

masterBK said:

Surely commercial beekeepers lay off their costs against tax so in a way they are being helped by the government! Some manage to do this so successfully they rarely make a profit and so pay no tax.

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Not sure if you are serious on this one masterb ?

If you are, then I think these are probably the two daftest sentances I have ever read on the internet.

I think you may be confusing British Bee Farmers with Starbucks, Amazon, Google etc.

If we reach the ultimate pinnacle of - "never making a profit"- we go bust!!!

Into the lions den said:

We are in financilly straitened times. The million spent on research, and it must be said largely at the behest of the beekeeping organisations with their 'do something, do ANYTHING' pressure of a few years ago, is money down the drain, as surely as if I poured it there myself. How we could have used that money now, to keep many of us going in a disastrous spell!

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While agreeing with the general sentiment, money destined for research was never going to be spent propping up businesses in a lean spell, and a purest outlook on scientific research is that all additions to our body of knowledge are valuable, and its crystal ball time trying to pick out any current research which may be of practical value in the future, though I'd agree some projects take an imaginative leap to envisage any real world advances coming from them.
I dont actually think we live in a bad corner of the world when it comes to grant help. Most, if not all of the larger beekeepers ( anything above 20 odd colonies) I know personally have had funding from one source or another, be it for start up, processing equipment or processing facilities. Most, having gone through the rigmarole of applying for such grants, never wish to go through the tedious process again ! I think the people to benefit most from these grants are the ones employed by the agencies that administer them, mostly failed businessmen from what I recall when I had a go !

mbc said:

I think the people to benefit most from these grants are the ones employed by the agencies that administer them, mostly failed businessmen from what I recall when I had a go !

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Completely agree with that sentiment..............and they seems to be happy to fund endless consultant reports.........and the consultants and enterprise people seem to be a little incestuous community whose main aim seems to be to empty the trough..............and the consultants sometimes become enterprise people, and vica versa.

Unless a grant is big its not worth going through the hoops for, as for sure it adds a lot of costs, maybe more than the actual grant itself.

As for the 'keeping us going'? I meant in general, not just businesses per se. lots and lots of amateurs and small scale people are in bother with their costs spiralling too.

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2 years ago UK got 6 million pounds to beekeeping researches. Have they drawn back the money or how the money has used.

MBC and ITLD.... on grant funding schemes..... could not have put it better!

.............. we need a hitting the nail on the head icon !

Many thanks for contributions ITLD - thought this thread was going to degenerate into the usual uninformed anti EU rant

P F

We pay tax every time we put fuel in a vehicle. I often wonder where it all goes!

Norton said:

We pay tax every time we put fuel in a vehicle. I often wonder where it all goes!

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Into the tank then via a series of pipes it ends up in the combustion chamber where it ignites generating energy to move the piston to move the vehicle along..... the fuel is converted via this chemical reaction to energy and waste products the waste products are generally released into the air via another series of tubes called the exhaust system.

HTH ;-)

that is about as useful as a wiff of carbon monoxide

I was not being serious. It was just that Starbucks, Amazon etc were in the news

Finman said:

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2 years ago UK got 6 million pounds to beekeeping researches. Have they drawn back the money or how the money has used.

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A FOI request should find out.

It was £10m and there were 9 projects. A quick google took me here:

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/pollinators/

You will remember BBKA were lobbying strongly for some research into why our honeybees were supposedly dying out. So £10m gets released (and squandered) to shut them up. Only 2 of the 9 projects are specifically honeybee related, one EFB and the other varroa, neither of which represent major threats to a well managed bee population. But no doubt the results will have some value, albeit not very good value.

The problem is when a real crisis comes along we'll get no help, as BBKA have "cried wolf" already.

do you not have LEADER funding in the uk. You can get grants here for diversification of farm/buying equipment for farms or businesses which beekeeping will fall in somewhere.

Hivemaker. said:

Ordinary hobby beekeepers in this country don't need any funding for their hobby, most of them already have plenty of money.

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That is a big assumption to make. its a bit like saying ordinary hobby gardeners, allotmentiers, carpenters, embroiderers, knitters, mechanics, dressmakers, cooks etc. have plenty of money, but many people use their hobby/hobbies as a form of providing what they need for personal and family use.

And what exactly do you think is plenty of money. I for one thought long and hard before investing in the hive and equipment needed, the bees and the membership of my local BKA. It called a halt to any holiday I might have had and any further improvement to my house including decorating and a possible greenhouse. We all make choices of what to do with what money we have I chose bees this year Knowing that I would also need to forgo a holiday next year and make another hive.

Tdf said:

do you not have LEADER funding in the uk. You can get grants here for diversification of farm/buying equipment for farms or businesses which beekeeping will fall in somewhere.

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Tdf PM sent.