Month: May 2019

  • Risk assessment and contingency planning

    How to minimise disruption in your business. It has been a challenging and eventful three years for UK businesses with a series of high-profile incidents highlighting how situations can change suddenly and often without warning. From the continued pressure of uncertainty relating to Brexit, terrorism, fire, extreme weather and cyber-attacks, how would your business cope…

  • Accounting for charities

    An overview of accountancy issues in the third sector. If you’re in charge of running a charity, you will know how it differs from operating a business and how its motives and goals vary. Non-profit organisations are treated very differently under the law, and managing a charity’s accounts can offer some unique challenges as a…

  • Making Tax Digital

    More than a million VAT-registered businesses have now been mandated into the Government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme, which came into force on 1 April 2019. Under the scheme, businesses that are registered for VAT with a turnover of more than £85,000 are required to keep digital records and submit their VAT returns using MTD-compatible…

  • Landlords feeling the pinch as tax measures begin to bite

    Most buy-to-let landlords saw their tax bills increase in 2017/18, suggesting the effects of changes to mortgage interest relief were beginning to be felt one year after they were introduced. In a survey by Paragon, 58% of landlords said their tax bill for 2017/18 was higher than a year before, with an average annual increase…

  • Delay to increase in probate fees

    Changes to probate fees – due to take effect last month – have been delayed as Parliament wrangles to resolve the Brexit stalemate. Bereaved families currently pay a flat fee of up to £215 to obtain the grant of probate needed in England and Wales to administer estates worth more than £5,000. That system was…

  • MPs call for break-up of Big Four’s accountancy services

    The UK’s largest accountancy firms should be split into audit and non-audit businesses, according to recommendations from a Government committee. The Big Four accountancy giants conduct 97% of large companies’ audits, while also supplying those companies with other accountancy services. The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee published a report highlighting a potential conflict…