Author: Neil Dando

New hourly national minimum wage (NMW) rates come into effect on 1 October 2016. Employers are already legally required to pay eligible workers who are 25 or over the national living wage (NLW) of £7.20 an hour.

69% of over-45 homeowners say that their home is worth more than their pensions, savings and investments combined, research by Aviva has found.

Employers with 50 employees or fewer will have up to 100% of their apprenticeship training costs funded by the government. The government has announced more details about its apprenticeship programme and the funding that will be available to businesses that take on apprentices. The proposals relate to the reform of apprentice funding in May 2017.

A guide to keeping accounts and how an audit can benefit your business. An audit is an official inspection of a company or organisation’s accounts by an independent body. A company can choose to be audited in order to prove to its investors or shareholders that its accounts are sound.

Small business owners spend 10% of their working day chasing payments, according to research by Xero. London businesses spend the most time chasing payments, up to 1.5 days each month followed by 1.3 days in Wales. Customers who themselves are waiting for payments and a lack of consistency on payment terms are the main reasons…

The number of self-employed workers increased from 3.8 million in 2008 to 4.6 million in 2015. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the number of part-time, self-employed workers grew 88% between 2001 and 2015, compared to 25% for full-time, self-employed workers. Part-time workers accounted for 1.2 percentage points of the overall…

A system to allow businesses to check and appeal business rates bills has been announced. The aim is to ensure that disputes are settled more promptly. Currently, over 955,000 appeals have been submitted against rating valuations but less than 2% of business rates appeals proceed to a tribunal hearing. The new process is part of…

A guide to the Lifetime ISA. Announced by Chancellor George Osborne in Budget 2016 and launching on 6 April 2017, the Lifetime ISA is designed to provide a tax-efficient option for people saving for a first home or retirement.

Workers not planning for retirement A third of workers globally do not have a retirement plan, according to research by Aegon. The survey of 14,400 employees and 1,600 retired people across 15 countries found that providing workers with access to workplace pension plans is a significant factor in ensuring that they are saving for their…

Businesses will need to submit their tax and financial information quarterly using software that’s compatible with HMRC’s systems. In a letter to financial secretary to the Treasury David Gauke, Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said that submitting records in a “prescribed digital format” would bring a financial burden to small firms that…

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