Info Article

Further tweaks to the apprenticeship levy look certain to be made in the autumn, when new chancellor Savid Javid is expected to deliver his first Budget. In his final Budget speech in October 2018, former chancellor Philip Hammond halved the amount small firms taking on apprentices had to pay from 10% to 5%. But Javid… Continue reading Javid ‘to broaden the apprenticeship levy into a wider skills levy’

Some of the UK’s biggest retailers have come together to demand action is taken to revamp the business rates system. Business leaders from more than 50 companies wrote to chancellor Sajid Javid to ask for four changes. These include reforming transitional relief, which limits how much a bill can change following revalution. The letter also… Continue reading Retailers unite in call for business rates solution

Avoiding waste, maximising profit. Accountants, as a breed, are fans of efficiency. We tend to appreciate optimised systems and abhor waste, whether it’s time, effort or resources being frittered away. The concept of efficiency as we know it today is a product of the industrial revolution. That’s when engineers and manufacturers became obsessed with squeezing… Continue reading Identifying inefficiencies in a business

Outstanding invoices compromise your business’s cashflow. When you supply goods and services, you expect to be paid, and promptly, but Britain has a deeply embedded culture of late payments. Indeed, for some businesses, delaying payment is an essential part of the business model. Outstanding payments are problematic for various reasons. First, there’s the basic problem… Continue reading The scourge of late payments

The business rates system has become “uneconomical” and “unsustainable”, and should be reviewed, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said. Business rates are a tax on most properties used for business purposes, and are calculated based on an estimate of the property’s open market rental value. The CBI argues that long gaps between rate… Continue reading CBI: ‘Unsustainable’ business rates system in need of reform

The Government is facing calls to announce a stamp duty holiday for homeowners who seek to downsize. Saga polled 2,000 people over the age of 50 and found that 73% would support a tax break to help them move into a smaller property. Almost three-quarters (70%) said their motivation for downsizing was because their current… Continue reading Govt. urged to introduce stamp duty tax break for downsizing

Pensioners are paying around £4 billion more in income tax than previously estimated, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has claimed. The latest figures published by HMRC show that pensioners paid £17.9bn in income tax on their pensions in 2016/17, which increased to £18.4bn in 2017/18. A footnote in the paper said the method for… Continue reading Retirees taxed £4bn more than previously thought

Most small business owners in the UK do not think the tax system treats their business fairly, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). In a survey of 1,000 firms, 58% of SME owners said they think the UK tax system is unfair, with different tax rules applying to different types of business. More… Continue reading Small business owners hit out at ‘unfair’ UK tax system

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… Continue reading Risk assessment and contingency planning

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… Continue reading Accounting for charities