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Cash flow issues
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…
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Self-employment
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…
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Business rates
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…
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Workers not planning for 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…
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Software needed for your digital accounts
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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Extracting profits from your business
A guide to tax-efficient profit extraction for business owners. Owning and running your business is a tough proposition but it is vitally important that people continue to do it. As well as the rewards that come from hard work and determination, there are also monetary benefits to running your own business. There are a variety…
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The digital divide
A growing divide is opening up between businesses that use digital technology and those that do not, according to research by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). 94% of businesses agreed that digital technologies were key to increasing productivity but only 30% see themselves as ‘digital pioneers’. The biggest problem for businesses were: 45% of…
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Tracing a lost pension pot
In a bid to help people locate their lost pension pots, the Pension Tracing Service has launched a new website. There is currently around £400 million in unclaimed pension savings, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. People can enter their former employers’ details into an online database and receive contact details for pension…
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Buy-to-let activity
House price growth was 9.2% in April 2016 compared to 10.1% the previous month, according to Halifax. The slowdown in growth follows a surge in buy-to-let activity before the introduction of new stamp duty land tax (SDLT) rates on 1 April 2016. 50% of properties sold in the last 2 weeks of March went to…
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Significant control register
It is now a legal requirement for companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to keep a people with significant control (PSC) register from 6 April 2016. A PSC register lists individuals with ‘significant control’ over a company. All information on the PSC register must be delivered to Companies House at least once a year from…
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Auto-enrollment – pensions
Auto-enrolling employees into a workplace pension scheme is a legal requirement for all businesses, from those employing hundreds to those with 1 or 2 people on the payroll. Over 6 million workers have been enrolled since 2012, with a further 1.8 million due over the next 2 years as the process turns to smaller employers.…
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Capital gains tax planning
Selling something you own for more than you originally bought it for is the basis of doing ‘good business’ in terms of both personal and business finance. Depending on the profit that an individual or organisation makes on the sale of their asset, they may become liable to pay capital gains tax (CGT). There have…
