VAT is arguably one of the most confusing areas of tax – which is why many business owners will run into complications when it comes to keeping on top of their VAT requirements and responsibilities. In the UK, businesses can only charge their customers VAT if their business has been registered for VAT purposes with…
The next 12 months will see a number of new changes to payroll policy that could have an impact on a wide range of businesses. To give an overview of how businesses could be affected by these changes, below are some of the highlights that employers will need to prepare for. Private Sector IR35 From…
During the last Budget, the Government announced new conditions to entrepreneurs’ relief that would take immediate effect to change the definition of a “personal company” for shareholders who claim entrepreneurs’ relief. By introducing these changes, they hope to restrict shareholders relief to those with a genuine material stake of at least five per cent in…
A new study into preparations for Making Tax Digital amongst businesses has found that only 57 per cent of firms are ready to comply with the new regime by 1 April 2019. Despite the various delays and changes to the Government’s new digital tax system, businesses have had several years to prepare themselves for this…
The Small Business Commissioner, Paul Uppal, has recommended a new “traffic light” system that will warn smaller firms which businesses have a consistent record of late payment and those most likely to request longer payment terms. It is thought that around £2.5 billion is lost annually within the economy due to late payments and they…
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has dropped its insistence that all company directors must submit tax returns following a series of tribunal rulings. For several years, HMRC has advised in its guidance on the gov.uk website that company directors should register for Self-Assessment and this has also been part of online tools designed to help…
The next increase in Automatic Enrolment (AE) pension contributions for both employees and employers will take place from 6 April 2019. The minimum employer contribution will increase from two per cent to three per cent, while the employee contribution will rise from three per cent to five per cent – taking the total minimum contribution…
A newly proposed traffic light system could be used to put a spotlight on businesses with track records of late payments.
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is quite literally just around the corner. By April this year, an estimated hundreds of thousands of businesses will need to be fully compliant with MTD, which is why it is important to plan ahead now. Spearheaded by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), MTD is the Government’s plan to slowly digitise…
The cash flow difficulties that late payments cause small businesses are well known. However, the cost of recovering late payments is less well publicised, despite being a major and growing expense – coming in at around £9,000 last year for an average business. Research by Bacs Payment Schemes found that the cost of recovering late…