Archives / 144 post/s found
Are you lonely?
Running a business can be a very lonely lifestyle. You probably went into business for a whole host of good reasons, and with a clear understanding of the problems that running your own business can bring you. But you might not have considered the loneliness. Endlessly making decisions by yourself, holding the sole responsibility for the consequences of those decisions can wear people down. This is not a sign of weakness, it is merely a reflection of the difficult nature of running a business. Every decision that you make will have a ripple effect of consequences. For example, the pound [...]
Are you on the cloud?
Making Tax Digital (MTD) comes into force on the 1st April 2019 (no – it’s not an April Fools!) If you are VAT registered and, your turnover exceeds £85000 you will need to follow the rules for MTD as laid out by HMRC. Essentially MTD means that you will need to keep and file your VAT records and returns electronically; you can no longer just use spreadsheets and manually upload the information. In practice this means you will have to be using some form of cloud accounting. Regardless of whether you want to or not, you will have to do [...]
Genuine confidence
There are countless blogs on confidence in business. How to stand, what colour suit to wear, how to speak, what tone and pitch of voice to use. Lots of these tips are brilliant and can really help you to present yourself in a better manner, with improved results. However, genuine confidence comes from knowing and understanding your business inside out. You can pull off the good outward presentation and gain clients that way, but true confidence comes from within. Knowing exactly what is happening in your business will give you an edge over your competitors. If you understand the mechanics [...]
Making the best of it
Many people regard paying their accountant as a necessary evil. Simply as something that has to be done, in order to tick the boxes laid out for us by the Government. But what if we change our thinking toward accountancy, what if we embrace something we have to do anyway, and turn it into a benefit, not simply a drain? We have to, by law, file our end of year accounts with HMRC. Most businesses pay an accountant to do this for them, in order to firstly ensure that it is correct, and also to optimise our tax position. This [...]
How do we prepare for Brexit when so much is undecided?
It is hardly surprising that Brexit is fast becoming as big a turnoff as tax. How on earth are we supposed to react or adapt to such far-reaching changes when the exact details of our exit are still undecided just a few weeks before the March 2019 deadline? Businesses that buy or sell goods to the EU must be pulling their corporate hair out – just how will their supply lines be affected? A new government website covering possible Brexit consequences The government has already published a bunch of documentation setting out the consequences of a no-deal outcome and they [...]
Why does the UK tax year end 5th April?
A bit of history this week but with a practical outcome for 2019. Up to 1582, Europe used the Julian calendar introduced by the Romans in 45BC. Unfortunately, the Julian calendar differed from the solar calendar by 11 ½ minutes; after 500 years this small difference meant that the Julian calendar was 10 days off the solar calendar. To remedy this error, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar in most of Europe under his influence, 1582. There was a notable exception, you guessed right, the British Empire. Sound familiar? The Brits stoically maintained their use of the [...]
Have you received your tax statement?
HMRC normally send out a tax statement this time of the year to all self-assessment taxpayers that have submitted a tax return for 2017-18. As we reported last week, this will list any balance of tax due for 2017-18 and the amount of any payment on account required for 2018-19 (if any is due). Both amounts will need to be settled on or before 31 January 2019 to avoid interest and possible late payment penalties. If you don’t receive a statement, but you know how much you need to pay, simply organise an online bank payment to: HMRC Cumbernauld – [...]
Travelling to the EU after Brexit
The following guidance was published on the GOV.UK website 20 December 2018. Much of the guidance has been updated on the basis of a no-deal Brexit. UK citizens planning a trip to the EU and EEA before 29 March 2019 are not affected by Brexit changes. The following comments assume a no-deal Brexit and would apply from 29 March 2019 Flying to the EU from the UK Flights should continue as today. Both the UK and EU want flights to continue without any disruption. There will be no impact to direct flights to non-EU countries. Before you [...]
Turkey dinner and tax returns
Completing your tax return may not have been top of your priorities on Christmas Day, but that didn’t stop 2,616 taxpayers from filing their Self-Assessment returns on 25 December 2018. For some taxpayers completing their return on Christmas Day is as traditional as spending time with family and friends or waiting for the Boxing Day sales to start. The peak filing time, according to HMRC, was between 1pm and 2pm, when more than 230 customers filed. Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said: This year, more than 2,600 taxpayers chose to file their returns on Christmas Day. Whether [...]
Proposals for consumer protections when companies collapse
The government is to consider new laws to protect consumers who have prepaid for products when a business becomes insolvent. Government to consider new laws to protect consumers who have prepaid for products when a business becomes insolvent proposed measures will include guaranteeing consumer schemes like Christmas savings clubs can safeguard customers’ money reforms are part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy to ensure markets work in the interests of consumers New laws to protect consumers who have already paid for products but not received them when businesses go bust will be considered by the government, it was [...]