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Small businesses / 217 posts found

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How to safeguard your team’s mental health

by mike tombs
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The coronavirus pandemic has forced a significant amount of change and upheaval onto you and your team – in a very short amount of time. We’ve gone from ‘business as usual’ to closed offices, working from home and the full reality of isolation during an emergency lockdown. To combat this change, it’s important to take steps to care for your employees. Key ways to take care your teams wellbeing There’s no single solution when it comes to taking care of your employees’ wellbeing. For your people to cope with their new enforced remote working life, they’ll need to consider everything [...]
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Surround yourself with champions

by mike tombs
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It’s human nature to be influenced by the people in your inner circle. In fact, the odds of being successful are a lot higher if you’re surrounding yourself with people who are also successful. In a business context, consider very carefully the people and friends you associate with. Who plays a role in influencing your life? Who are your role models, mentors, and supporters? “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with”. It really pays to think about who your top five are. These people play a part in determining how you think, how [...]
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Understanding your revenue drivers

by mike tombs
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For your business to make money, you need to generate revenue. You produce revenue through your usual business activity, by making sales, getting your invoices paid, or taking cash from paying customers. So, the better you are at selling your products/services and bringing money into the business, the higher your revenue levels will be. But what actually drives these revenue levels? And how do you get in control of these drivers? Knowing where your cash is coming from is more crucial than ever As a trading company, you face the multiple challenges of a global recession, an increase in online [...]

Keep private bank accounts private

by mike tombs
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Many small businesses, including landlords, use personal bank accounts to lodge business receipts and make business payments. If traders in this situation are subject to a HMRC enquiry into their business affairs, HMRC would be entitled to request sight of all bank accounts that record business transactions even if those accounts are essentially, personal bank accounts.   As many of the transactions in these accounts are personal, you may need to explain to HMRC where credits to the account came from and provide evidence that the credits are nothing to do with your business.   Without this confirmation or evidence, [...]

Small Business Saturday – 1 December 2018

by mike tombs
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Did you know that there is going to be a Small Business Saturday on 1 December 2018? We have reproduced below some of the help that will be available.   Access finance available to support small businesses   Are you and your business looking to start up, scale up or stay ahead? Start Up Loans of up to £25,000 can give you a much-needed boost if you’re just starting out. Or take a look at the Finance Hub and the British Business Bankfor more finance options for smaller businesses.   Call the Business Support Helpline   The free Business Support Helpline can help businesses of [...]

New ideas from government think-tank

by mike tombs
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At the beginning of August, the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) – a government department charged with coming up with new ideas to simplify our tax system – issued a number of reports and recommendations. They include a number of interesting topics and we have shared the conclusions below: Changes to capital allowances At present, businesses depreciate assets in their accounts and this process creates a reserve in their accounts such that when the assets are worn out, there is a fund of profits and cash to replace them. For tax purposes, this depreciation charge is added back in tax [...]

Working from home?

by mike tombs
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We are often quizzed by clients who are contemplating working from home: what are the tax consequences? And in particular, will I have to pay capital gains tax?   Capital gains tax   Generally speaking, if your business use is limited to allocating space for a home office, then as long as there is duality of use, no capital gains tax complications should arise when you sell the property. Duality of use means that your home office: doubles as a spare bedroom, or a storage space for domestic items, or is a study or has a similar non-business as well [...]

Penalties to be points based

by mike tombs
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Drivers face disqualification from driving if they accumulate 12 or more penalty points for driving offences. The resulting ban can last from 4 to possibly 11 years depending on the gravity of the offence.   HMRC seem to think that this point based system is a good idea and they now intend to include draft clauses to the forthcoming Finance Bill that will introduce a points system covering the late filing of tax returns.   In their notes attached to the draft clauses HMRC say:   The government wishes to encourage compliance with regular return submission obligations but does not [...]

Tax security deposits to be extended

by mike tombs
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We have listed below details of a forthcoming change to the taxation of companies that were disclosed in the draft clauses published last week for the forthcoming budget. The change outlined expands the rights of HMRC to demand a security deposit from “at risk” tax payers.   In their draft notes HMRC say:   HMRC can require some businesses to provide a security, in the form of cash or a performance bond, where this is considered necessary to protect the revenue. Securities may be required where a taxpayer has a poor compliance record and in “phoenix” type cases where a [...]

HMRC clarify VAT treatment of affiliation fees for sports clubs

by M Tombs
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HMRC recently published a reminder that the concession enabling clubs to treat affiliation fees as exempt from VAT, will be withdrawn with effect from 1 April 2018. A sport's governing body, or similar umbrella organisation, often charges an affiliation fee to individual clubs who make an onward charge to their members. Where the clubs are non-profit making, the supply of this affiliation fee to their individual members is exempt from VAT. However, if the club is a profit-making commercial club, then the supply to their individual member is standard rated. The concession aimed to put profit-making commercial clubs in a [...]