advice / 29 posts found
Cash is king
If the present wrangling over the terms of our exit from the EU result in terms that disadvantage UK businesses, what can we do now to protect our hard-earned business assets? It is difficult to make this call as negotiations could drift in either direction: a continuing trade agreement or a so-called “hard-Brexit”. No-one can say what trading conditions will be like from April 2019, but it is likely that perception will rule the roost. If uncertainty continues to cloud the debate, and there is no sign of resolution on the political front, opportunists, those brave, and some [...]
7 steps to improving your cash flow
Did you know that more businesses fail because of cash flow problems than profit problems? Don’t let yours be one of them. The problem with cash flows issues is that they can creep up on us. If you are only seeing your accountant once a year, you don’t have the opportunity to react in time. If you are constantly monitoring and reviewing your business and its systems, you are less like to fall into a cashflow crisis. With our Build Your Business Better support system we can help you to improve your cash flow, but to get you started here [...]
Selling the garden shed?
When you are selling your home, you are likely to be selling a range of fixtures and fittings. For example: • White goods, washing machines, fridges, cookers etc, • Furniture, • Carpets, • Curtains, • Garden equipment, • Leisure or fitness equipment, jacuzzi etc, • And the garden shed. If identified in the sale contract, any value attributed to these personal assets, or chattels, will not attract a stamp duty charge for your purchaser. Accordingly, if you are selling at a value that just tips your property into the next band for stamp duty purposes, being able to allocate part [...]
Self-employed liability
If you are a sole trader, or in a basic partnership, and if your business gets into financial difficulties, any liabilities that cannot be covered by the disposal of business assets may have to settled out of personal assets. In accountancy speak, you have unlimited liability; there is no protection for your personal assets. You have options. The Office for Tax Simplification has suggested, welcomed, the idea that sole traders can elect for a form of limited liability status that will allow them to protect their homes from any claim by business creditors. At present, this is pure conjecture. Mr [...]
Customs procedures with a “no deal” Brexit
This week we are paraphrasing, from HMRC’s guidance announcements, the likely changes to customs procedures if the so-called “no deal” scenario becomes a reality. Essentially, the two-way, free movement of goods between the UK and the EU will cease and the raft of changes that firms trading with the EU will need to accommodate are significant. Whilst the political process is deadlocked, or so it would seem, the information shared below is very much the worst possible out come for importers and exporters to the EU from a red-tape perspective. If the government is successful in negotiating a softer version [...]
Undeclared offshore assets
From 1 October more than 100 countries, including the UK, will be able to exchange data on financial accounts under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). CRS data will significantly enhance HMRC’s ability to detect offshore non-compliance and it is in taxpayers’ interests to correct any non-compliance before that data is received. The most common reasons for declaring offshore tax are in relation to foreign property, investment income and moving money into the UK from abroad. According to HMRC, over 17,000 people have already notified the department about tax due from sources of foreign income, such as their holiday homes [...]
Working from home?
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 [...]
Planning for early losses
If you are setting up a new business, you may discover that establishing a profitable base takes time. If your pre-trading planning discloses an initial loss making period, you may want to take advice about the business structure you adopt. For example, if you set up the business as a company, the early year’s losses can only be carried forwards to set off against future profits. Alternatively, if you set up the business as a sole trader (or certain partnerships) there is a possibility of setting the initial trading losses against your other earnings. In this way you [...]
What’s in a name
One of the first things a budding entrepreneur considers is what to call their business. If you intend to incorporate your business as a limited company, the registration process will filter out unacceptable names and names that are too similar to a company already registered at Companies House. However, this registration process can create situations where an existing company thinks that the name you have registered is too close to their own and may challenge you to change your company name. If you set up as a sole trader there is no official registry of business names, but [...]