HMRC have confirmed that they now have new powers to request data from Merchant acquirers.  These are financial institutions that process all debit and credit card transactions on behalf of UK businesses.

They will be using this data to identify people or businesses who are underdeclaring their income.

Please come and talk to us if you have not declared all your business income, we can help sort things out with HMRC.

For more information please see below:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/news/merchant-aquirer.htm

Annette, one of our members of staff, is running her first half marathon at Milton Keynes on 5 May 2014.  She is hoping to raise money for 1st Bletchley Scouts to replace some worn stoves that they use.  If you would like to sponsor her, the page is as below:

www.justgiving.com/Annette-Smyth

A few of the less well covered points in this years budget:


The Finance act 2015 will allow HMRC to recover tax debts of £1,000 or more directly from taxpayer's bank accounts.  This power will be subject to rigorous safeguards and will only be used for those that have  the financial ability to pay and have been contacted numerous times by HMRC about the outstanding amounts.


From 6 April 2015 a spouse or civil partner will be able to transfer up to £1050 of their unused income tax allowance to their partner providing that the recipient's income is not taxed at above basic rate.  If you think this may apply to you, please contact the office for more details.

The government had previously announced a new scheme to be introduced from August 2015 to allow working families to claim 20% of their yearly childcare costs.  Terms and conditions apply!

From April 2016 Class 2 NIC's for the self employed will be collected via self assessment

There are lots of rule changes in relation to LLP's (limited liability partnerships), please contact us if you think this may apply to you.

The annual investment allowance for expenditure on qualifying plant and machinery will become £500,000 from 1 April 2014 to 31 December 2015 after which it will return to £25,000.


If any of these points apply to you and you want some more information, please use the

Are you prepared?

You may have heard in the news about the automatic enrollment into workplace pensions for thousands of employees.

As an employer you have to comply with the legislation, this isn't something you can ignore.

Over the next 3 years each employer has a 'staging date' by which time the new duties come into force for your business.  We have a note of all of our client's dates so please feel free to contact us to find out.

We recommend that every employer has a look at the following web page as the instructions you have to follow are here in good detail:

http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/planning-for-automatic-enrolment.aspx

Employers need to start looking at this at least 12 months before their staging date.

We will support all our client's through this process so please feel free to contact us for more details.

We see a lot of cases where small companies are using their directors to deal with the bookkeeping.

What is becoming more apparent is that this is not where your time is best spent.  Generally a director of a small/medium enterprise has a specialism in the trade of that business.  Is your time best spent putting invoices into a spreadsheet or accounting programme?  I suspect not.  Much more important is to drive your business forward.

If you are growing your business it is really important to maintain proper accounting records as per your duties outlined in the Companies Act 2006.  A bookkeeper will help you do that as well as ensure that the accounting records are in the best possible shape, not only to aid the end of year accounts but also to provide you with up to date management information.

Please consider using a professional bookkeeper, even if only for a few hours a week, to relieve that pressure and aid the quality of information available to you.

Places to look for bookkeepers:

www.bookkeepers.org.uk - Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
www.iab.org.uk - International association of bookkeepers



 

The Child Benefit tax charge was introduced on 7 January 2013.

This applies to any two individuals living together as husband and wife or civil partners and either of them

1. receive Child benefit
2. and either has a net adjusted income of £50,000 or more

then the higher earner will be subject to the Child Benefit tax charge

If your adjusted income (earnings less pension contributions and gift aid) is over £50,000 there will be a clawback of some or all of the child benefit that has been received.

Once income is over £60,000 the tax charge will claw back all that has been received, between £50,000 and £60,000  the clawback will be smaller.

When we complete your tax return we will need to know:

How much child benefit you received between 7 January 2013 and 5 April 2013
How many children you receive benefit for?

You may have seen the advertisements on the tv or heard them on the radio.

The deadline for submission of self assessment tax returns is 31st January 2014. 

If you have not provided your information please can you get it in to us as soon as possible to ensure we can make that deadline for you.

A few highlights from today's Autumn Statement:

• Capital gains tax to be paid on gains  by non residents selling residential property in the UK
• Employers NIC's are to be scrapped on 1.5 million jobs for young people
• Personal allowance to rise to £10,000 from April 2014
• Married couples and civil partners tax break proposed to start in April 2015, this enables people to transfer £1,000 of their income tax allowance to their partners
• Business rates to be capped at 2%
• Businesses moving into vacant premises will have their business rates cut by 50%

Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more