May 2005

Points to Ponder

This is now our seventh newsletter – produced during May 2005, to keep you up to date with some of the changes in Income tax, National Insurance and VAT along with compliance regulations for businesses. As we don’t write to all of you each month, we shall run the notes on a rolling three or four month basis, so if you think you have missed a month, just call and we can tell what points were covered. Don’t forget to keep us updated with any changes of address, including e-mail addresses. Please note our change of e-mail address above.

November 2004 – notes closed

December 2004 notes closed

January 2005 – notes closed

February 2005

1. Licensing Private Rented Accommodation. (Call Sue or Angela)

2. Child Trust Funds. (Call Sue)

3. Employer-provided childcare (Call Angela)

End of February newsletter

March 2005

1. Small Business Rates Relief.

You can still apply.

2. Right of lien over property as an aid to debt recovery. (Call Sue)

3. Payment by standing order. (Call Angela or Sue)

We are offering to accept payments by standing order, if this will help with your cash flow. Any arrangements made can be reviewed at regular intervals.

4. Limited Liability Status (Call Angela or Sue)

5. Protective Clothing (Call Sue)

Consider a “Corporate Image” and have work wear with embroidered logos. This is advertising and fully tax-deductible.

6. Sponsorship (Call Sue)

If sponsorship can be classed as advertising, it is tax-deductible.

7. Health and Safety (Call Sue)

Do you have a trained first-aider and does all your staff know who this person is? Is your accident book up to date?

8. Scams update (Call Sue)

9. Maternity and Paternity Leave (Call Dave)

Not all these costs are recoverable, but current legislation means we cannot discriminate against potential parents. These costs have to be considered.

10. Selling on E-Bay (Call Sue)

11. IR35 (Call Angela)

The Revenue has reviewed IR35 and has given notice that it will be rigorously enforced.

12. Revenue Enquiries and Personal Spending (Call Angela)

13. Turnover over the VAT limit? (Call Sue or Angela)

Will your business turnover on your 2005 Self Assessment returns show that you should have registered for VAT? As the Revenue and Customs and Excise have now combined, it is almost guaranteed that non-registered traders will be followed up.

14. Entertaining or promotions – the thin dividing line (Call Angela or Sue)

15. Book-keeping training (Call Sue)

We can now offer on-site training to help you maintain your records. Our preferred book-keeping programme is TAS, but we can help with spread sheets or just general handling paperwork. This will help keep your annual fees down, as the more you can do, the less we have to charge for!

16. The Budget (Call Angela or Sue)

This has been a complete non-event, but a further one is pending.

End of March newsletter

April 2005 News

This really has been a dead month due to election fever, if that’s the right word! As the budget was rushed in to law on a technicality, the new Government will be obliged to put forward another one before August. In the interim, the tax bands remain unchanged but personal allowances have increased slightly. We shall update you when anything happens.

May 2005 News.

1. P11D’s (Call Sue or Angela)

Now the end of year PAYE returns have been completed, it is time to sort out P11D information. These returns are very important, as fines will be imposed on any submitted late.

2. PAYE on-line incentives. (Call Dave)

All our year-ends were successfully submitted on line and we have confirmation that the incentive of £250 can be deducted from future PAYE payments. Where we complete the slips from your PAYE docket book, Dave will ensure your incentive payment is claimed.

3. Selling your sole tradership or partnership into your limited company. (Call Angela)

This is one of the main advantages of incorporation. However, the Revenue wants to ensure that the selling price is not overvalued and that the sale is therefore correctly taxed. Valuations should now be cleared with the Revenue, before the relevant personal tax returns are submitted. We can, of course, deal with all this, but we do need full co-operation and paperwork on time!

4. Husband and Wife Businesses. (Call Angela or Sue)

The Revenue has got its teeth in to this one now. Unless it can be proved that the income, either by share of profits in a partnership or salary or dividends through a company, paid to each is in proportion to their fee-generation input. We are therefore suggesting that you draw up “job description” and divide the business on this basis. A recent tax case resulted in the husband being reassessed for income paid to his wife over several preceding years.

5. Age Discrimination (Call Sue)

The next wave of bureaucracy comes in to force early next year and affects all businesses. The Department for Work and Pensions has produced a useful leaflet but basically, you must remember to add “Age” to “Race”, “Sex” and “Disabilities”.

6. HM Revenue and Customs – it’s official. (Call Sue)

From 18^th April, the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise combined, but the announcement wasn’t made until this month! As expected, this hasn’t made anything easier as we now need separate letters of authority from clients to be able to deal with each department – one for Inland Revenue, one for VAT and a further one for National Insurance, although all of them now addressed to HM Revenue and Customs.

End of May newsletter