Investments and capital allowances Is your business in need of new plant or machinery? As announced in the 2012 Autumn Statement, the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) has now increased ten-fold from £25,000 to £250,000 in the tax year. Businesses will have two years to take advantage of the increased amount of investment that qualifies for…
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Small businesses are often the casualties during an economic downturn. But there are measures you can take to protect your business during difficult times. It is important to continually monitor your business performance and implement such measures while trading is strong, before you get into difficulty. Cash flow Small and medium sized businesses are most…
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Regardless of which industry your business operates in, marketing and advertising will be essential to ensure that you continue to be successful. You may have managed until now by paying for marketing to be done in a hurry, when you have had a new product to promote, for example. However, the downside to this is…
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HMRC have launched their latest target industry campaign. It is the Direct Selling Campaign. Direct selling is where you sell directly to a customer, often door to door, in customers homes or their workplace. This can include selling to friends and families. Companies can use different terms for the people who sell their…
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It is not often I get one of those inspirational moments to write a blog on a topic; however, an enquiry yesterday made me want to talk about this topic. The enquiry: “I’ve been freelance for 20 years and usually make a reasonable gross profit. We’ve found a great mortgage deal. Perfect! *BUT* they won’t…
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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are on the lookout in 2011 for small business tax under payments and tax evasion with the HMRC’s introduction of making tax compliance spot checks on small United Kingdom businesses. These compliance spot checks are one of the last things that small UK businesses need as they try to…
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The objective of the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) scheme is to support the transport needs of business. Employees that use their own car for business journeys can be paid the AMAP, free of tax and NIC. The AMAP rate has been fixed at 40p per mile for what seems like forever (actually 2002!); However,…
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The issue of travel and subsistence is considered to be one of the most problematic and grey areas within small business accounting, particularly for self employed individuals. The basic reality is reasonably simple; in order to qualify for tax relief, any expenditure must be wholly and exclusively incurred for the purpose of the trade. Where…
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So here we go again! You should now be receiving your notices to complete a self assessment return for the tax year to 5 April 2011. You must ensure that this is completed by 31st January 2012 (31st Otober 2011 if completed on paper). This gives plenty of time to get it done; however, that…
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The best way to the performance of your business is to use some key accounting ratios. These help you to analyse financial information about your business. Having this knowledge will aid making informed decisions about how to manage your business and help it to grow. This article highlights some of the common ratios that a…
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