If you trade through a limited company and take your income as a mixture of PAYE salary and dividends, then you will probably be worse off after April 2016. This is because of the impending changes to the way dividends are going to be taxed. This change affects dividends you receive after April 2016 and [...]
Did you see this BBC2 documentary last night? If not check it out on the iPlayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer The business people of Crickhowell, a small town in Wales, took on HMRC and the tax system to try and level the playing field for small businesses. They attempted to prove a point by researching and investigate a [...]
Surely no-one can dispute that small businesses are vital for the economy: In 2013, there were 4.9 million businesses in the UK, over 99% of which were small and medium enterprises. Small and medium enterprises employed 14,424,000 people in the UK in 2013. The European Commission’s SME Performance Review estimates the Gross Value Added of [...]
I have noticed lately an increase in the number of calls from business owners whose accountants have seemingly taken on Magical Powers. They have mastered the art of disappearing. Cutting off all communication from their clients and effectively ceasing their involvement with them. When this happens it puts enormous pressure on the business owner because they [...]
If you happen to read HMRC’s website (and I do more than I care to admit) you would see that one of their key responsibilities is safeguarding the flow of money to the Exchequer through collection, compliance and enforcement activities. Which is to say they collect the tax that is due. Almost all income is [...]
Believe me as a resident of Kent who has suffered at the hands of Operation Stack, often caused by French Industrial Action, I do not say this lightly but should we, as small business owners, behave more like the French? Do we take things too lightly and put up with the sweeping changes imposed on [...]
In our opinion todays budget was for, in the most part, the employed, as opposed to the self-employed or small business owner. An increase in the personal allowance and the creation of the living wage will be welcomed but the changes we have seen with increased taxed on dividends along with the removal of employment allowance [...]
I couldn’t resist quoting The Godfather when writing this post about keeping your personal expenditure separate from your Business expenditure. The rest of this post doesn't quite live up to the excitement of this epic film but whilst it's not exciting it is important. When you first started your business you probably started as a [...]
