UK contactless card limit more than doubles to £100

People in the UK using contactless cards can now spend up to £100 a time, after the limit on payments more than doubled on Friday 15 October 2021.

Originally the cap was increased to £45 at the start of the pandemic to help reduce the handling of cash and therefore the transmission of the virus. With this change, more than a quarter of all payments in the UK were contactless in 2020.

David Postings, the group’s chief executive, said, “Contactless payments have become increasingly popular, and the payments industry has worked hard to ensure retailers can offer customers the new higher limit”.

This, however, brings possible fraud problems as more money can be spent if cards are lost or stolen.

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POSTPONED: Self Employed – Major Changes To The Way You Report Your Income Tax

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax will be mandatory from April 2024, rather than April 2023.

Officially, this was postponed due to the pandemic and the difficulties faced by businesses because of it. But unofficially, it was probably an opportunity to postpone it due to the enormity of the project.

MTD Income Tax is a fundamental shift in how the self-employed report their income tax. It is a huge undertaking to get it implemented.

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One third of small businesses are highly in debt

With everything going back to some normality, The Bank of England expects a rise in the number of small businesses that collapse this year as the economy recovers, and restrictions on landlords issuing winding-up orders are removed.

One-third of SMEs have a level of debt more than 10 times their cash in the bank, versus 14 per cent before the Covid-19 hit.

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Amid the petrol crisis, is it time to switch to an electric car?

With the petrol crisis still impacting some petrol stations across the UK, the idea of switching to an electric car is on everyone’s minds.

The classified ad website Autotrader, says there was a 60% rise in searches for electric cars in the week after 24 September, when shortages at the pumps started.

Check out our factsheet: Company cars -Is it time to go electric to understand how you can buy your car through your business.

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