Basic Facts
From the date The Finance Bill 2014 receives Royal Assent (within the next couple of weeks!!), any individual or company that has undertaken aggressive tax planning since August 2004 may receive a “Follower Notice and/or an Accelerated Payment Notice (APN)” requiring them to amend tax returns, and in some cases payback the tax saved via “tax advantageous” strategies.
The Flat Rate Scheme is not always a good system to adopt if your business has a substantial amount of zero rated purchases as is the case when you import extensively from EU suppliers.
One of the most powerful tools in our AVN toolkit is the One Page Plan – it is so useful that we recommend that all of our clients use it to help drive their businesses forward. The One Page Plan is exactly what is says – a business plan that fits on to a single sheet of paper.
Profession: Student at Hillcrest School for Girls. In the middle of my final two years of school, going into year 11 in Sept. 2014. I hope to study Psychology, English language and literature as well as history or geography. I'm currently doing my work experience at James Stanley & Co to get a feel of what my future will hopefully be like.
Years in the business: --
Profession: Student, starting sixth form this year, at James, Stanley & Co for work experience
Years in the business: 1 week
Have you thought about becoming paperless? Not sure where to start? Here are five key facts to consider before you take on this environmentally friendly and cost-effective business solution:
On Saturday, 14 June, the two teams from James, Stanley & Co set off at some unearthly hour for the Forest of Dean to take part for the second year running in the St Basils annual fundraising walk. We were joined by Kelly Envine and Rob Ison of Oak Lodge Facilities Ltd who are a client of ours in the construction sector.
A well used fact in the IT industry is that 80% of all businesses who suffer complete data loss will be out of business within 18 months. Whether that’s 90%, 80% or 70% you get the gist.
Imagine you turn up for work and your office has been broken into overnight. You realise that, amongst other things, your server and all the desktop computers have been stolen. After the initial shock, you’ll start thinking about getting your office back up and running. Replacing the computers, although potentially a strain on your cash flow until the insurance pays out, is relatively straight forward. You could have your computer network back up and running within a few days.
Profession: Accountancy
Years in the business: 10 years 7 months
I am pleased to report that I have been accredited as a Growth Accelerator coach and as such our clients can now tap into the Growth Accelerator funding if they join the scheme.
News has just broken today on the new powers granted to H.M. Revenue & Customs to collect overdue tax by dipping directly into taxpayers’ bank accounts.
The Revenue has assured there are safe guards to protect against possible errors, for instance, the Treasurer has stated that HMRC will only to take the money after four ignored requests, if the amount is more than £1000 and if £5000 remain in the bank after the transaction is made.*
April 26th 2014 saw significant changes in the way lenders assess mortgage affordability with the implementation of the FCA’s (Financial Conduct Authority) Mortgage Market Review (MMR). This review was undertaken as a result of the issues in the market that led to the Financial Crisis experienced in 2008. The significant changes which are being implemented, will see an enhanced focus now being placed on “Responsible Lending”. This will require the mortgage lenders to assess far more fully, the individual mortgage applicant(s) ability to maintain their mortgage repayments both now and, most importantly, in the future. As such it will be incumbent upon Lenders to assess that prospective mortgage borrowers can maintain their mortgage repayments even in the event of increases in interest rates and/or general living costs.
If you go on holiday for 16 weeks from this weekend what state will your business be in when you return?
Would it be in a right state? i.e. turn into a bag of spanners...
OR would it be flourishing? i.e. turn into a bed of roses that you can be proud of?
And which type of business would you prefer?
Research shows that people with up to date written goals are as much as 100% more successful than people who do not have up to date written goals.
So it is vitally important that business owners think about and articulate their personal and business goals.
Once you have identified your goals think about the implications of what you are doing – and what you should be doing.
HMT and HMRC have just released their policy paper on the G20 and OECD Action Plan to tackle Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (‘BEPS’). In it, the government strongly endorses the BEPS initiative for “creating a fair and balanced set of international rules for both countries and companies.”
Please note there is a VAT scam happening at the moment which has hit thousands of businesses. The phishing email claiming to be from Santander Bank advises that a VAT payment of £483.38 has been made.
There is download attached, which if opened will transfer a virus onto the computer.
If anyone mentions receiving this email please tell them it is a scam!
Many businesses require management accounts to measure and improve company performance. With this pro-active approach we try and add value in order to help you develop your business. Here are a few examples of what each business owner should ask themselves:-
There are two elements in what I’m titling the “showcase” section of LinkedIn
The first part is the Summary.
Your summary is a great space to introduce promotions and any exciting projects you have to offer to potential clients. Since LinkedIn includes summaries in their searches, it’s important to make sure you have the right keywords for your industry.
