Blog
Tax Update: Changes for 2023
Posted 20th December 2022 at 9:35 am
CORPORATION TAX The planned corporation tax reforms are going ahead. From 1 April 2023, the rate of corporation tax that you pay will depend on the amount of your taxable profits. If you are a standalone company with profits of more than £250,000 you will pay corporation tax at a rate of 25% from 6 April 2023. A small profits rate of 19% applies where the profits of a standalone company are £50,000 or less. Where profits are between £50,000 and £250,000, the effective rate is between 19% and 25%. In this band, corporation tax is payable at the rate... Read more
Capital Allowances Update
Posted 12th December 2022 at 1:28 pm
Permanent increase in AIA limit The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) is a capital allowance which provides immediate relief for qualifying expenditure up to the AIA limit. The limit will now remain at £1 million, rather than reverting to £200,000 from 1 April 2023. As a result, you may wish to reassess your capital expenditure plans. Where cashflow is tight, it is no longer necessary to incur the expenditure before 31 March 2023 to benefit from the £1 million limit. Super-deduction and 50% first-year allowance for companies Companies are able to benefit from two additional first-year allowances for qualifying expenditure... Read more
R&D Relief: Why there’s never been a better time to claim
Posted 5th December 2022 at 10:47 am
Following the Autumn Statement, this blog will show you why there will never be a better time to claim Research & Development Tax Relief, how capital allowances just became a whole lot more valuable, and why R&D allowances remain an under-claimed opportunity. We also look at the benefits of Investment Zones, and why you should not forget about the Patent Box. R&D tax relief – remains an extremely valuable relief to claim It’s been no secret that one area which has been widely scrutinised in recent months, and has become a target area for clamping down on boundary-pushing and... Read more
Chancellor steps into the fiscal storm
Posted 23rd November 2022 at 9:14 am
On Thursday 17 November, the Chancellor presented the government’s Autumn Statement in which he told the House of Commons his plans to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, “rebuild our economy” and significantly reduce borrowing over the coming years. The Chancellor said that global factors are the primary cause of current inflation and that most countries are still dealing with the fallout from the pandemic. He stated that the measures taken to combat Covid-19 in the UK must be paid for. He also acknowledged that the UK is in recession and indicated that things will have to get worse before they get... Read more
The keys to business success in challenging times
Posted 16th November 2022 at 5:37 pm
Times are tough and they are likely to remain challenging for the foreseeable future. So what do businesses have to do to ensure that they succeed in the economic environment of the next two years? The changing nature of the economy presents a whole series of questions for any business: What finance will it need in the short term and to invest? What are the challenges of entering and maintaining export and/or new markets? How does it develop new and innovative income streams? How can it manage its workforce through the peaks and troughs of activity? There is no one-size-fits-all... Read more
Don’t forget to declare your Covid-19 payments!
Posted 7th November 2022 at 1:31 pm
HMRC is reminding taxpayers that they must declare COVID-19 payments in their tax returns for the 2021 to 2022 tax year. Self Assessment Tax Returns: More than 2.9 million people claimed at least one Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payment up to 5 April 2022. These grants are taxable and should be declared on tax returns for the 2021 to 2022 tax year before the deadline on 31 January 2023. The SEISS application and payment windows during the 2021 to 2022 tax year were: SEISS Four: 22 April 2021 to 1 June 2021 SEISS Five: 29 July 2021 to... Read more
Supporting your own and others’ wellbeing
Posted 31st October 2022 at 1:34 pm
Wellbeing is of vital importance to everyone, but perhaps particularly for SME business owners, who often face disastrous consequences if they can’t stay on top of everything or need to take time off work. According to new research by Three Business, almost four in ten (39%) SME business owners say that rising costs are affecting their emotional wellbeing, and almost half (45%) say that mental health support is just as valuable to their business as financial and technological support. The days of stigma around mental health are now long gone, and there are many support services that you can reach... Read more
Self Assessment: Be alert to potential scams
Posted 25th October 2022 at 8:15 pm
HMRC is urging their Self Assessment customers to be vigilant of fraudsters and scams asking for personal information or bank details. Self Assessment customers, who are starting to think about their annual tax returns for the 2021 to 2022 tax year, should guard against being targeted by fraudsters, warns HMRC. At this time of year, fraudsters are particularly active since they know that many of us are awaiting genuine communications from HMRC. They hope that by targeting us at this time of year, we will be more likely to be fooled by their scams. Criminals claiming to be from HMRC have targeted... Read more
A fiscal U-turn without precedent!
Posted 19th October 2022 at 3:24 pm
Over the last few days, we have seen a gradual dismantling of the mini-budget of Friday 23 September 2022, along with the economic policies that Prime Minister Liz Truss based her leadership campaign on. On Friday 14th October, Ms Truss announced a change of Chancellor, from Kwasi Kwarteng to Jeremy Hunt. This was swiftly followed by a series of U-turns culminating in Mr Hunt delivering an ‘emergency statement’ on Monday 17th October. This emergency statement effectively replaces and re-writes the mini-budget. Designed to ensure the UK’s economic stability and provide confidence in the Government’s commitment to fiscal discipline, the emergency... Read more
Dealing with the rising costs of living
Posted 6th October 2022 at 5:51 pm
Retail sales fell steeply in August as the rising cost of living put pressure on households, figures show. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), sales fell by 1.6% which is much larger than economists predicted, continuing a fall since the summer of 2021. All of this suggests that people from all walks of life are having to make changes to their spending in the light of the ongoing economic crisis, and that the cost of living is having a widespread impact all across the country. Whilst some of us will be lucky enough to be able to... Read more