Business Start-up Archives - JSR Chartered Accountants

March 19, 2014February 2, 2019

BUDGET 2014 THE KEY POINTS

PERSONAL TAX

The Personal Allowance will increase from £9,440 to £10,000 from April 2014 and to £10,500 from April 2015
Threshold for 40p income tax is to rise from £41,150 to £41,865 next month and by a further 1% to £42,285 next year.
Inheritance Tax waived for members of emergency services who give their lives in the job
10p rate for savers is abolished

NATIONAL INSURANCE

The primary threshold for employees will increase from £7,755 to £7,956
Upper Earnings Limit will rise from £41,150 to £41,865
New NIC employment allowance of £2,000 begins in April 2014
Under 21’s taken out of employers’ national insurance contributions

CORPORATE TAX

Currently at 23%
Will be cut to 21% in April 2014
Will be cut again to 20% April 2015

PROPERTY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Help to buy equity loan scheme extended to March 2020
From midnight tonight properties bought for more than £500,000 through “corporate envelopes” will be liable for 15% Stamp duty.
Government to create £500m builders finance fund which will provide loans to developers to unlock housing units stalled due to difficulty accessing finance

BUSINESSES

Annual investment aallowance to be doubled to £500,000 until the end of 2015
First enterprise zone in Northern Ireland to be established in Coleraine, which the government will support by offering enhanced capital allowances to investors within that zone.

DUTIES

Fuel duty rise as planned for Sept 2014 has been cancelled
Beer duty will be cut by 1 penny from 24 March 2014
Duty on spirits will be frozen for 2014-15
Machine games duty (MGD) the government will create a new higher rate of machine games duty at 25% for B2 machines
Bingo duty will be reduced from 20% to 10%
Tobacco duty will increase by 2% above the rate if inflation from 6pm on 19 March 2014. Annual duty increases of 2% above the rate of inflation will continue until the end of next parliament.

SAVINGS

A new single ISA will be introduced with equal limits for cash and stocks and shares. The annual investment limit will be increased to £15,000 per year
The cap on investments in premium bonds will be lifted from £30,000 to £40,000 from 1 June 2014, to be lifted again to £50,000 in 2015-16

PENSIONS

All tax restrictions on pensioners’ access to their pension pots to be removed. The taxable part of pension pot taken as cash on retirement to be charged at normal income tax rate, typically 20% down from 50%
There will be an increase in total pension savings people can take as a lump sum to £30,000
The total amount you can contribute to your pension scheme with tax relief each year is being cut from £50,000 to £40,000
The tax free lifetime allowance for the value of your pension pot is being cut from £1.5m to £1.25m

CHILDCARE

The Tax free childcare costs cap, against which parents can claim 20% support, will be increased to £10,000 per year for each child. This will mean that eligible parents can now benefit from greater support, worth up to £2,000 per child per year from autumn 2015. Tax free childcare will be rolled out to eligible families with children under 12 within the first year of the schemes operation.

The new 12 sided £1 coin to be introduced in 2017

April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

Single Use Carrier Bag Charge – VAT implications

Vat implications of Northern Ireland’s Single Use Carrier Bags Levy

On Monday 8^th April 2013 the Single Use Carrier Bag Levy came into force.

The VAT treatment of the Single Use Carrier Bag Levy in Northern Ireland differs from how it is currently treated in Wales.

Practical Implications for a VAT Registered retailer operating in Northern Ireland:

If a retailer charges the minimum allowable charge of 5 pence per single use carrier bag, then the sale is classified as being … “Outside of the scope of VAT”, and as such:

The retailer doesn’t charge the customer any VAT on the 5 pence charge for each bag.
The retailer does not include the 5 pence proceeds generated from each carrier bag in the Net Sales entry on their VAT return (Vat Return Box 6)
The retailer does not include any VAT liability on the 5 pence proceeds generated from carrier bags within VAT due in this Period (Vat Return box 1).
The retailer may reclaim any input vat incurred on the initial purchase of these carrier bags.

In our next article we’ll take a quick look at the VAT implications of charging more than the minimum 5 pence per bag.

September 3, 2012April 25, 2014

Thinking of working from home?

The idea of working from home always sounds very idyllic especially to those who have never done it, however some businesses actually struggle to separate work from home life. In many cases, they actually work longer hours and enjoy less quality time with their families.It simply doesn’t work for some businesses, either. Nothing says unprofessional quite like a sink full of plates or the sounds of arguing children. The question is Can you really hold successful client meetings when your office is also your home?

Not to completely shatter the illusion, the home can be a great place to start a business and many of the UK’s finest companies started on the kitchen table. Start-up businesses, no matter where they originate, are not great for escaping stress and freeing up your time.

When the line between home and work gets blurred (which at times it inevitably will), things can get a little complicated. We all know that there are several situations that make working from home more difficult than we originally thought it was going to be. It actually requires a lot of discipline to make sure you’re staying at the top of your game when you’re not in an office environment.

Can you work from home?

If you can work well on your own without the necessity of others to hold you accountable or without that professional interaction you get from working with others then you are probably a good candidate for working at home. However, if you already have problems ‘switching off’ when you come home from work then you could have a problem.

How to put this into practice

To work from home you will most certainly need to be self-motivated and not require others present to ‘push you on’.

You know yourself best — do the hard self-evaluation before you commit to the idea of an office at home.

Make sure you set up a separate workspace. If possible set aside an office space. Locating a corner in the kitchen or living room is not ideal it will not give you the separation that you need and can walk away from and will not make it easy to ‘go home’ at the end of the day. Naturally you need to make sure you have good lighting, ventilation etc.

Be sure to ‘Organise’ Your day

Get up as normal and do all the things you would normally do if you were heading out to work. Go to your office and end your day exactly how you would normally have. Create a proper structure and stick to it

Separating work and personal life

We touched on this in a previous article. Try not to get distracted by your personal to do list or grocery lists etc, try and ignore the personal element during your working day (as far as is possible).

On the other hand do not over work yourself, try not to talk about work when work is over or outside the ‘work room’ and try not to let your hours creep. Although we all do this just make sure there are clear boundaries.

Successfully working from home with kids can be difficult but it is not impossible. Set clear boundaries, let the kids know that the work room is not a room for the kids, help them to understand this and suggest they knock the door etc if they need in and explain to them that this is incase you are on the phone. Keep it clear of toys and other personal items.

It can be easy to feel isolated without the interaction with people during the day, stay in touch with people, clients, friends, colleagues. Where necessary meet clients, over lunch for example to help maintain that adult interaction.

In Conclusion

A few points in conclusion.

Stay productive – its harder to charge by the hour when you work from home, consider charging for the end result.

Stay driven – but do not become a hermit or loose sight of who you are in the process.

Stay alert – don’t miss the opportunity to grow your business – just because you are based at home does not leave your service or product any lesser than any other.

Stay competitive – but do not undersell yourself just because you work from home.

April 30, 2012April 25, 2014

The Husband & wife business partnership and a healthy work life balance. Can we have both??

When we got married we were both studying our professional exams and training to become accountants. We were attending university together on a Saturday, studying together and living and breathing the same text books for three solid years. It seemed to work OK, however there was one fundamental difference, we were not working in the same firm. Perhaps this is why it seemed to work so well.

Given that we were ‘heading in the same direction’ it seemed inevitable that one day we would go into business together and here we are.

When we first made the decision to work together, I thought this will be great, we had just started our family and it seemed, to me, to be the perfect situation. I could work and still be flexible for my young children and not miss out on them growing up. I was going to be super woman!! However, when I actually started to think about it seriously I thought, what if we ‘kill’ each other, or even worse what if I turn into my husband!! However, we decided to risk it and in January 2010 we decided to just ‘go for it.’ I have to say, if I am honest, there have been arguements, but we have never looked back!!

Husband and wife business partnerships are on the rise, we can see this in our client list, through colleagues and friends, and when it works it seems to be working very well.

When a husband and wife go into business together they have the same end goal and dedication. This type of dedication can help young companies get off the ground. When married couples work together, their business can become like their own baby. Their emotional involvement with each other spills over into an attachment with the company, driving people to be more dedicated than they would other-wise be.

Don’t get me wrong the constant interaction, the strain of juggling work and personal life, and the trials of entrepreneurship—especially in a difficult economy—can take a toll. The key however is getting the work life balance right.

I am not a marriage guidance counsellor but I thought I would share a few of our secrets and experiences that have helped make it work for us:

Figure out how you will physically work together. This will be different for every couple. Some couples can work well in the same office space however others may need to be physically separated if they’re going to work well together. If a separate space is necessary for you to make it work, then I suggest you find a separate space.

Make clear your roles. Going into business with your spouse or partner is exciting because you are building something and you will have the same dream. However, how you visualise you get there will most likely be different. Identify each others responsibilities, you will both have different strengths so use them. That way you’ll avoid stepping on each other’s toes and hopefully minimise any arguments.

Understand your working styles. This is another one that often gets forgotten when a couple works together. When we were both training we worked for different companies and naturally developed very different working styles, you need to understand how the other person likes to work, how you each deal with stress, and go into it with similar, or at least clear, expectations about sharing the work. We clashed at the very start on our very different working styles. I am ‘hyper’ organised, like things in a certain way, and especially like a nice tidy desk. My husband however, does not share my enthusiasm for a clear desk, but we got round it, by simply buying separate trays, and once a week we go through these trays and clear it all away. That way I didn’t have to look at lots of loose paper and my husband didn’t feel he had to file everything every two minutes. It is about finding the compromise and using it.

Communicate. It is so easy to forget that communication in a work environment is different from asking if the dishwasher is emptied or agreeing about who’s going to pick up the kids from school. Make sure you’re communicating about the day-to-day stuff as well as the big picture stuff. And if you have other people working for or with you, communicate with them too. Remember you are running a business together not separately!!

Leave work at work. You don’t want to be talking shop over dinner. It’s bound to happen and lets face it, it does, but try and minimise this where possible so as not to have your lives be all work all the time.

Leave home at home. This is the other side of that coin, but it can be less visible on your radar. If you’re working together it will help if you can maintain a professional relationship that’s focused on the business. Making your grocery list while you’re balancing the books can make everything feel smashed together, which is no fun – and not productive – for anyone.

Respect each other. You respect each other in your marriage (hopefully). If your spouse is your business partner you should treat that person the same way you’d treat any other colleague, whether a boss or a peer.

If you can manage all that, you might just be able to live – and work – happily ever after.

April 23, 2012April 25, 2014

The Modern Accountant ????

But Accountants DO NOT blog……

This may well be true, yet here we are, accountants, and we are trying our hand at blogging!!

It has become a general consensus that accountants are not known for trying out new ideas, and as for social media and blogging well, they simply ‘do not have the time’, it is ‘not necessary’, it ‘will not increase our profits’, it ‘will not add to the quality of service for our clients’ and it is ‘not an efficient use of our time.’

While this is all true, and ok, it probably won’t help us understand our clients better, it is most likely not very proactive, and lets be honest, who NEEDS an accountant that blogs?? However, despite all this, and in a bold NEW approach, I have pondered over the last few months that maybe our clients would like to understand US a bit better!!!!

I personally have always felt, even way back in my training years, (which feels like a million years ago now but really is not!!!) that it is important to show our clients that there is an ordinary human being behind all the ‘serious’ chat, tax regulations and number crunching. Maybe even someone that dare I say it has a ‘personality of sorts’!!!

So based on all this and with a gentle push and encouragement from some of our twitter friends Helen Cousins (@xcelbusiness), Sian Phillips (@_sians) and Sage Ireland (@sageireland) we are going to attempt this blogging thing!!!

This is my first ‘introductory’ blog and I hope you will all bear with me as I try to ‘master’ this over the coming weeks.

For now i have listed below some of our earlier posts that we included previously. A couple of them were in response to a few past client queries, which actually did end up being ‘a proactive use of our time!’

In the mean time if you have any interest in a specific topic you would like to see more information on please feel free to get in touch with us!!

and we have social networks too……

Like us on facebook: JSR Chartered Accountants

connect with us on linkedIn: JSR Chartered Accountants

March 21, 2012February 2, 2019

Budget 2012: Key Points

George Osborne says his 2012 Budget will “reward work”, support working families and ‘unashamedly backs business’ but warns of need to continue his austerity drive in face of sluggish growth.

Budget 2012 Key Points:

Automatic review of state pension age to ensure it keeps pace with increasing lifespans. New single-tier state pension for future pensioners to be set at about £140 and based on contributions

Duty on all tobacco products to rise by 5% above inflation from 18:00 today – the equivalent of 37p on a packet of cigarettes. No change to alcohol duty. New duty on gaming machines at a standard rate of 20% and a lower rate for low-prize machines of 5% of net takings. No change to existing plans on fuel duty (however, please note that plans to increase Fuel by 3p from August still stand). Vehicle excise duty to rise by inflation, but frozen for road hauliers

Good news for young entrepreneurs Government considering enterprise loans for young people to start their own business.

Corporation tax cut to 24% from next month. By 2014 it will fall to 22%

From midnight, new stamp duty level of 7% for homes worth more than £2m. Any such homes bought through companies will pay 15%. Extra funding to help construction firms building new homes

CHILD BENEFIT Will be phased out when someone in a houshold has an income of more than £50,000. It will fall by 1% for every £100 earned over £50,000. Only those earning more than £60,000 will lose the entirety of the benefit

From April 2013, the 50p top rate of tax will be cut to 45p. Personal income tax allowance will be raised to £9,205 from April 2013, making people £220 a year better off. However, those aged 65 and over will no longer be entitled to the higher rate of personal allowance leaving these individuals paying around £260 more in tax per year.

It should also be noted that around 300,000 workers woll be pulled into the 40% tax bracket. Currently workers can earn £42.475 before paing tax at 40%, this limit is now to be reduced to £41,450 – This was not announced in Mr Osborne’s speech but was included in the budget document.

August 15, 2011April 25, 2014

Thinking of setting up in business?

There are many things that need considered when you start up a new business. Items such as: Business plans, Business Structure, Business Stationery, Books & Records to be kept, Accounts and their filing requirments, VAT, National Insurance, Tax on Profits, Employing Others, Premises, Insurances and Pensions. The list can seem quite daunting and never ending. However, this does not need to be the case. With the advice from a good accountant setting up your own business does not have to be a scary experience!!

Whilst some generalisation can be made about starting up a business, it is always necessary to tailor the strategy to fit your situation. Any plan must take account of your circumstances and aspirations. Whilst business success can never be guaranteed, professional advice can help to avoid some of the problems which befall new businesses.

We would welcome the opportunity to assist you in formulating a strategy suitable for your own requirements. We can also provide key services such as bookkeeping, management accounts, VAT return and payroll preparation.

Why not email us at info@jsrcharteredaccountants.co.uk to arrange a meeting to review your business requirements. Or even if you have just set up in business yourself why not contact us to see how we can assist you and relieve some of the initial burden so we can tailor a plan to suit your needs leaving you to concentrate on getting your business to grow!

Remember our initial consultation is still free!!

Jonathan & Stacie Ross .

August 4, 2011April 25, 2014

Do I Really Need an Accountant?

Chartered accountants have come through a rigorous regime of training and examinations, and have wide practical experience which they can use for your benefit. They are the general practitioners of the financial world, with the expert knowledge and integrity to give you high quality advice on any aspect of your financial affairs.You will only fill in one tax return each year, chartered accountants fill in dozens, and you can benefit from that professional expertise and experience.

No-one likes paying taxes. But effective planning to reduce your tax bill requires professional advice. Don’t make decisions based on half-understood newspaper articles, or advice from a friend – they can be so wrong that they cost you money rather than saving it.

Running a business does offer some opportunities to legally save tax. But to make the best of them, you need to talk to your chartered accountant before entering into any major transactions, so that he or she has a chance to advise you on the best approach.

You also have to worry about the tax you deduct from your employees’ wages. On the whole, they are interested in their take-home pay. However, if you, with your chartered accountant’s help, find a tax-efficient way to get cash or benefits into their hands, that can reduce your overall costs.

A lot of people think that you only need a chartered accountant if you run a business. Not true. There are lots of times when you should consult a chartered accountant for your personal financial affairs. Some people have affairs that are so complex, they need to use a chartered accountant regularly to prepare their tax return and generally advise them. But even if you are not in that category, there are still plenty of times when you could benefit from an hour or two of a chartered accountant’s time.

One of the more complicated areas of taxation is the tax charge on benefits in kind, such as company cars. If your employer suggests that you might like to buy your own car and use it for work, how much extra pay would you expect to get to make the switch worthwhile. Don’t know? Your chartered accountant does.

What about a pension? Does your employer have a pension scheme? If so, is it any good? How do you know? Not all chartered accountants give financial advice, but most can give you some general unbiased information about your pension options, and can put you in touch with a reliable adviser.

What about when you change jobs? Do you know what package you should be asking for on termination, or on taking up your new job? Will the moving allowance that you get from your new employer be tax free?

These are all questions that a chartered accountant can help you with. You may face them a handful of times in your career – a chartered accountant deals with these issues regularly. Arrange a meeting to discuss the implications, get the benefit of an hour or two of a chartered accountant’s time.

When you get married, you may not think about inviting along a chartered accountant to the wedding! But it is a good idea to check up on the financial consequences. It might be a good time for parents to make gifts that are free of inheritance tax. You may find that you can reduce your tax bill by moving your savings between you. An hour with a chartered accountant before you say ‘I do’ might help to pay for the honeymoon!

Buying a house is another time when a chartered accountant could be useful. Which is better – to take a big mortgage and keep your savings invested, or use the savings to reduce the mortgage? There is no one answer that is right for everyone, you need a chartered accountant to advise you.

And finally there is death. Asking a chartered accountant for inheritance tax advice might seem morbid – but your spouse and children won’t thank you for your squeamishness. Inheritance tax can make a hard time even worse by creating financial problems. It is a particular problem for couples who aren’t married, since they cannot pass assets to each other tax free, but all families should know what the financial consequences of a death would be – and a chartered accountant can explain it to you.

So if you are considering preparing your own tax return this year or using an unqualified accountant, why not have a quick rethink. Last January we received numerous new clients who had prepared their own tax return and wanted us to have a look at it prior to submission. In EVERY case we were able to reduce their tax bill for them by using reliefs etc that they did not know existed!!!

So who knows, this year we may even be able to persuade HMRC that you have overpaid tax.

Then you won’t just be sending in your tax return – you’ll be getting tax returned!

Jonathan & Stacie Ross