Blog
The Budget 2016 from a business owner’s perspective
Posted 17th March 2016 at 12:47 pm
As this was the second budget since the Conservatives have had the majority in parliament, George Osborne’s announcements did not come as such a shock. He announced from the off that the budget was going to revolve around ‘stability’. This is due to external pressures from the global economy which includes turbulent financial markets, slow growth in emerging markets and weak growth in developing economies. For this reason, the chancellor did have to announce that UK growth has been revised down and that we are expecting low productivity growth, which the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) believe ‘looks permanently damaged’.... Read more
Gift Aid changes that you need to know about
Posted 9th March 2016 at 1:46 pm
Due to the amount of criticism that the Gift Aid Scheme has received from the charities that use it on a regular basis, the government has made some changes. Some of the complaints included the length of the HMRC wording was putting donors off, the complexity of donor benefit rules and the administrative burden of storing and retrieving the declarations. Looking at the HMRC’s new model gift aid declaration what has changed? The first noticeable change is that the declaration is considerably shorter, as there is no longer and reference to VAT and council tax, making it much clearer to... Read more
Is it the end of the UK buy to let market?
Posted 22nd February 2016 at 1:52 pm
Given the changes made in the budget, it will be interesting to see what long-term effect this has on the buy-to-let market. The Residential Landlords Association predicts that 1 in 5 landlords in the UK might sell their property freeing up property for first time buyers. However, with the additional increase in stamp duty a survey by the Bank of England has predicted demand for buy-to-let mortgages to grow before April 2016 following a surge at the end of 2015. Although the most likely scenario is that landlords could be trapped into pushing up rents, having a nasty... Read more
Is it time to hire an accountant?
Posted 8th January 2016 at 2:39 pm
Like many businesses in the UK, 2015 may have been an extremely successful year for you. Since this time last year you may have grown in size by doubling your sales, increasing your revenue or extending your workforce. However, this could also mean that your finances have become much more complicated than completing a simple spreadsheet to track your work, invoices and payments in preparation for an online tax return. All of a sudden you may have new things to consider, such as would it be beneficial to become a limited company? Should I move premises to cope with expansion?... Read more