POWER IN NUMBERS - ISSUE #22
'Making Tax Digital': What does it mean and how will digitalisation affect me? Sir Clive Woodward announced as speaker for Business Leaders Lecture. Landlords to receive less tax relief on interest. Savings allowance. A long wait for Brexit clarity. Pensions auto enrolment. Business get the experts' view on preparing for the biggest sale of their lives. Rothmans continues to expand. Are you missing out on your marriage allowance? New director. New VAT flat rate scheme changes.
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The following news articles are in this issue:
Sir Clive Woodward announced as speaker for Business Leaders Lecture
Rugby World Cup winning coach and businessman, Sir Clive Woodward OBE, has been announced as the keynote speaker at this year’s Business Leaders Lecture at The Hilton at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton, on 20th September 2017, hosted by Rothmans Accountants. Sir Clive’s legendary leadership skills and visionary approach to winning led the England rugby union team to World Cup glory in 2003 and his tenure as Director of Sport for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games saw the home nation record its greatest ever overall performance....
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‘Making Tax Digital’: What does it mean and how will digitalisation affect you?
From April 2018, small-businesses and landlords will be required to maintain digital records, such as invoices, receipts and other expenditures, and to submit this information to HMRC website on a quarterly basis. This information will populate each taxpayer’s digital tax account, alongside the information HMRC already receive from banks and other sources. For self-employed taxpayers, from April 2018 your accounting periods will change each year and you will no longer need to distinguish between capital and revenue when using cash basi...
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Are you missing out on your marriage allowance?
Around 3 million couples are failing to claim hundreds of pounds a year in free marriage allowance, according to a new HMRC report. Since it was set up in April 2015, just over a quarter of the eligible 4.2 million married and civil partner couples have taken up the £432 marriage allowance. This tax break allows couples to transfer a proportion of their personal allowance (the amount you earn tax-free each tax year) between them, as long as one of you is a non-taxpayer, and the other is a basic 20% rate taxpayer. The allowance co...
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Landlords to receive less tax relief on interest
In a change that will impact residential landlords, the amount of income tax relief available on residential property finance costs will be restricted to the basic rate of income tax. This change, to be phased in over a four year period, will mean that landlords will no longer be able to deduct all of their finance costs from their property income. The restriction does not apply to residential properties held in companies. Rules may also further restrict the relief which is due where the individual’s property income or total income is...
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Pensions Auto Enrolment
The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed the thresholds for pensions automatic enrolment for 2017/18. These amounts are reviewed annually. The main qualifying threshold or ‘trigger’ for employees to be automatically enrolled will be maintained at £10,000 per annum. The lower limit of the qualifying earning band will be £5,876 and the upper limit £45,000. The written statement also includes: ‘Automatic enrolment has been a great success to date with almost 7 million people enrolled by mor...
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Businesses get the experts’ view on preparing for the biggest sale of their lives
Many of the South’s business owners learned from the experts how to make the most from selling their business at a seminar last week hosted by Rothmans Corporate Finance (RCF) Ltd, at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. RCF is a new joint venture between Rothmans Accountants, which has 11 regional offices and is one of the South’s largest and longest-established independent accountancy firms, and Odyssey Corporate Finance, a specialist corporate advisory firm. During the seminar, RCF Directors, Tom McCarthy and Julian Sims, advised...
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New VAT Flat Rate Scheme changes
The anti-avoidance measures for the VAT Flat Rate Scheme of 16.5% come into force from 1 April for businesses with limited costs. The change was announced in the Autumn statement to tackle ‘aggressive abuse’ and the HMRC estimates that it will affect 123,000 out of 411,000 scheme users. From April, FRS businesses will need to decide whether they are a limited cost trader, defined as one whose VAT inclusive expenditure on goods is either: Less than 2% of their VAT inclusive turnover in a prescribed accounting period Greate...
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A new savings allowance is available to basic and higher rate taxpayers for 2016/17. The amount available depends on the individual's circumstances: · If any of the individual's income for the year is additional rate income then the individual's savings allowance for the year will be nil. · If any of the individual's income for the year is higher-rate income and none of the individual's income for the year is additional rate income, t...
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A long wait for Brexit clarity
The economy will continue to expand, despite Brexit uncertainties, one of the UK’s leading economists has told more than 150 of the South’s businesses at a special seminar at Southampton’s Hilton Ageas. But it is likely to be another two years at the earliest before the shape of the post-Brexit landscape becomes apparent. Five months on from the referendum, challenges and opportunities for the business sector are starting to emerge, according to Mark Berrisford-Smith, Head of Economics at HSBC, presenting a seminar organise...
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Director appointed for Rothmans Accountants
Kevin Richards has been appointed as a Director for our Chandlers Ford office. Kevin Richards, who lives in Southampton, joined Rothmans as a manager in 2012. He qualified as a Certified Chartered Accountant in 2000, having trained at an accountancy practice in Southampton where he worked for nearly 20 years, most recently as Senior Audit Manager. As well as utilising his specialist auditing skills, Kevin has a particular interest in supporting owner-managed businesses, serving clients across the Southern region, as well as in Londo...
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