News and Articles
Topping up your state pension – 31st July Deadline
Topping up your state pension - 31st July Deadline Are you a man born after 6th April 1951 or a woman born after 6th April 1953? If so and, if you have any gaps in your National Insurance record you have a special opportunity to top up contributions back to April 2006...
New Digital Patents service
New Digital Patents service The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will be launching a new digital patents service soon. The timeline is: September 2023 New patents search service. Spring 2024 Launch of “One IPO” Winter 2025 Further enhancements to One IPO....
New minimum wage rates from 1 April 2023
New minimum wage rates from 1 April 2023 A handy reminder of the new numbers: Age Old rate New Rate %age 23 £9.50 £10.42 9.7% 21-22 ...
Collecting debts in 12 easy steps
When onboarding a new customer and offering credit terms, make sure you have details of the person to contact about payment. Always send a statement electronically at each month end (if monthly terms). This should be easy with modern software. Delegate someone...
Big change to Company Law on the horizon
Big change to Company Law on the horizon The white paper on reform to the Company Register, sets out a series of adjustments for businesses for 2023 to “safeguard our national security and reduce the economic and social costs of fraud,” the white paper laid out that...
Furlough claims – Ooops!
Furlough claims – Ooops! Many businesses have inadvertently made errors in their furlough claims and a small number have knowingly over claimed. HMRC say they are not writing anything off and have legal powers to recover this money up to 20 years after the event....
WHAT IS A DIRECTORS LOAN ACCOUNT? – (DLA)
WHAT IS A DIRECTOR’S LOAN ACCOUNT? If your business is set up as a Company rather than a Sole Trade or Partnership, it is important to remember that the Company is a separate legal entity. It is “Corporate” from the Latin “corpus” meaning body and has its own legal...
Interest rate conundrum
Interest rate conundrum... We have probably forgotten how exceptional the low interest period from 2009 to 2021 was. The Bank of England chart below brings it home. Before the 2008 financial crisis, interest rates were around 5% which was needed to control...
When you own more than one restaurant…
When you own more than one restaurant
Paying yourself with dividends – imminent tax raid?
Most small companies (thought to be six million) pay their owner-managers a basic salary through PAYE and a chunk of the profit by way of a dividend. Accountants, including my company, usually advised their clients to remunerate themselves this way over the last...
What is a PESTLE Analysis?
If you are considering your business strategy, then this is a common tool used to assess your business environment. It is an acronym standing for the six external factors affecting your business. Political Economic Social Technological Legal Environment In the...
Why is Budgetary Control a No-No for Small Businesses?
I trained as a chartered management accountant, and budgetary control was a major tool in controlling business finance dating back to the founding of my institute in the 1920s. So, one hundred years later, how is it doing? Depends on size. As a management tool it...