Latest Blogs

Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) are crucial members of a company’s leadership team and therefore adequate remuneration is key. However, the arrangement for paying NEDs can often be handled incorrectly.   Directors’ Duties Income It is not uncommon to see NEDs prepare invoices and submit these to the company they act for to receive payment for their…

What has changed when it comes to VAT Thresholds for Small Businesses?   The Spring Budget this year introduced significant changes aimed at alleviating the administrative burden on small businesses in the UK. One of the key updates announced by Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, was the increase in the VAT registration thresholds, effective from 1 April…

Extended support for Farmers is available through incentives and changes to planning laws.   The government has today published details of the expanded SFI offering for 2024. As expected, the offering now includes actions for precision farming and agroforestry and support for upland farmers, short term tenant Farmers and new entrants. There are now 102…

Last night saw the gala awards presentation evening for the 2024 SME Ely Business Awards.   Local businesses were eligible to enter 16 categories, to celebrate excellence and success within the Ely business community. Whitings have been headline sponsors of the event since 2017 and the leadership team from our Ely office dressed for the…

Why do businesses get de-banked?   MP’s on the Treasury Committee have recently looked at an issue that has been creeping up on some SME’s recently and causing real problems – where your bank shuts your account without your instruction and without warning.   The committee have discovered that this has occurred 130,000 times over…

Issue 5 of our Property Matters Newsletter is one which has been influenced by the March Spring Budget, during which there was an announcement in relation to the treatment of Furnished Holiday Lettings, and my colleague Harriet Sim has provided her views on the changes that are to be made. Daniel Walker also covers what…

Inheritance Tax (IHT) has traditionally been a domicile-based tax; however, the recent Spring Budget proposed a new ‘modernised residence-based regime’, which seems set to make significant changes to IHT from 6 April 2025.   The concept of Domicile The term domicile traces its roots to the Latin word “Domus”, meaning “Home”. As a concept, domicile…

Are you one of the 1.1 million customers that missed the 2022/23 tax return deadline?   We have reached 3 months after the tax return deadline for the year ending 5th April 2023. This means that if you should have completed a tax return, but failed to do so, you will now occur a daily…

More water management funding for farmers has been introduced. Last month the government announced The Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers affected by winter and spring flooding. The fund offers grants of between £500 and £25,000 for farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage as a result.   On the 22nd April further funding was announced…

Now that the 5th April 2024 has passed, many self-assessment taxpayers will be turning their attention to preparing and submitting their self-assessment personal tax returns for the 2023/24 tax year, which covers the tax year ended 5th April 2024, but what are the reasons for choosing to submit your tax return early?   Although the filing…