Latest General Practice

From April 2023, the government will be tightening up the rules in England where currently some landlords do not pay either business rates or council tax on their furnished holiday lets.  In most cases, however, landlords will want to be assessed for business rates in the hope of qualifying for small business rates relief (SBRR),…

Due to the continuing difficulties that Covid continues to present, today HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced they are waiving late filing and late payment penalties for Self Assessment taxpayers for one month – giving extra time, if needed, to complete your 2020 to 2021 tax return and pay any tax due.   HMRC…

Businesses may be hoping they can hold their annual Christmas parties this month. Providing the event is annual, open to all employees and the total cost, including VAT, is less than £150 per person (including non employee guest attendees), this will be a non-taxable benefit in kind (ie free of PAYE tax and National Insurance…

Those businesses with comprehensive commercial insurance cover will possibly be covered for ‘business interruption’. This cover will typically include losses arising from events that close or severely disrupt operations. The COVID pandemic has already led to many claims under this. The insurance industry (as you might expect?) has warned that few policies are likely to…

New company car advisory fuel rates have been published and took effect from 1 December 2021.   The guidance states: ‘you can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply’. The rates only apply to employees using a company car.   The advisory fuel rates for journeys…

One of the first things you will need to do when starting to use Xero is to connect your bank accounts, this is a relatively simple step by step process.   Step 1: Go to the accounting menu on the top blue ribbon bar and select bank accounts.   Step 2: Click add bank account…

For businesses that require staff to have access to their Xero but do not want their employees to be able to view all details of their business there are different permissions and roles you can allocate to different users.   Roles Adviser- This role is the highest role you can give someone; therefore, it includes…

Arising from the current COP26 global warming conference, Sage, The ACCA and the ICC have called on urgent action to be taken to standardise and simplify carbon reporting to help SMEs join the race to Net Zero. Their new report titled ‘Think Small First’ calls on policymakers to remove the existing administrative burdens that come…

The government is to increase the earliest age pension savers can access their pension pots from 55 to 57, wef 6 April 2028. Members of the firefighters, police and armed forces public service schemes will not be affected by this increase.

When COVID directly impacted upon the UK in Spring 2020, the Government introduced a range of measures specifically targeted to help SME businesses survive the expected period of financial strain. Such businesses should now be planning ahead for when this support is gradually withdrawn: 21-Jun-21 Deadline for arranging with HMRC when to repay COVID related…