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New Rules at Companies House

For some time, the UK has been seen as something of a soft touch when it has come to both incorporating a limited company (or any other corporate body) and then filing accurate and timely information about its ownership, operations and location.Concerns about economic crime and transparency have been voiced by various political and business groups for many years and in recent times, international concerns have become increasingly vocal.It is something that the UK has been wrestling with for year...

Spring Budget 2024

6 March 2024 saw Jeremy Hunt deliver the Spring Budget which, following weeks of information leaks and pre-announcements, contained few, if any surprises.The biggest news was probably a further drop in employees and self employed National Insurance.Download your copy of our Budget summary below. ...

Top 10 Tips - Improving your website listing

A website is a must-have for any business and everyone is looking to get their website listed as high as possible by Google (other search engines exist - just!).Whether it is a simple brochure site where potential customers can gain a high-level introduction to your business, a site that offers a detailed breakdown of the scope of products and services that you offer or a multi-layer, e-commerce site - a web presence is a critical necessity.How high your website lists in Google is a major factor...

Crackdown! HMRC will use international rules to target holiday lets and ‘side hustles’

HM Revenue and Customs has announced that 2024 will see it focusing on holiday lets and ‘side hustles' in a move designed to ensure that people are properly declaring all their income and paying the right amount of tax.Whilst many of the headlines in recent years have focused on tax avoidance schemes, HMRC estimates that twice as much money, a whopping £800 million a year, is lost to tax evasion which they define (broadly) as underreported income and personal expenses wrongly claimed against ...

Top 10 Tips - Reducing Inheritance Tax

Inheritance Tax (IHT) is one of the more contentious areas of tax that we help clients with.Some feel a reel sense of unfairness that any wealth that may wish to pass on to loved ones has been built up out of income that has already been taxed and so see IHT as essentially double taxation.We’ll leave that one for the politicians!The general rule is that any assets that you own over and above £325,000 in value will be subject to 40% tax when you die.But, there are some relatively straightforwa...

National Minimum Wage increases from 1 April 2024

The National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 and is increased annually in April.It is set by the independent Low Pay Commission which, each year, recommends what the minimum wage should be. Its recommendations are usually (but not always) followed.  Despite inflation dropping back to much more comfortable levels, the Chancellor announced in the Autumn Statement 2023 that the National Minimum Wage would increase from 1 April 2024 by between 9.7% and 12.4% across the various categori...

Autumn Statement 2023

The Autumn Statement was delivered against a backdrop of improving economic news, something that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt went out of his way to repeatedly emphasise during his speech.Inflation is down to 4.6%, the widely anticipated UK recession has not materialised, and the Chancellor was at pains to point out that the country’s economic performance and outlook has improved significantly since his last update in the Spring.  Whilst encouraging, many political commentators were quick ...

How can I reduce Inheritance Tax

Inheritance Tax (IHT) is the tax paid on the estate of a deceased person and is sometimes, rather coldly, referred to as the ‘death tax’.When a person dies the value of their assets (known as their estate) is assessed and tax is paid (by the estate) before the deceased's beneficiaries receive their gifts.  There is an individual threshold of £325,000 which means that assets up to this value will not (normally) attract any Inheritance Tax. Assets above this value are currently...

Top 10 Tips - getting paid faster

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, big or small, and difficulties with cash flow are consistently listed as one of the top three reasons that businesses fail. Put simply, there are two sides to cash flow - in and out - and here we are going to look at the ‘in’ side, which means getting the money that you are owed into your business as quickly as possible.And remember - a great side benefit of collecting your cash quickly is the huge drop in bad debt risk. It really is a matter ...

Landlords - private or limited company?

In recent years there have been several changes to the tax environment for private landlords that have significantly increased the tax that they have to pay against the rental income that they receive.The main change was that mortgage interest is no longer fully deductible as an expense with the private landlord; instead, they receive a 20% tax credit in respect of the amount of interest paid. This is extremely unattractive to higher and additional tax rate pay...

Top 10 Tips - Borrowing money to help your business

Borrowing money can be a necessary and healthy activity for most businesses - as long as they are borrowing the right amount for the right reasons.The years of cheap and easily accessible credit are gone and interest rates should probably now be viewed as being more ‘normal’ than ‘high’, so getting the right deal is important and all about presenting the right picture to potential lenders.So if you are looking to borrow money to help support and/or grow your business - here are ATN Partn...

Top 10 Tips - Approaching Business Angels

Growing a business can be very capital intensive with many high-growth businesses burning cash even faster than those that are making losses or are insolvent!Even if you’re experiencing growth, not having sufficient capital can be terminal and is always in the top three reasons for business failures.Naturally, the shareholders of a business can inject their personal funds to ensure the business has sufficient capital, but sometimes that may not be enough.An alternative option is to sell some o...

Top 10 Tips - Staying safe online

It is now almost impossible to avoid having to administer at least part of your life online - and to be honest, why wouldn’t you want to?The rise of connected devices, apps, and websites, coupled with ‘one click’ payment and authorisation services make things convenient, easy, and quick. But we are all far too aware that this increased convenience comes at a potential price.The risks, challenges, and concerns of being increasingly online are well known; but what can you do to minimise your...

New National Insurance ‘top-up’ deadline extended again

The government has announced that the deadline for people to voluntarily top up their National Insurance contributions for State Pension purposes has been extended from 31 July 2023 to 5 April 2025.The extension means that you now have more time to make additional National Insurance (NI) contributions and fill any gaps in your record that may otherwise reduce your State Pension entitlement.Normally it is possible to make voluntary NI contributions for the past six years but an extension that all...

Construction Industry Focus - Supply Chain DD

As we covered in our blog “HMRC Warning - Personal Liability for Supplier VAT Fraud”, there are circumstances in which a director of a limited company can be held liable for fraud that has been committed by a third-party supplier.That may sound pretty harsh - but it’s a fact.We are now finding that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is taking aim at businesses in the building and construction industry, particularly those involved with the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) and demanding that ...

Dividend tax rates in 2023/24

As the owner-manager of a small limited company, taking a mixture of salary and dividends has been the most tax-efficient way of withdrawing money from the business for some time now.As we covered in our blog ‘What is the best salary for a director in 2022?’, various shifts and changes in National Insurance allowances last year mean that the optimum salary for a director/shareholder is between £9,100 and £12,570.This remains true in 2023/24, but talk to us to work out which number is best ...

Thriving in difficult times

There are lots of resources out there for Kent businesses and we've found a gem from the British Business Bank aimed at owner-managed businesses.It gives some great pointers on navigating the real challenge of rising costs - something that is ohhhh so relevant right now!The British Business Bank is government owned but independently managed and is all about making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. It was the organisation that was responsible for the administration of...

Spring Budget 2023

Wednesday 15 March 2023 saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jermery Hunt, deliver his first official budget, following his November Autumn Statement which was, in essence, a budget in all but name.The ethos of his announcements revolved around what the Chancellor called his four ‘E’ pillars: Enterprise, Education, Employment and Everywhere and was focused on halving inflation, growing the economy and reducing public debt.Many of the announcements had been leaked ahead of time with perhaps t...

Cash ISA or stocks and shares?

For almost 15 years, interest rates in the UK were so low that holding cash in any way shape or form made little or no sense, regardless of what inflation was doing.The tax benefits of a Cash ISA were largely meaningless as returns were so low, any interest earned would largely be covered by the Savings Allowance which allows basic rate taxpayers to earn up to £1,000 in interest without paying any tax.With rates generally running at between 0.7% and 1.2%, interest earnings on balances belo...

National Minimum Wage increases from 1 April 2023

The National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 and is increased annually in April.It is set by the independent Low Pay Commission which, each year, recommends what the minimum wage should be. Its recommendations are usually (but not always) followed.   With 2022 seeing inflation returning to levels not seen since (approx.) 1980, the Chancellor announced in the Autumn Statement 2022 that the National Minimum Wage would increase from 1 April 2023 by between 9.7% and...

Points mean… .err, well…  penalties!

If you file your VAT return late, or if you fail to pay VAT on time, then HMRC will instigate a system of penalties and interest that, for the most part, has been considered as being fairly lenient for some time now. Although no one advocates for more draconian measures to be brought in against owner-managed businesses, the challenge with the existing approach is that it tends to treat repeat offenders in the same way (broadly) as businesses that miss the occasional deadline. For ...

Autumn Statement 2022

It was possibly the most eagerly awaited Autumn Statement ever following the somewhat calamitous mini-Budget that was unleashed on the UK economy back in September 2022. Jeremy Hunt, the fifth Chancellor of the Exchequer in the past 32 months, delivered his first Autumn Statement on Thursday, 17 November.  The backdrop was challenging - inflation running at more than 11%, interest rates rising fast and the UK economy, thought by many, to already be in recession. And although Autumn State...

Business Asset Disposal Relief

Having worked hard to build a successful, thriving business, it always seems a little harsh that when you finally come to sell and enjoy the real fruits of your labour, the taxman comes knocking. For many years now various governments have tried to acknowledge the risk and sacrifices made by business owners by essentially halving their tax bill when it comes to selling their business.  The business in question can be a limited company, sole trader or partnership. The government&nb...

September 2022 - mini-budget

Officially it was not a Budget, not a formal one at least… it was a mini-budget. But it was a mini-budget of staggering size.  With the exception of the unprecedented COVID-19 support package, this was easily the largest fiscal announcement in recent years and quite a way for the new Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to announce himself on the world stage. Dubbed by many as the ‘not so mini-budget’ it packed a huge punch with the Chancellor grabbing headlines by announci...

Employment Allowance - are you paying too much National Insurance?

The Employment Allowance is a well-established, but not very well publicised, HMRC scheme that allows most businesses that pay Employers’ National Insurance to significantly reduce their bills. Employers pay Class 1 National Insurance at a rate of 15.05% on all employee earnings above what is known as the secondary threshold, currently £758 per month.  It adds significantly to the cost of offering employment and has, in the past, been referred to as a tax on jobs.&nbs...