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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...

HMRC Warning - Personal Liability for Supplier VAT Fraud

Any director who engages in VAT fraud would, rightly, expect to be targeted by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for investigation, and then suffer the consequences. But those directors who are not engaged in such fraud may be alarmed to learn that they can also be legitimately targeted (HMRC prefers to use the term ‘selected’) by VAT fraud investigators, even if those investigators know fraud is not being committed by the company. And the reason we use the term ‘directors’ ra...

Is your business a healthy place to work?

A recent study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) suggests that small employers lose around £3,000 each year through employee sickness absence.With other business costs currently surging, this is money that most small businesses can ill afford to lose, but it’s a number that is really brought home when you consider what it takes to cover the cost. For example, a business with an 11% net profit margin would need to generate £27,000 in additional sales just to pay for its annual ...

ATN announces second sponsorship deal with local netball team in Kent

In April 2022, ATN Partnership announced its first-ever sponsorship deal with STF Racing, helping local Gravesend racing sensation Kristian Stefanov keep his wheels firmly on track.   With local media picking up Kristian’s story in early June, supplementing the support that ATN Partnership provides to the local sporting star, ATN is delighted to announce that it has also teamed up with one of the regions leading netball teams, Medway based, Fairview...

What is the best salary for a director in 2022?

As we covered in our blog “What you need to know - Running your own company”, owners of limited companies will often look to optimise their tax position by taking their income as a mix of salary and dividend. This is standard practice for hundreds of thousands of owner-managed limited companies across the UK. Research conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), shows that well over 900,000 UK limited companies manage their personal income in this way. The tax b...

Is corporation tax going up?

As we covered in our blog ‘What you need to know - running your own company’, corporation tax is paid by limited companies and is based on their annual taxable profits.It must be paid within 9 months of the company’s year-end, although, oddly, the tax return doesn’t need to be filed with HMRC until 12 months after the year-end.  And yes, you read that correctly, the tax is payable before the tax return is due.  It’s also worth noting that in a co...

STF Racing’s Kristian Stefanov 4th in overall standings

Rounds 2 and 3 of the Ultimate Karting Championship saw STF Racing, sponsored by ATN Partnership, rack up nearly 1,100 miles as they headed to the North West of England, before karting (pun intended) over to Wales for the first time during the 2022 season. Round 2 was held at the Warden Law Motorsports Centre in Sunderland over the weekend of 16 April.  Kristian had a strong weekend, posting consistent results throughout the three heats, before e...

Business valuation - how to value a small business

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, valuing a smaller, owner-managed business is something of a minefield.It is a mix of subjective and objective assessments, calculations, and assumptions, all wrapped up in the emotional aspects that accompany any owner-managed business.    And there is no way to get away from these emotional aspects. Often they have helped build the very business that is being bought or sold, and can’t really be quantified, or ignored.  Th...

Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED)

Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) was introduced in 2013 and applies to limited companies that own high-value residential property.  Currently, this applies to any residential property valued at more than £500,000 (although there is currently an exception in respect of dwellings used to house Ukrainian refugees). Essentially, the tax is aimed at making the ownership of high-value residential property by a limited company less attractive to owners who ma...

ATN announce sponsorship deal with STF Racing

See our latest update: STF Racing’s Kristian Stefanov 4th in overall standings. Gravesend based STF Racing has announced a new sponsorship deal with leading local accountants, ATN Partnership, as part of their 2022 funding package.With a minimum annual budget of well in excess of £30,000, sponsorship is as vital as raw talent when it comes to keeping young racers on the track, and competing. STF Racing is the home of 11 year old local lad Kristian Stefanov, who is competing in this year'...

2022 Spring Statement

The 2022 Spring Statement was always going to be an interesting one.The past two years have seen unprecedented levels of government economic intervention and support, and the bedding in of Brexit.  As a result, we already had a fascinating backdrop for the Chancellor to provide his update and assessment.  Significant rises in the cost of living were a ‘known known’ (to steal a line from Donald Rumsfeld), but war in Europe added a new, unwelcome twist to the post COVID rea...

What you need to know - Running your own company

As we covered in our blog, ‘Setting up your own business - self-employed or limited company?’, one of the options available to you when running your own business, is to set up a limited company.Although services such as The Formations Company make the process extremely fast and efficient, including helping with the ongoing legal obligations, there are aspects of the accounting and taxation of limited companies and their directors that it’s worth knowing a bit more about. The Formation...

Preparing a cash flow forecast in 2022

As we briefly discussed in our blog Improving small business cash flow, cash is the life blood of small businesses. As small business accountants in Kent we work closely with businesses to ensure that cash flow challenges don’t become major issues or problems. Businesses don’t become insolvent and stop trading because they are making a loss - they do so because they can’t generate sufficient cash flow to pay their bills as they fall due. Beyond concerns regarding solvency and continuing to...

Should I set up credit limits if I already have credit terms?

Our short answer is yes. Credit limits should be set in every business and, more importantly, enforced. It may not be completely necessary to set them for all of your customers, but certainly the majority of your turnover should be covered by credit limits.  Although there is a lot of crossover between credit limits and credit terms, they both work best, when used together.  You need both because they serve different purposes when it comes to managing your business' cash flow and total...

Reality bites - Making Tax Digital

Making Tax Digital (MTD) was first introduced in the 2015 spring budget and has (broadly) been rolled out across businesses since April 2019. To date, any VAT registered business with annual sales that exceeded the VAT registration limit (currently £85,000) had to follow MTD rules, but businesses that had voluntarily registered for VAT with annual sales below that limit, were exempt. 2022 sees that exemption disappear If you are a VAT registered business, then for all VAT periods starting on or...

Setting up your own business - self employed or limited company?

When you are first looking at setting up your small business you will need to make a decision as to which structure you use to trade. There are essentially 2 options: self-employed or running your own limited company. The very first thing to understand is that there is a fundamental difference between being self-employed and being the director of a small limited company. As a director of a limited company you are not self-employed for tax purposes.   You may feel like you are self-empl...

Improving small business cash flow

Many of you will have heard the saying ‘turnover is vanity and profit is sanity’.   It’s a mantra that we would certainly encourage any small business to adopt but it is a sad fact that many find themselves in financial difficulty despite making a profit. There is another saying that we are a little more fond of: cash is king. As small business accountants, we would encourage this to always be the main focus of any owner managed business. For any small business, cash fl...

Do I need to register for VAT?

Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax that is charged by businesses on the sales that they make.  Understanding if you need to register for VAT is important, but so is understanding if you should register - even if you don't need to. Not everything that a business sells will be subject to VAT - VAT is only chargeable on what are referred to as 'taxable supplies'. If your business does not make taxable supplies then there is no requirement for you to register for VAT, regardless of how big the busi...

What Budget 2021 means for Kent

On Wednesday, 3 March 2021, Rishi Sunak presented what was one of the most eagerly awaited budgets in modern times - perhaps of all time. Budget 2021 was all about a ‘Once in a 300-year event – the pandemic. A year on from when COVID-19 really started to bite and with the UK still in the grips of its third coronavirus lockdown, the Chancellor gave us around 50 minutes of his time to provide an update on what the pandemic has meant for the UK economy and what we should all expect next. What w...

Major VAT change for CIS businesses

A major change to the way in which businesses in the building and construction sector collect VAT will come into effect on 1 March 2021. This change could have a significant detrimental impact on short term cash flow. In short, the customer who is receiving the service will retain the VAT that they would have otherwise paid to the supplier and pay it directly to HMRC instead. This change marks a fundamental change in the way that VAT is accounted for and was due to be introduced in October 2020 ...

Covid-19 Finance Team

ATN Partnership has created a COVID-19 Finance Team which will act as the central hub for our wider team and clients for information, guidance and advice. Our aim is to be able to quickly and effectively help businesses access the COVID-19 measures that they are eligible for. As you will appreciate the situation is constantly evolving and there is always a delay between any government announcing measures and enacting the legislation that they require to implement their plans. Ther...

IR35 (Off Payroll Working) overhaul delayed

One of the Government's most controversial and feared tax changes has been pushed back by 12 months as part of the Coronavirus support measures. For those that have been living and working with the provisions of IR35 for the past few years the rise of the Coronavirus has at least bought some much welcomed relief.  Big changes were afoot that would have significant implications on many so called ‘off-payroll’ workers.  But the Government has rolled back on the proposals as it seeks ...

Budget 2020 was worth £223 million to the local economy over the next 12 months.

Good news for the local economy as Budget 2020 delivers a much needed injection of cash for Gravesend, Dartford and the surrounding area. It was a long time coming, but 11 March 2020 looks like it was well worth the wait for the local area with a windfall of over £665 million over the next five years - of which £223 million is expected to land in the next twelve months. The number has been calculated by Accountants ATN Partnership after an initial analysis of the numbers announced by the Chanc...

Website overhaul

New online home follows hot on the heels of new offices as ATN Partnership further improves their offering to clients. Leading Gravesend accountants ATN Partnership has continued it’s image overhaul with the release of their new website. The firm continues to expand and found its previous website falling behind the times so having completed the move across town to new premises decided now was the time to revamp its online presence . Niyi Idowu, one of the firm’s founding Partners, said:“We...

Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG)

A Government guarantee scheme is still a best kept secret according to ATN Partnership - and Gravesend businesses are missing out. Securing the money you need to do the things that you want has always been part of the reality of running any business but banks often want security before they will consider lending which is a problem for those businesses who can’t offer any. But a relatively little known government scheme that has been knocking around for years provides the answer and allows smal...