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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...

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...