Tag: Accountancy

Secondly,

The second piece of good news is applicable to those clients who are part of the wedding sector.

The Scottish Government has announced that it will increase the money available to assist those businesses in the wedding industry.

“A £25 million fund to support the wedding sector and its supply chain will open to applications this week.

In recognition of the ongoing challenges faced by the sector, a further £10 million has been added to the £15 million announced in December.Launching on Thursday (28 January) the fund will provide one-off grants of up to £25,000 for eligible businesses in the sector impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including wedding venues, photographers, caterers and suppliers”.

For more information please search ‘find business support Scotland’ in your preferred search engine!

Good News for a Monday!

We have two pieces of good news to report today!

Firstly, HMRC today announced that “Self Assessment customers who cannot file their tax return by the 31 January 2021 deadline will not receive a late filing penalty if they file online by 28 February”.

This doesn’t apply to any of our current clients, as we will have everyone completed before the deadline.

It is good news for people who are still looking for an accountant to help them complete their self assessment!

To discuss how we can assist you with your tax return, please email info@caas.org.uk.

Grants for Small Businesses Affected by Covid-19 Pandemic

Grants to help Scottish businesses with COVID-19 impact.

Businesses can now apply for grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The one-off grants are designed to help protect jobs, prevent business closures and promote economic recovery, and more than 90,000 ratepayers across Scotland will be able to benefit.

The grant support is additional to separate tax relief measures and is part of a package of measures worth £2.2 billion.

Small businesses in receipt of the small business bonus scheme or rural relief, as well as hospitality, leisure and retail business can benefit.

Two types of grant are now available to ratepayers:

• a one-off £10,000 grant to ratepayers of small businesses

• a one-off grant of £25,000 available to retail, hospitality and leisure business ratepayers with a rateable value between £18,001 and £50,999

The list is not exhaustive and if businesses think they may be eligible for one of these grants, they should contact their local authority, which are administering the scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes said:

“While our primary concern is for people’s health, it is clear that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak will have severe economic consequences, and we are treating it as an economic emergency.

“We are determined to help keep companies in business and support them and their staff during this difficult time.

“Local authorities are the most efficient way to deliver this and we have worked closely with them to deliver these measures – and eligible businesses can apply now.

“Local authorities will aim to make payments within 10 working days, and I’d like to thank them for their help in ensuring this support is delivered as quickly as possible.

“The COVID-19 situation, however, is both severe and fast-moving and requires a coordinated UK response: I will continue to work closely with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations.”

The one-off £10,000 grant is available to ratepayers of small businesses in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) or Rural Relief, or eligible for SBBS in receipt of Nursery Relief or Disabled Relief, and with rateable value up to £18,000.

The Scottish Government has taken the decision to exclude non-domestic property classifications which are not small businesses in the traditional sense. Examples include Advertising, ATM Sites, Car Parks, Public Toilets.

** The deadline for applications to the Business Support Fund is 31 March 2021 **

Help Available for Self Employed

New self-employed support scheme, headline points:

– Pays 80% of average profits over the last 3 years;
– Up to £2,500 per month for AT LEAST 3 months;
– For those with average profits of £50k or less per year;
– Will not be available until June at the earliest;
– HMRC will write to you if you are eligible;
– The scheme is open to those with a trading profit of less than £50k in 2018-
19 or an average trading profit of less than £50k from 2016-17, 2017-18
and 2018-19
– To qualify, more than half of their income in these periods must come from
self-employment.
– To minimise fraud, only those who are already in self-employment and
meet the above conditions will be eligible to apply. HMRC will identify
eligible taxpayers and contact them directly with guidance on how to apply.

The income support scheme, which is being designed by HMRC from scratch, will cover the three months to May. Grants will be paid in a single lump-sum instalment covering all 3 months and will start to be paid at the beginning of June.

Individuals should not contact HMRC now. HMRC will use existing information to check potential eligibility and invite applications once the scheme is operational.

Those who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company are not covered by the scheme but will be covered for their salary by the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme if they are operating PAYE schemes.

Making Tax Digital – what you need to know!

Making Tax Digital for business, is a Government initiative that will pool all your tax information together in one place, online. The aim is to allow business owners the opportunity to view how much tax they owe – or are due back – at any point throughout the financial year.

 

The scheme should provide:

Accurate Tax Information – digital tax accounts can be verified immediately, in real time; rather than sifting through paper based records.

Reduced Errors – the real time aspect of Making Tax Digital will allow HMRC will to work with your tax information almost immediately, reducing human error from incorrect data input.

Making tax digital should also be:

Easier to understand – HMRC anticipates taxpayers will better understand how much tax is owed from viewing their digital tax account – akin to online banking.

Easier contact with HMRC – online access will make it easier for to contact HMRC via webchats and secure messages.

 

 

The following timeline information is for guidance only, and may be subject to change. 

April 2018 – Quarterly reporting starts for businesses with turnovers more than the VAT Registration Threshold of £85,000

April 2019 – Quarterly reporting starts for businesses with turnovers below the VAT threshold of £85,000. Digital quarterly reporting for VAT also begins

April 2020 – Quarterly reporting for all companies

HMRC have not provided software to allow business owners to report their accounts online, therefore we are proud to be a fully accredited supplier of Intuit Quickbooks.

This software and a variety of others, including but not exclusively – Xero, Kashflow and Sage, provide the tools required to manage your business records digitally.

We have invested in training and developed comprehensive support services to facilitate the change for our client’s business’.

To discuss the scheme in further detail, please call 0141 816 9750 or complete the contact form.