Business news and opinion from Evans Weir | Page 4

Download a detailed guide to the key tax changes announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget 2024

In a rather combative presentation, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered what is widely expected to be the last budget statement before the general election. With limited headroom and the now usual trail or announcements in the lead up to his commons speech, there were no big surprises arising from this budget. Even the 2p reduction in the National Insurance contribution paid by employees, which was supposed to be his big curtain call announcement, had already been ‘leaked’ before the budget.

After marginal decreases in property values in the latter part of 2023, and with mortgage interest rates still at their highest in more than a decade, some are using the chance to jump out of the property market, downsize or sell second properties and invest the cash.

If you’re thinking of selling property or downsizing and investing the proceeds, there are a few things you need to consider.

Important – If you are self-employed or in a trading partnership and your accounting year end does not match the tax year (April to March), new annual self-assessment reporting changes will impact you from this tax year.

Purchase orders (POs or PORs) often fulfil a key part of the procurement process, but they’re not used routinely by all organisations and there’s no obligation from an accounting perspective to have them – or is there?

New legislation that came into force from 1st January 2024, has left many individuals wondering whether they will end up paying tax on incomes generated through a range of online portals such as eBay and AirBnB. News of the reporting changes for digital portals spread like wildfire across social media with some suggesting this was a back door in for HMRC to begin charging tax on sales of unwanted goods and second-hand clothes. But clarity has now been provided to help online sellers and those renting properties via portals such as AirBnB understand what the new legislation is and when it might see them paying additional tax.

Former United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld might have called Covid an ‘unknown, unknown.’ Nobody saw it coming and when it arrived nobody knew how to react. It was, in economic terms a black swan. Back to the present day and Mr Rumsfeld would probably say, when considering the outlook for 2024, we have a series of known unknowns facing us.

The VAT threshold, the point at which you must register for VAT, has remained at £85,000 for some time despite the fact we’ve seen double digit inflation. There is now concern that this ceiling is stunting economic growth and may be forcing some business to close their doors. The main issue relates to those businesses that have taken an active decision to remain below the threshold because they fear registering for VAT would make them uncompetitive.

In the next blog in his series, HR specialist, Adam Janering MA MCIPD explains how HR can play a pivotal role in helping companies that are facing severe financial challenges and are considering the options available to them.

If you’re a stock-based business, then getting your stockholding and product costings right can be tricky at the best of times. But recently, the effect of high shipping costs, long lead times, material shortages and inflation have made the job even harder. Get it right and you will have a strong cash flow, happy customers, efficient use of space and most importantly, profit on every item you sell! Get it wrong and you risk letting customers down, locking-up valuable working capital and reducing your margins.

It’s December. We’re approaching the end of another year – a clearly defined period with a beginning and an end because a year is a year, right? It has 12 months, 365 days, sometimes 366, or 52 weeks. So why would a financial year be anything different to that and what difference does it make from an accounting perspective?

On Wednesday 22nd November 2023, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement. With an election now on the horizon, he was always going to be hunting for some headlines whilst acknowledging that living costs are still high, inflation is still more than double its target rate of 2%, borrowing and debt remain at near record levels and wars rumble on in Ukraine and the Middle East, creating uncertainty and nervousness in global markets. So, what did he announce and what does it mean for you?