Business news and opinion from Evans Weir | Page 6

It is with sadness that we share the news that Christine Plumbridge passed away on Sunday 18th June 2023, following a short illness.

It is not uncommon for a director to loan a company money to assist with growth, asset purchases or cash flow matters. But loans into and out of the company accounts to a Director need careful management.

It’s hard to turn the television on or look at content on the internet these days without seeing various reports about the encroachment of AI into modern life and the potential risks it poses. But for many SMEs it can seem like pie in the sky and not something they’re likely to come into contact with. But is that actually the case or do SMEs need to consider if and how AI can support their businesses?

With house prices at all time highs, mortgage rates on the increase and disposable incomes under pressure, the property rental market has been booming as individuals, couples and families choose to rent rather than buy. If you’re thinking of buying a property to rent or you’re switching your current property to a rental as part of a relocation, you’re going to need to know about the tax implications of doing so.

Some positive news has emerged regarding the economy as early Spring marked an upturn in the number of mortgage applications being approved. The figures are encouraging as they come off the back of an extended period of below average lending for house purchases, viewed by the government as one of the mainstays of the British economy.  

A bank reconciliation is an important part of the daily accounting function for any business. In essence it is a matching process whereby you link the receipt of funds into your bank account with a sales invoice or payment of funds with a purchase.

If you’re thinking of selling your business, one of the key questions you may ask is what tax I will pay on the money I receive? It’s a fair question too. Afterall, if you’ve been building the business for many years, you’ll want to ensure you see maximum benefit from the risk and hard work you’ve undoubtedly had to put into it.

There are a number of reasons for running your own business. It may be the flexibility of working hours, the opportunity to work for yourself or a wish to build something to pass on to the family. But whatever your driver for starting out, one thing is for sure, you’re most likely not doing it all for free. As well as securing a regular income for you and your employees, you’ll be looking to build value into your business. This value is called the equity.

The freeze on income tax thresholds is creating a series of tax cliff edge situations for middle income earners according to analysts. The Chancellor has made clear that the income tax thresholds will not change for a ‘few years’ meaning thousands of people are finding themselves paying more tax as their pay increases move them into the next bracket or create effective tax rates through loss of other income streams.

News that HMRC has pulled in almost £650m due to complex inheritance gifting rules in the past three years, has once again highlighted the need for careful estate planning by families. Whilst the overall tax receipts from Inheritance Tax (IHT) between April 2022 and February 2023 were £6.4 billion, the focus of this latest news is on the proportion collected as a result of gifts made by the deceased in the period leading up to their death.

When you split a business to avoid registering for VAT it is called disaggregation and HMRC can perceive this to be deliberate tax avoidance, which carries penalties and could see them treating all the individual businesses as a single entity and taxing them all equally. However, there are legitimate situations whereby disaggregation is acceptable and appropriate.

How on earth do you deliver an economy boosting budget when there’s no spare cash for headline grabbing giveaways, you have double digit inflation, you may or may not be heading into a recession, there’s war in Europe and the country is still struggling to recover from the impact of Brexit and the Covid pandemic? That was the uphill challenge facing Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, when he stood up on 15th March to deliver his Spring Budget.