If you have responsibility for budgeting in your business, the events of the last couple of years will undoubtedly have kept you busy and will probably have thrown some challenges your way. You’re not alone. Businesses everywhere are struggling to set and maintain accurate budgets, beset on all sides by world events and economic trends.
So how do you budget effectively, and more to the point accurately, with so many external influences at play?
As costs continue to rise, some employees may be considering ways of increasing their household incomes to help manage the pressure. One means of achieving this could be seeking additional employment, over and above their main/primary job. How should you prepare for the inevitable discussions and what can you do to support your staff?
Back in 2015, then Chancellor George Osborne, shook up the dividend taxation system, overhauling an area of economic policy that had not been touched for years. But now the present day Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has signalled what appears to be the death knell for the allowance as he set out plans in November 2022, to reduce it to just £500 in the 2024/25 tax year.
The Chancellor’s budget announcement that personal allowances and the threshold for the higher rate tax band will be frozen until April 2028, will see thousands more individuals paying higher levels of tax as a result. It is estimated that the move will see more than 200,000 (two-hundred-thousand) individuals moving into the higher rate tax band alone.
It has been calculated that some top earners, with a salary in excess of £100k, could end up paying an effective tax rate of more than 90% as a result of the recent changes to the additional rate threshold announced in the Autumn Statement cum Budget.
With an uncertain economic outlook, it’s a great time to get on top of company finances and refocus on your budget plans. But where do you start with budgeting and what should you look out for? Our handy 3 step guide will help you plan and execute your budget and stay on top of your finances.
Whilst we’re happy to act as a virtual accounts’ office, we always say to our clients that it’s fine to outsource all your accounts work but please don’t outsource your thinking. Keep an active understanding as to what is happening and remain aware of your obligations. A recent tribunal between a company owner and HMRC has demonstrated the importance of knowing what’s going on – even if you choose to outsource.
One of the problems with historical records is they sound grand but often end up obfuscating other historical records. The announcement by The Bank of England on 3rd November that interest rates were to rise by three-quarters-of-one-percent (0.75%) meant that this was the biggest single jump in rates for more than three decades, thirty three years to be precise. Whilst not ignoring the significance of this move, it could allow us to forget that this also brings to an end one of the longest periods of low interest rates in history.
If there’s one thing the recent hokey cokey of Chancellors and fiscal policy has achieved it has to be a rigorous testing of our sentiment towards taxation. Whilst it is hard to imagine that anyone has found this funny or even useful for personal and commercial planning purposes, as a research case study it provides tremendous insight on public opinion and our threshold for taxation.
From October 2022, HMRC is extending the ability for companies to make regular payments via Direct Debit, specifically for PAYE and national insurance contribution liabilities.
If you’re in the process of writing a will or starting to talk to you family about what your estate looks like, then you may be asking yourself how you can reduce the amount your heirs will be paying in IHT.
A court case decided earlier this year has provided a fundamental change to the way that holiday pay is calculated for casual and part time workers. Companies previously paying holiday based on a percentage calculation must now use the calendar method, assessing holiday pay based on the average number of hours worked over the last year.