Category: Business

The number of people choosing to become self-employed has continued to grow, making up 15% of the total workforce. Now numbering a record 4.6 million, the self-employed population has increased by 80,000 since 2008. The analysis by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills also shows that becoming self-employed is proving increasingly attractive to older … Continued

From 6 April 2016 it is being proposed that a shareholder will not be able to engage in a similar trade or activity for two years after receipt of a capital distribution. The new legislation will consider any capital distributions, following the winding up of a company as income as opposed to capital, if, within … Continued

As we have previously reported The Act contains a number of measures which together represent significant change for companies and Companies House customers. The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act received Royal Assent in March 2015. It’s expected to be implemented to the timescales set out in details at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-small-business-enterprise-and-employment-bill-is-coming We have been notified that the date … Continued

In the Summer Budget it was announced that mortgage interest relief for buy to let landlords would start being phased out from 2017/18 onwards and restricted to basic rate only from 2020/21. Now that the Finance Bill has been published the full impact of this change is starting to emerge and for some landlords this … Continued

Care needs be taken when invoicing if your business makes supplies, some of which are standard rates and others which are potentially zero rated or exempt for VAT. A recent VAT Tribunal case has reinforced the rule established in the Card Protection Plan case that if the supply comprises a single service from an economic … Continued

Small and micro-sized businesses can apply for government vouchers of up to £5,000 for specialist advice to boost their cyber security, and to protect new business ideas and intellectual property. The vouchers enable firms to access services from the UK cyber security industry. This new scheme will also help businesses to adopt Cyber Essentials, the … Continued

Ombudsman Services is launching a new service that will accept all consumer complaints. The newly created consumer ombudsman will be able to receive complaints relating to the conduct of sectors that don’t have a current ombudsman. This includes retail, home maintenance, improvement or installation services, second-hand cars, car repairs and car servicing. The ombudsman is … Continued

In line with the government’s commitment to free data, Companies House announced recently that all public digital data held on the UK register of companies is now accessible free of charge, on its new public beta search service. This provides access to over 170 million digital records on companies and directors including financial accounts, company … Continued

A plan to improve the productivity of UK businesses has been published by the Treasury. The policy document identifies 2 key areas to stimulating productivity in the UK: long-term investment and a dynamic economy. Among the measures included in the strategy are: the government aims to increase business investment by lowering personal and business taxes, … Continued

When the United Kingdom replaced local GAAP with a new standard based on the IFRS for SMEs in 2013, the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (FRSSE) was retained. Now the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued a suite of changes that update and, in many cases simplify, UK and Ireland accounting standards and include … Continued