News & Events

Reading Time | < 1 min 06 May 2016

The enterprise bill becomes law

The enterprise bill received royal assent on 4 May 2016 and officially became the enterprise act.

The act looks to deliver a range of measures such as reforming business rates, tackling late payments and improving the quality of apprenticeships.

The following measures from the act will be introduced:

establish a small business commissioner to help firms resolve issues such as late payments
set up regulators and increase transparency through annual reporting requirements
improving business confidence and grow by extending the primary authority scheme
protect and strengthen apprenticeships, introducing targets for public sector bodies and set up an “Institute for Apprenticeships”
legal obligation for insurers to pay claims to businesses on time.

The enterprise bill was introduced on 16 September 2015 and received royal accent on 4 May 2016. Some of the measures will commence automatically, while others will require secondary legislation.

Business secretary Sajid Javid said:

“The Enterprise Act will help deliver the growth and security that benefits every single person in the country. It is proof that this government is delivering on its commitment to back the business owners who are the real heroes of our economic recovery.”

Talk to us today about your business.

Read full article

Reading Time | < 1 min 05 May 2016

Call for businesses to bear more responsibility for online scams

Reading Time • < 1 min

Businesses have been urged to take greater responsibility in protecting customers from online fraud and scams.

6 in 10 people have been targeted by online fraud and scams in the past 12 months, according to research by Which?

The government launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce in February 2016 to improve businesses across all sectors to protect the customers from fraud and scams.

The research also found that consumer behaviour is being affected by the fear of scams. 50% of those surveyed reported staying away from online products, services and apps for fear of being targeted by scammers.

3 of the most common online scams identified include:

phishing emails claiming to be from a bank or payment service
messages that seek money for services or help
bogus computer support.

Which? has called on the Joint Fraud taskforce to:

find out if businesses are taking responsibility to protect their customers from fraud and scams
what improvements should be made to the processes, systems and practices
recommendations by the end of the year to implement the solutions.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said:

‘When we know that even the savviest people can be scammed by fraudsters, it's vital that everything possible is done by businesses to better protect consumers. And where firms haven't done enough to protect their customers, it's entirely right that the responsibility to put things right should be with them.”

Contact us today to discuss insurance.

Read full article

Reading Time | 4 mins 05 May 2016

A number of important changes to the way that small and medium-sized companies prepare and file their accounts with Companies House have been introduced.

The Companies, Partnerships and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2015 came into force on 6 April 2015.

Small and medium-sized companies can no longer file abbreviated accounts to Companies House. Smaller businesses can still prepare micro entity accounts, while others can prepare abridged accounts for members within the company.

The regulations apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016, while some companies may choose to apply earlier for accounting periods on or after 1 January 2015.

Other changes include:

required statement - to deliver small company abridged accounts to indicate that the members have agreed to the abridgement
changes to small company size threshold – for small companies the turnover limit rises from £6.5m to £10.2m and the balance sheet total limit rises from £3.26m to £5.1m
changes to medium-sized company threshold – turnover limit rises from £25.9m to £36m and the balance sheet total limit rises from £12.9m to £18m
employees – the total number of employees remains at 50 for small companies and 250 for medium sized companies.

Contact us today to discuss your accounting obligations.

Read full article

Reading Time | < 1 min 03 May 2016

Parents loan £5 billion to children each year

Reading Time • < 1 min

Parents looking to help their children purchase their first home will loan an estimated £5bn in 2016, according to research from Legal & General (L&G).

The “bank of mum and dad” and financial support from family and friends is expected to help fund £77 billion worth of housing purchases this year.

L&G claims that 25% of all mortgage transactions – at an average amount of £17,500 – will be funded through inter-family loans.

The main ways buyers receive help from their family and friends are:

a gift (57%)
a loan with no interest (18%)
a loan with interest (5%).

L&G has also warned that the average loan size could wipe out more than half of family net wealth by 2035 – leading to a lack of disposable funds available to help young people onto the property ladder.

L&G chief executive Nigel Wilson said that the “bank of mum and dad” plays a vital role in helping young people take their first steps onto the housing ladder.

However Wilson warned of important issues such as house prices being “out of sync with wages”.

"We need to fix the housing market by revolutionising the supply side - if we build more houses, demand can be met at a sensible level and prices will stabilise relative to wages."

Talk to us today about gifting assets to your family.

Read full article

Reading Time | < 1 min 03 May 2016

Apprenticeship levy could lead to businesses abandoning training

Reading Time • < 1 min

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called for a ‘radical rethink’ of the apprenticeship levy ahead of its April 2017 introduction.

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general has warned of fundamental flaws to the levy’s guidelines which could encourage employers to abandon their existing training programmes in order to cover the levy’s costs.

From 6 April 2017, businesses with annual earnings of more than £3 million will need to pay a 0.5% levy to fund apprenticeships.

Employers will also receive a £15,000 allowance, available through the Digital Apprenticeship Service to offset the levy costs.

The CBI has called for the following:

stronger role for the institute for apprenticeships, including measuring and managing the system around the levy
more flexibility on the levy and the way it is spent, including training and high quality support
the digital system for managing levy spend needs to support the delivery of apprenticeship training for businesses.

Fairbairn, added:

“Currently, the levy misunderstands training only as apprenticeships and the current design encourages firms to rebadge their existing programmes.

“Companies are having to change the ‘spec’ of graduate or management training schemes - programmes that are working perfectly well - just to fit apprenticeship standards.

“The government needs to work with business to resolve these issues before the levy launches. This means taking the time to get this right to design a flexible, business-led system – through the Institute – that encourages employers to spend on quality training opportunities.”

Talk to us today to find out more about the apprenticeship levy.

Read full article

Reading Time | < 1 min 29 Apr 2016

Rise of self-employed could result in retirement problem

Reading Time • < 1 min

Increasing self-employment could lead to long-term retirement problems in the future, the Federation of Small Business (FSB) has warned.

Less than a third (31%) of the 1,600 self-employed workers surveyed reported that they were saving into a private pension, while 27% are planning to rely on their business to fund their retirement.

15% suggested that do not currently have retirement savings of any kind.

FSB also found:

‘security of income’ was the biggest challenge for the self-employed with 18% reporting that they don’t know how much income they will have from ‘month to month’
income levels were diverse with 32% claimed to earn more than £2000 per month. 41% claimed to earn under £1000 while 19% said they earned less than £500 a month.

Self-employment in the country is at its highest record, up from 12% of the workforce in 2000 and 8% in 1980.

Mike Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said:

“It has never been easier to go it alone and self-employment now stands at the highest level since records began. This should be celebrated as it brings freedom and flexibility to millions of people.

“Yet policymakers have been slow to respond to the boom in self-employment and are therefore playing catch up. If we do not act now to adapt to this changing workforce, we will only be shoring up problems for the future.”

Contact us today to discuss self-employment.

Read full article