News & Events

Reading Time | < 1 min 10 May 2016

Pensions tracing website launched

The Pension Tracing Service has launched a new website to assist people in finding their lost pension savings.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that the new website and service will provide an easy way for people to trace hard-earned savings.

Individuals can enter their former employers’ details into an online database followed by contact details for pension schemes that they may have paid into.

The website for the new service can be found here.

DWP has currently estimated £400 million in unclaimed pension savings, including money people previously saved for retirement.

The pension tracing service is a free service available to everyone, enabling people to search the database of more than 320,000 pension scheme administrators.

Minister for Pensions, Baroness Ros Altmann said:

“People have had on average 11 jobs during their working life which can mean that have as many work place pensions to keep track of.

“The new DWP online Pension Tracing Service helps reunite people with their lost pensions, giving details of providers to help people track them down.”

Talk to us today to discuss your retirement planning.

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Reading Time | < 1 min 09 May 2016

Confirmation statement to replace annual return

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A new confirmation statement is due to replace the annual return from June 2016.

Companies will be required to provide information to the registrar at least once a year. This can be delivered as a confirmation statement.

Unlike annual returns, there are no set dates to submit a confirmation statement during the year. However, no more than 12 months can be passed from the original statement when submitted.

Companies will need to ‘check and confirm’ their information and inform Companies House if any changes would like to be made.

The differences between the confirmation statement and the annual return include:

where elections have been made to keep any legal registers at Companies House, a statement confirming all information on those registered will need to be submitted
where a company is exempt from keeping a PSC register, a statement is required of the fact that it is exempt, unless the information has not changed since it was last provided
a requirement to supply the information on a company’s PSC register, unless the company is exempt or has elected to keep its PSC register at Companies House.

All companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPS) must now keep a register of persons with significant control (PSC).

Companies are required to record the information of individuals with significant control on a PSC register and filed with Companies House from 30 June 2016.

Contact us today to discuss business compliance.

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Reading Time | 2 mins 09 May 2016

Introducing BHP Prosper

Reading Time • 2 minsBHP Prosper is an innovative and unique concept which provides extensive and highly effective financial, technical and commercial support to Small and Medium Sized enterprises, at a fraction of the usual cost.

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Reading Time | < 1 min 06 May 2016

The enterprise bill becomes law

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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.”

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Reading Time | < 1 min 05 May 2016

Call for businesses to bear more responsibility for online scams

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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.”

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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.

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Reading Time | < 1 min 03 May 2016

Parents loan £5 billion to children each year

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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.

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Insights

Pensions tracing website launched

Confirmation statement to replace annual return

Introducing BHP Prosper

The enterprise bill becomes law

Call for businesses to bear more responsibility for online scams

Taxbreaks – May 2016

Charity Accounts – is the lesson being learned?

Changes to annual accounting regulations for businesses

Parents loan £5 billion to children each year

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