Small businesses in the UK have long been scourged by late payments, but the problem was brought into sharp focus earlier this year following the collapse of construction giant, Carillion, emphasising the importance of careful credit control. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), some suppliers were waiting as long as 120 days to… Read more…

Since March this year, self-employed individuals have had the option of reporting their income digitally to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as part of a pilot of the Government’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme. The Government has long had the ambition of taking most taxes including Income Tax, VAT and Corporation Tax onto a system… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has been granted new powers to help combat online VAT fraud conducted on digital marketplaces. Originally outlined by the Chancellor in the 2017 Autumn Budget, the new powers – known by the term ‘joint-and-several liability’ (JSL) for online marketplaces – strengthen existing arrangements to make online marketplaces accountable for VAT… Read more…

With less than 60 days left until the deadline for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), more than 90 per cent of UK small businesses admit they are not yet fully ready. In fact, a poll conducted by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) found that only eight per cent of SMEs have… Read more…

Working parents across the UK will be delighted to hear that the Government has agreed to a six-month extension of the childcare voucher scheme. It has been estimated that around 80 per cent of working parents may be better off using Childcare Vouchers rather than the new tax-free childcare scheme. The voucher scheme allows employees… Read more…

A scheme, enabling parents of children aged 12 and under to benefit from up to £2,000 towards the cost of childcare, has now been extended to all working parents with children in the age group. The scheme provides a Government top-up worth £2 for every £8 contributed by parents, up to a maximum of £2,000… Read more…

A new study, prepared by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), has found that the UK’s average small business spends nearly three working weeks every 12 months complying with tax rules. This costs SMEs around £5,000 a year on average, according to the survey of 1,000 small businesses. Of the challenges they face, around half… Read more…

An apparently counterintuitive judgement was handed down last month by the Upper Tier Tribunal as it ruled VAT should be applied to the strawberry and banana flavours of Nesquik milk powder, but not to the chocolate equivalent. The case arose after Nestlé, the manufacturer of the powders made a repayment claim to HM Revenue &… Read more…

New data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) shows that businesses in London and the South East account for 66 per cent of the Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) uptake. Despite accounting for 62 per cent of the UK economy, businesses outside London and the South-East only account for £610 million out of nearly £1.9 billion… Read more…