Category: Accounting

When can you make a Prior Year Adjustment?

Accounting Standards

Until FRS102 basically an error had to be Fundamental for a Prior Year adjustment to be justified

‘Fundamental’ is defined in paragraph 63 of FRS 3 as an error of such significance as to destroy the truth and fairness and hence validity of a set of financial statements
Or you could make a change as a result of a change in Accounting Policy.
This position is about to change with arrival of FRS 102. Paragraph 10.21 states that ‘an entity shall correct a material prior period error retrospectively in the first financial statements authorised for issue after its discovery’. This means that, on adoption of FRS 102, the threshold for correcting an error by use of a prior period adjustment has reduced from fundamental to material (ICAEW)
The ACCA have a useful factsheet on prior year adjustments – Factsheet 188
steve@bicknells.net

Is my Grant Capital or Revenue?

Businessman With Gold Bar

A grant is an amount of money given to an individual or business for a specific project or purpose.

You can apply for a grant from the government, the European Union, local councils and charities.

Advantages include:

  • you won’t have to pay a grant back or pay interest on it
  • you won’t lose any control over your business

Financial assistance in the form of grants is subject to the normal taxation rules, as supplemented by S105 Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 and S102 Corporation Tax Act 2009 (see BIM40465). Under normal rules the tax treatment of grants will depend on whether they are capital or revenue.

Revenue grants

Grants which meet revenue expenditure, such as interest payable, are normally trading receipts.

See also Smart v Lincolnshire Sugar Co. Ltd [1937] 20TC643 and Burman v Thorn Domestic Appliances (Electrical) Ltd [1981] 55TC493.

Capital grants

Grants which meet capital expenditure are normally not trading receipts.

Grants that may be capital in nature include those paid to acquire capital assets or to facilitate the cessation of a trade or part of a trade.

See The Seaham Harbour Dock Co. v Crook [1931] 16TC333).

A capital grant reduces any qualifying capital expenditure for capital allowance purposes, see CA14100.

See BIM40451 for more details

The Accounting Rules are set out in section 24 of FRS102, neatly explained by Steve Collings in his blog, click here to read it

steve@bicknells.net

What is Overlap Profit?

what

Overlap Profit affects Sole Traders and Partnerships, here are a couple of examples from BIM81080

Example 1 – one overlap period

A business commences on 1 October 2010. The first accounts are made up for the 12 months to 30 September 2011 and show a profit of £45,000.

The basis periods for the first three tax years are:

2010-2011 Year 1 1 October 2010 to 5 April 2011
2011-2012 Year 2 12 months to 30 September 2011
2012-2013 Year 3 12 months to 30 September 2012

The period from 1 October 2010 to 5 April 2011 (187 days) is an `overlap period’.

Example 2 – more than one overlap period

The business in Example 1 continues. In 2015-2016 the accounting date is changed from 30 September to 30 April. The accounts for the 12 months to 30 September 2014 show a profit of £75,000. The relevant conditions for a change of basis period are met (see BIM81045).

The basis periods are:

2014-2015 Year 5 12 months to 30 September 2014
2015-2016 Year 6 12 months to 30 April 2015
2016-2017 Year 7 12 months to 30 April 2016

The period from 1 May 2014 to 30 September 2014 (153 days) is an `overlap period’.

If the taxable profit for 2015-2016 is computed using days, it includes the profits for the `overlap period’ of 153 days (£75,000 x 153/365 = £31,438).

Adding together the overlap profits for the first overlap period of 187 days in Example 1 (£23,054) and the second overlap period of 153 days (£31,438), gives total overlap profits of £54,492 over 340 days.

Tax Cafe point out in their guide ‘Small Business Tax Saving Tactics‘

Why Hasn’t Everyone ‘Cashed In’ Their Overlap Relief Already?

There are two ways to gain access to your overlap relief: cease trading or change your accounting date.

Ceasing to trade is a drastic step: generally not something you are likely to do purely for tax planning purposes. However, it is worth noting that transferring your business to a company is also classed as ‘ceasing to trade’ for these purposes.

Changing your accounting date to access your overlap relief is less drastic, but the downside is that the relief only arises where you are being taxed on more than twelve months’ worth of profit. Despite this, however, there is still generally an overall saving to be made where current profits are at a lower level than the profits arising when the ‘overlap’ first arose. So, with the economy in the state it’s in, now could be a good time to ‘cash in’!

There is also some useful advice in Helpsheet HS222

steve@bicknells.net

Putting your accounts on Debitoor

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I have just signed up to the Premium Pro Debitoor Account, I wanted to have online access and did a comparison to Xero, Sage, Kashflow and Free Agent. I thought Debitoor was excellent value for money (£9/mth for Premium Pro) and I have long been a fan of their online invoicing.

Debitoor is an easy-to-use invoicing and accounting software which helps freelancers and small businesses produce nice-looking, professional invoices in a matter of seconds and assists them in their accounting.

Debitoor is designed for straight forward businesses so if your business is complicated then its probably not the best option for you.

So this is how you get started:

  1. Create your contacts – Clients and Suppliers
  2. Create your Products
  3. Enter the opening balances on the balance sheet (reports) – Debitoor currently only works in calendar years (Jan to Dec) so if like me your year end falls on a different date you will need to enter the balances in the previous year, in my case my year end is March so I entered the balances in 2014 I will then do a year end and they will become the 2015 opening balances and I started entering invoices and expenses in April. I know that’s not ideal and Debitoor are constantly working on improvements, so its compromise for now.
  4. I then created multiple bank accounts – Lloyds, Directors, PayPal
  5. For expenses that I had an invoice for I uploaded the PDF of the expense
  6. I then uploaded the bank statements for Lloyds and PayPal and reconciled and posted them

I think the priority for all businesses should be issuing and tracking sales invoices and that’s what Debitoor does best.

steve@bicknells.net

 

Free Auto Enrolment Checklist to Maximise Profits

For years, accountants and bureaus have been offering payroll services, taking a massive burden off the hands of their clients. However, the payroll profession has changed dramatically over recent years with the introduction of Auto Enrolment. A significant 1.2 million small and micro businesses are set to start staging between June 2015 and the beginning of 2018. The Pensions Regulator defines small businesses as employers with 5 to 40 workers and micro businesses as having one to four workers.

Brightpay

The thought of choosing the right payroll provider has exasperated with the new AE employer duties that need to be completed. Some software providers are avoiding auto enrolment completely, while others are offering AE features with limited functionality or at a high extra cost. If you have payroll clients they may have an expectation that you will handle the AE setup and ongoing duties for them. For bureaus, it will be important to discuss the options with your clients as early as possible.

Auto Enrolment Functionality

Payroll software will play a vital role in ensuring the success of Automatic Enrolment. Many of the functions necessary to comply with Automatic Enrolment duties are process-driven and can be handled by technology. Your payroll clients will need to access their employees to ascertain who they have to automatically enrol and who will have the right to request to join.

The Pensions Regulator recommends that payroll software should automate the majority of these processes, such as assessing employees’ eligibility, producing employee communications, monitoring employees’ ages, and earnings on ongoing basis, producing the required reports and much more. It will be important to check with your software provider to see if it can handle the requirements of Automatic Enrolment. From that point on, it is all about efficiency and there are several questions that need to be answered first in order to start making a profit from these jobs.

So what should you be looking for in potential payroll software to process AE more efficiently? These 10 questions outline key factors to ease the decision making process.

1. Does it support your chosen AE pension schemes?
2. Will employee assessment be automated?
3. Is enrolling employees problematic or effortless?
4. Can it produce employee communications based on individual’s work status?
5. Does it allow for Postponement?
6. Are employees being continuously monitored by the software?
7. What are the limitations regarding the number of employees or employers that can be set up?
8. Will it make contributions and deductions?
9. Does it allow you to produce the required reports?
10. Are auto enrolment features and support charged at an extra cost?

Discover how the right payroll solution will empower you to improve profit margins and increase the turnaround of clients. This step by step guide details how the correct systems in place with fully optimise their payroll operations for efficiency. Check your have full AE functionality.

 

Download full Guide Here

Written by Karen Bennett for BrightPay Payroll

What are Dispensations and Scale Rate Allowances?

Pay

Its nearly time to prepare your P11D’s, here is a link to the 2014-15 P11D

You’ll need to submit an end-of-year form to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for each employee you’ve provided with expenses or benefits.

The form will either be a P9D or a P11D, depending on the expense or benefit.

You may need to submit form P11D(b) to report the amount of Class 1A National Insurance due on all the expenses and benefits you’ve provided. You should do this if:

  • you’ve submitted any P11D forms
  • you’ve been sent a P11D(b) form by HMRC

If you don’t submit any P11D forms, you can tell HMRC that you don’t owe Class 1A National Insurance by completing a declaration.

Due by 6th July 2015.

As an employer, you can apply for a dispensation on some expenses and benefits you provide for your employees. This means you won’t need to report them to HM Revenue and Customs or pay tax or National Insurance on them. Here is a link to apply for Dispensations.

There are also Benchmark Scale Rates which can be paid tax free, alternative you can claim the actual costs

Description Amount (up to)
Breakfast rate £5
One meal (5 hour) rate £5
Two meal (10 hour) rate £10
Late evening meal rate £15

steve@bicknells.net

What is the optimum tax efficient salary 2015-16?

Entrepreneur startup business model

Many small business owners ask this question, typically they are a sole director and share holder and want to decide from a tax and NI perspective what the optimum salary is (the rest of their income coming from dividends).

The new lower earning threshold for National Insurance is £5,824 per year (£112 per week) for 2015-16, there is an advantage to paying above this level so that you will earn credits towards a state pension. Its expected in current terms that a years credit is worth £225 pension per year for life. Employees start paying NI when earnings are above £155 per week)

The Employment Allowance of £2,000 has been continued into 2015-16 which means you won’t have to pay any employer National Insurance contributions at all if you usually pay less than £2,000 a year.

The personal tax free allowance for 2015-16 is £10,600.

So assuming you aren’t a higher rate tax payer and you haven’t used up the employment allowance on other staff, £10,600 would be the optimum salary because:

Saved Corporation Tax at 20% = £2,120

Employee NI 12% on (£10,600 – £155 x52) = (£304.80)

Saving £1,815.20

Beyond this point income tax is payable at 20%

steve@bicknells.net

Trivial Benefits £50 exemption deferred

Businessman looking at a small present with a magnifying glass

It had been proposed that there will be a new statutory exemption for trivial benefits up to a limit of £50 from from 6 April 2015, this measure is not included in the first Finance Bill of 2015, it has been deferred until after the election.

The £50 tax exemption would have been on items such as birthday and Christmas gifts. The legislation would have also introduced an annual cap of £300 in some circumstances.

So we are stuck with the old rules for now

An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts can be treated as trivial benefits. . For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned. If a benefit is trivial it should not be included in a PSA (EIM21861).

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21863.htm

There are some non taxable benefits you be interested in….

HMRC Helpsheet 207 – Non-taxable payments or benefits for employees

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/helpsheets/hs207.pdf

steve@bicknells.net

Abolition of under 21 NI

hübsche brünette studentin

From 6th April 2015 every employer with employees under the age of 21 will no longer be required to pay class 1 secondary NI on earnings below the upper earnings limit (£815 per week).

In line with the change, HMRC are introducing 7 new National Insurance Table Letters to be used from April 2015 to cater for these employees as follows:

Three of the new letters (V, I and K) will be removed in April 2016 in line with the ending of ‘contracted-out’ status in relation to salary-related occupational pension schemes. [Brightpay]

steve@bicknells.net