Use this checker to work out which method is best for you.
What you need to know:
you’ll be asked to make estimates about some of your business expenses – you don’t have to give accurate amounts
this checker doesn’t give exact figures to use in your tax return, it gives you an idea of which way of calculating your expenses might be best for you
There are many Dark Forces that can destroy business but you can over come them.
As Yoda said
“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one, a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. …Hmm? On what he was doing.”
If you want to your business to succeed you need to avoid these mistakes and Obi-Wan Kenobi won’t be your only hope
Lack of Planning – Businesses normally start with a great idea but you need to have business model that works and to at least have a basic business plan and cash flow.
Over Trading – this happens when a business expands too quickly for its working capital, when you start a new business its tempting to accept every order without considering whether you can have the resources and the cash to deliver.
Wasted Marketing and Advertising – new businesses are an easy target for marketing companies but its important to stick to the essentials to start with, having a website, e mail and business cards are essential, magazine advertising and other things can be done as the business grows, in the early stages you are experimenting and finding your market so if you spend too much too soon you might promote the wrong things at the wrong price.
Wrong Business Structure – Before you start your business get some advice from your accountant, its important to choose the right structure not just for tax reasons but also for investment and ownership.
Wrong Staff – Choosing the right team is critical for business success, choose staff that have the right skills, the right attitude and are dedicated to the success of the business.
Over Ambitious – All too often businesses plans are over ambitious with sales growing rapidly, often they prove to be unrealistic, when preparing a sales forecast start with your order book and be cautious in your assumptions.
Overheads – Many businesses over spend on overheads for example renting premises too early, work from home, if you can, to minimise costs.
Stock Problems – Buying the wrong stock, under or over stocking are also issues for start ups, try to adopt a ‘just in time’ stock policy.
Getting Paid – A sale is only a sale if you get paid, any one can give things away, make sure you manage your clients and get paid on time.
Competition – Keep an eye on your competitors, they will be watching you and responding to maintain their market share.
Here are some more great quotes from the new Star Wars Movie
The consultation is focusing on Capital Gains Tax (CGT) ways to extract money from companies to create Target Anti Avoidance Rules (TAAR) covering:
A disposal of shares to a third party
A distribution made in a winding up
A repayment of Share Capital including Share Premium
A valid purchase of own shares in an unquoted company
Here are the examples of ‘problems’ HMRC want to resolve, Example 1 is ‘moneyboxing’ and/or ‘phoenixism’ and sometimes involves ‘special purpose vehicles’
Example 2 involves creating a holding company…
The consultation ends on the 3rd February 2016, the results are likely to be controversial!
According to Government figures, there has been a net increase of 146,000 businesses in the past year, taking into account all start-ups, closures, takeovers and mergers. It means more businesses have started than closed.
The Business Population Estimates also show the number of businesses that employ people has grown for the second year running, with 35,000 more at the start of 2015 than in 2014.
Small businesses continue to make up 99.3% of all businesses and generate over £1 trillion turnover for the UK’s economy.
Business Accountants (Association of UK Accountants) are Chartered Management Accountants (CIMA) and when you start your new business they are will tell you:
Choose the right business structure for your business – most businesses start out as sole traders but once they start making profits convert to limited companies, this is because sole traders pay more tax than company structures
This has to be complete madness! but its absolutely correct under new accounting rules – FRS102.
Take a simple example of a £5,000 interest-free loan repayable in three years’ time:
if the market rate for such a loan was, say, 7% then the present value of the loan would be £4,081 (£5,000 x 1/(1.07)3).
Unfortunately, FRS 102 does not contain any requirements about how the above financing shortfall of £919 should be accounted for on initial recognition. It is therefore necessary to consider the particular facts in order to determine the accounting treatment.
In simple terms, the financing shortfall of £919 is either interest income or an interest expense when the loan is made. That then reverses as interest receivable or payable as the discounting unwinds.
The deadline of the 31st January 2016 is fast approaching for filing 2014/15 Self Assessments online, thousands will probably file late and 50% will leave filing until January.
Here are 10 of the most common problems, issues and errors that come up.
Not leaving enough time to register for Self Assessment – It can take 20 working days (this is usually 4 weeks) to complete the registration process, then for online returns, allow 10 working days (21 if you’re abroad) to register because HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) posts you an activation code.
Lost Login details – Your account will be locked for 2 hours if you enter the wrong user ID or password 3 times.If you’ve lost both your user ID and password:
individuals in Self Assessment can request new ones (allow 7 days to get them by post) or sign up with the GOV.UK Verify trial
Leaving it too late to get help – If you need help from an accountant don’t leave it too late as they will need to carryout AML and other checks before they can file your return, they will also need your UTR
Failing to complete all the parts of the return – For example leaving out PAYE information
Failing to press ‘submit’ – you would be surprised how many people complete the return and then stop without submitting or leave submission and then forget to do it
Missing out details of your Pension Provider
Failing to check the calculation – Most people do a rough calculation of what they owe but fail to check the HMRC calculation only to find out they have made a mistake
Using invalid characters such as # ‘ ” in boxes where these are not allowed
Not paying the tax they owe by 31st January
Failing to explain where estimates and provisional sums have been used
If you have a Business and you want too borrow money, you will probably be asked to give a Personal or Directors Guarantee.
Most Directors don’t want to give guarantees as it makes them liable rather than their business and the purpose of having a limited company was to limit their personal liability.
So it’s a common dilemma.
What can you do to reduce your risk?
Would you be prepared to pay a higher rate of interest? there are are lenders who for an increased rate will agree not to ask for PG’s or DG’s
If you aren’t prepared to give a guarantee you should make this clear upfront with the potential lender, it will save time and money.
Limit the terms of the Guarantee – don’t let the guarantee be unlimited or unconditional
Agree terms for relief – for example when a % of the debt has been repaid
Decrease the Guarantee if the business achieves specific goals, for example a target net worth
Set rules for when the Guarantee can be called on for example when a set number of repayments are missed
Avoid ‘Joint ans Several’ Guarantees as not all business owners may have equal shares
Avoid co-signing by Spouses
Avoid using your main residence in the guarantee
Consider whether Personal Guarantee Insurance could be obtained and used
What are the benefits of Personal Guarantee Insurance in more detail?
It allows directors to balance their risk evenly, so that no one director is taking on all the uncertainty of guarantees being called upon in the future
It can provide the incentive needed to grow the company by borrowing essential monies
This type of insurance is flexible, and can be increased if necessary as your business grows
Personal Guarantee Insurance provides peace of mind to directors that the full value of their personal asset is not at risk
Start-up companies have access to funding that they might not otherwise be comfortable taking on
Bournemouth is a fantastic place, 7 miles of lovely beaches, the UK’s largest shopping park – Castlepoint, close to Poole Harbour, the New Forest and Purbeck, what more could you want.
I love Bournemouth, I have lived here all my live.
According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 183,491 making it the largest settlement in Dorset. The mid-2014 estimate was 191,400. It is predicted to reach 225,000 by 2037, according to the Office for National Statistics’ 2012 (ONS) projections.
It has quite a few accountants too, if you search for Accountant Bournemouth on Google you get a list of 80 practices to choose from, but there are probably many more. There are also hundreds who work in Businesses.
According to Manta there are 5,433 companies based in Bournemouth, there will be many more businesses when you include Sole Traders and Partnerships.
The Local Economy is dominated by
Finance
Banking, Finance and Insurance are the most valuable sectors in Bournemouth’s economy.
JP Morgan established their Global Technology Hub in Bournemouth in the 1980’s and during the late 1980’s I worked as an Assistant Management Accountant in their Financial Management Group. RIAS, McCarthy & Stone and Liverpool Victoria all have their Head Quarters in Bournemouth.
Bournemouth, coming from a very low base, has become the UK’s fastest-growing city in the digital economy
Bournemouth Council states that there are over 400 digital agencies across Bournemouth
These business are among the most suited to use Cloud Based Accounting for example Sage One and Debitoor.
Service Sector
Since 1991 there has been major growth in services up 25.6% in Public Administration, Education and Health.
Tourism
Bournemouth is famous as a seaside resort and 6.88 million visitors came to Bournemouth last year and spend £501 million in the town.
We also have the Bournemouth International Centre – BIC – run by BH Live – BH Live also runs a range of leisure facilities in Bournemouth.
With over 2.5 million visits a year and over £31 million turnover, BH Live is changing lives – placing it at the heart of the UK’s growing social economy. Last year, BH Live hosted 423 shows, sold over half a million cultural, sporting and entertainment tickets, clocked up 1.8 million leisure centre visits and welcomed 88,000 conference and exhibition delegates which contributed over £45 million to the local economy.
Over 600,000 people use our Airport which has flights to over 35 destinations
Bournemouth University
The University has 18,000 students and 2,000 staff
It’s great place for accountants to study and their courses are accredited by the relevant accounting professional bodies – Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Association of International Accountants (AIA), Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT)
According to the local Recruitment Agencies, for example CMA, demand for accountants is high and so are salary levels, take a look at the 2014 CMA Salary Survey
So why is it good to be an accountant in Bournemouth?
Bournemouth is a dynamic and growing business hub, with a high demand for accountants, it’s a fantastic place to live and has endless opportunities for accountants both in business and practice.
Can you think of a reason why you wouldn’t want to be an accountant in Bournemouth?
This year Black Friday will be on 27th November and Cyber Monday will be on 30th November 2015.
Shopify explain what Black Friday and Cyber Monday are….
Black Friday
This one you’ve probably heard of before… it’s the day after American Thanksgiving. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Many brick-and-mortar stores open up early and offer wild deals that are similar to, or even bigger than “Boxing Day” sales which you may be familiar with.
An estimated £810 MILLION was splashed out on Black Friday in the UK last year – more than double the year before – as websites crashed and people fought in the aisles to grab deals, so as you plan your shopping spree we have all the information you need. (mirror)
This year Black Friday will happen on Friday 27th November. However, some retailers will start their week of deals on Monday 23th November.
Cyber Monday
This is the Monday immediately following Black Friday. Cyber Monday works on the same principle as Black Friday, except that it occurs online only.
In 2005, Shop.org coined the term “Cyber Monday” after analyzing increased Internet traffic and sales on the first day that most people return to work after the holiday weekend.
Since its inception, online consumers have started to spread the word about Cyber Monday. Between 2006 and 2011, online sales doubled to over 1.2 billion dollars on Cyber Monday. The success of Cyber Monday has made itself known all around the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and all over Europe.
Last year in the UK
£1.5 billion was spent online
Over £600 million to be spent on Cyber Monday alone
