You need to read – Business Accountant Magazine!

cover-April2016

This is a fantastic free online magazine packed with useful advice for accountants and business owners.

http://www.uk-accountant.org/wp-content/uploads/Flipbook%20April%202016/data/mobile/index.html

It’s the second edition published by the Association of UK Accountants

It’s been written in jargon free way to help you get a better understanding of accounting and tax rules, this issue is 30 pages.

The articles are written by CIMA CGMA Accountants in Practice.

Take a look and see what you think

steve@bicknells.net

 

10 things a Business Accountant will tell you when you start your own business

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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

http://www.sage.co.uk/~/media/markets/uk/images/business-advice/infographic-starting-your-business.gif

  • Choose the best VAT Scheme you might be better off with Flat Rate or Cash Accounting
  • Choose the most suitable accounting software

Accounting Clients

  • Don’t mix up Business and Personal Expenses – always have separate bank accounts
  • Reconcile your Bank Transactions regularly – its easy to forget what you have spent checking the bank account keeps you in control
  • Understand and manage your cash cycle – how long does it take to get paid and what credit terms do you suppliers give you?
  • Manage customer payments and make it easy to pay your invoices
  • Understand and Comply with rules like National Minimum Wage and Holiday Pay
  • Understand and set money aside for Tax, don’t be late paying your tax
  • Have a Business Plan and Forecast it will improve your chance of success

steve@bicknells.net

Contact Us

Business Accountant Magazine Launched

Magazine

Starting a magazine is a big undertaking and the Association of UK Accountants CIC has been working on it for months. Its funded by Advertorials.

The Association is run by Volunteers, the Directors, Editor and Assistant Directors give their time for free, we work to help and support CIMA Members in Practice and the 6 monthly Magazine is designed to provide practical tips and advice written by CIMA Members in Practice to help those in practice with compliance and to widen their skills and knowledge.

Click on this link to read it http://www.uk-accountant.org/wp-content/uploads/flipbook/1/mobile/index.html

Special thanks go to our Editor Joy Quarrie for making the Magazine a reality.

CIMA MiPs are invited to join the Association for Free

https://mybusinessaccountant.com/membership/mfm-join/#account/join

Or we have a Premium Membership which has additional benefits

As a Community Interest Company run by Volunteers all the profits are use to create benefits and resources for CIMA MiPs.

If you have services you would like to advertise and promote to AUKA members please drop me an e mail steve@uk-accountant.org

Can you cope with Auto Enrolment?

Retro Drama Woman

A survey by AutoenrolSME found that 6 out 10 businesses can’t cope and hired additional staff to manage the process!

A Poll in April 2014 of 200 businesses with 62 to 249 employees found:

63% of the employers didn’t know when their staging date was.
58% had not set up an auto-enrolment pension scheme.
90.5% of employers without an auto-enrolment pension scheme hadn’t even started researching one.

If you think you can ignore Auto Enrolment, think again, The Pensions Regulator will make you comply……..

Non-statutory action
We can issue guidance and instruction by telephone, email, letter and in person. Or we can send a warning letter confirming a set time frame for compliance with the duties.
Statutory notices
Statutory notices can direct you to comply with your duties and / or pay any contributions you have missed or are late in paying. We have further discretionary powers which allow us to estimate and charge interest on unpaid contributions and direct you to calculate and / or pay unpaid contributions.
Penalty notices
We can issue penalty notices to punish persistent and deliberate non-compliance.
A fixed penalty notice will be issued if you don’t comply with statutory notices, or if there’s sufficient evidence of a breach of the law. This is fixed at £400 and payable within a specific period.
We can also issue an escalating penalty notice for failure to comply with a statutory notice. This penalty has a prescribed daily rate of £50 to £10,000 depending on the number of staff you have.
We can issue a civil penalty for cases where you fail to pay contributions due. This is a financial penalty of up to £5,000 for individuals and up to £50,000 for organisations.
Where employers fail to comply with a compliance notice or there is evidence of a breach, we can issue a prohibited recruitment conduct penalty notice. This is currently set at a maximum fixed daily rate of £5,000 for organisations with over 250 staff. We aim to fully recover all the penalties that we issue.
Court action
We can take civil action through the court to recover penalties.
Employers who deliberately and wilfully fail to comply with their duties may be prosecuted.
We can also confiscate goods where there is a criminal conviction and restrain assets during criminal investigations.

The first case was Dunelm http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/section-89-dunelm.pdf

Research shows that Accountants are most likely to be asked to help SME’s and Business Accountant (a service provided by CIMA Members in Practice) have created a booking service to assist SME’s in getting help http://business-accountant.com/auto-enrolment/

So don’t be scared by Auto Enrolment, don’t delay drawing up a project plan, take action now to avoid problems with the Pension Regulator later!

steve@bicknells.net

 

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