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BUSINESS GUIDES, INSIGHTS, ADVICE & NEWS
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Do I need a PAYE scheme?
If you’re about to hire someone to help out with running your business then it’s time to think about registering them for PAYE. An acronym for Pay As You Earn, the scheme is administered by HMRC and it’s how your employee will pay income tax and national insurance. You have to deduct the amount they…
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Do I need to be VAT registered?
Not every company needs to be registered to pay Value Added Tax (VAT). Only those businesses who meet certain criterion need to go down that route. Essentially this means your taxable turnover is more than £85,000 in a year (fixed until March 2024). Other reasons you will have to register are: If you anticipate reaching…
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How long should I keep my business records for?
Part and parcel of running a business is managing your company accounts. Whether you do that yourself, or hire a professional accountant is immaterial. Just so long as you keep records of any invoices, receipts, expenses, bills, VAT and PAYE records etc that you’ve used to calculate your year-end accounts. This doesn’t just make running…
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Should I Incorporate My Business into a Limited Company?
When you first start out in business it’s usually as a sole trader. Then you find sales really taking off and before you know it – usually within two to three years – you’ve hit that £40,000 plus profits mark. And you really could do with another pair of hands in the business – or…
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Use of Home as Office – Rules and Myths
Post-pandemic more people than ever before have found themselves working from home – at least for some of the week. The ‘hybrid’ model working where it’s common to divide your working day between home and the office is pretty much standard fare for most employees these days. For many freelancers working life didn’t really change…
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What is My Tax Code?
Every employee in the UK has a tax code – regardless of whether you work full-time or part-time. It allows your employer to work out how much income tax and national insurance should be deducted from your wages or private pension. This is via the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system. Only individuals who are…
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Where Can I Find My National Insurance Number?
Everyone working or intending to work in the UK needs a National Insurance (NI) number. That you HMRC are able to deduct National Insurance contributions from your salary. Because of this you’ll find your NI number on your payslip, as well as your P60 (an annual summary of the Income Tax and NI you’ve paid).…
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Why Can’t My Directors Loan Account be Overdrawn?
When a director takes money out of a company and it is not classed as a salary or dividend, then it’s known as a director’s loan. The reason for this is that the money is viewed as a separate entity and not – unlike with a sole trader or partnership account – a straightforward action.…
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Budget 2022 – Detailed Summary
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, today announced changes to income tax, fuel duty and National Insurance in his 2022 Spring Statement, with a backdrop of forecast growth of 3.8% this year, eroded by forecast inflation of 7.4% this year and spend of £83b on debt interest alone. And this is before the full…
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Budget 2022 – Key Headlines
With a backdrop of forecast growth of 3.8% this year, eroded by forecast inflation of 7.4% this year and spend of £83b on debt interest alone, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, today announced changes to income tax, fuel duty and National Insurance in his 2022 Spring Statement. However, many may find themselves somewhat…
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What protection do you have against a HMRC enquiry?
Each year HM Revenue & Customs (‘HMRC’) undertake an enormous number of tax enquiries into individuals and businesses to check they have paid the right amount of tax, both on a random and a selective basis. Since 2010 HMRC have strengthened their approach from this point of view and the general trend has been a…
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MTD 2022 update
Making Tax Digital (‘MTD’) is an HMRC initiative attempting to transform the UK tax system, with more regular and detailed submissions of information and payments of tax to HMRC electronically. Whilst it has been delayed several times, it aims to make tax administration more effective, efficient, and easier for taxpayers through the implementation of a…