The election’s over, what’s next?
So now we know the outcome of the most unpredictable election in a generation. The question for good businesses is not “How did that happen?”, but “What happens next?” The Tories look like they will be just one seat short of an overall majority. They are likely to form a government without partners, as the opposition is too divided to vote them out, so another 5 years as PM for David Cameron is on the cards. The main opposition is likely to come from within the party. By this, I mean from his euro-sceptic element. It is possible that EU membership becomes the main battle ground for the next five years. This uncertainty will be damaging to business, and my hope is we get to the promised in/out referendum as soon as possible. What does that mean for business? In many ways it is good news for business. The economic…
Budget 2014
With many forecasters predicting a quiet budget, you would think there’s not much to report. Think again. There is a vast amount of change incorporated. This blog sets out the main changes, and some of the points for action that SMEs may want to consider…. General taxation 1.1 Tax thresholds The tax free threshold rises to £10,000, with a further increase to £10,500 in April 2015. The NIC threshold for both employee and employer contributions increases to £153 per week (£663 per month or £7,956 per annum) Action: If you have adopted the traditional low salary/ dividend reward structure you’ll need to adjust the amounts to keep to the most efficient split. 1.2 Savings rate From 2015, the Chancellor has abolished the 10% rate for the first £2,880 of savings income, has made it tax free. He has also extended the band to £5,000. From April 2015, company owners may…
George’s Marvellous (?) Medicine
Introduction George Osborne has just delivered his last Budget speech before the election. As it stands, the election is too close to call, so who knows if he’ll get another opportunity. This was a highly political budget, but included a huge number of changes. I’ll attempt to summarise those changes, and list some action points. Overview The budget has been delivered against a background of higher growth, and lower inflation. This has given the Chancellor a large degree of room for manoeuvre. He has used this to announce a wide range of changes, while continuing to reduce the expected deficit. He now expects to return to a surplus in 2018/19, meaning the national debt will eventually start to fall then. These figures have been based on reasonable growth forecasts of an average of 2.4% per annum over the next Parliament. Changes affecting individuals Income tax The increase in the personal…
Work ON, not IN!
[Originally a guest post on www.owenjonesdesign.com] Introduction It is a real problem when you are doing something you love isn’t it? You set up your business because you are good at something, or you are passionate about it, or both, but you never seem to make progress. You are busy doing what you love, but somehow it’s not as rewarding as you’d thought it would be. Very often, that is because you are working IN, and not ON your business. What’s the difference? If you are going to reap the rewards of your hard work, then you’ll need to balance these two aspects. Before you can do that, you need to understand what they are. Working in the business This is basically doing the stuff for clients/customers that the business was set up to do. For Owen, this is producing high quality design ideas, and implementing them as part of…
A Government give-away (with conditions)
Introduction One of the goods things to come out of recent budgets is the new holiday for Employer National Insurance Contributions (“NIC”). The Employment Allowance allows small and medium enterprises (“SME”) to deduct up to £2,000 from their employer NIC payments. The details The holiday is worth up to £2,000 per annum. This starts on April 6th 2014, and must be claimed by qualifying employers. HMRC are expecting employers to take the deduction as early as possible, so many will see the benefit on 19 May 2014 (when the first payment is NOT made. You can only claim it once, even if you run more than one PAYE scheme. If you are part of a group, only one company can claim the allowance. Who cannot claim? The main exclusions are companies and organisations that provide “public sector” services. These include: NHS services General Practitioner services the managing of housing stock…