Happy With Our Service? Write a testimonial & receive £10 off!
If you are happy with our service we’d love to hear about it because we’re putting together a page of customer testimonials on our website. They need only be short if you haven’t got much time, but more detailed comments are fine too! As a thank you, you’ll receive a £10 off voucher which you can offset against your next Taxfile bill. Please submit your testimonial via this simple form. Many thanks!
If you’re not happy, of course please let us know right away and we can work out how to put things right. We want all of our customers to be happy and any feedback will help us to improve our services. Again, many thanks.
Save time on your bookwork, at no extra cost
At Taxfile we know that book work isn’t your top priority so we’re currently implementing a new system that will save you time on your book work (without costing you a penny extra) and also allow us to provide a better service to you.
Bankstream is a new service that, with your permission, enables us to securely collect electronic copies of your bank statements directly from your bank so as to make the analysis of your expenses and income much easier and faster. You continue to receive your statements as normal but no longer need to provide us with copies of them. Bankstream does not give us access to your banking account so doesn’t give us the ability to create, amend or affect transactions on your account (no passwords or PINs will ever be requested from you — it’s completely safe). It simply gives us an additional electronic copy of your historical bank transactions so as to make accounting analysis easier and faster.
The Bankstream service itself is FREE to Taxfile customers (we absorb the cost). If you are interested in spending less time on your book work, ask us for a Bankstream Authority Form. Call 0208 761 8000 or find out more here.
Save Money — Beat the December Price Increase!
If you are the director of a Limited company, in a partnership or are self-employed, your personal tax return is due on 31 January 2015. You are strongly advised to supply your records, bank statements, receipts etc. to our Dulwich office in South London as soon as possible, please, so that you are not caught in a last-minute rush — Taxfile has several hundred tax returns to complete, so the earlier the better. Some limited company ‘year end’ accounts will also fall due on 31 December 2014 or 31 January 2015. For those businesses, it’s exactly the same message — time is of the essence.
As an added incentive, if you get your accounting records to Taxfile before 1st December, you will beat the December price rise. Taxfile has held its prices for several years now and Read more
Autumn Newsletter Ready to Download
We have just completed our Autumn newsletter for customers and anyone else interested in our services and potential ways to save money on accounting, bookkeeping and tax for small and medium-sized businesses. Included in this edition are some time-sensitive articles including ways to avoid a small price increase if you act fast, ways to save time on your bookwork by using something called ‘Bankstream’ which is supplied free to Taxfile customers, how to get an early bird fee reduction if you submit your records to us before the end of December, a reminder about the free ‘tax enquiry fee protection’ service available to our customers (a couple of small provisos apply) and lastly a ‘mind map’ diagram showing interesting and useful information about our lovely multi-lingual staff. Download the newsletter here (Acrobat PDF file: right-click to save the PDF to your hard drive then open it in Acrobat Reader. Alternatively left-click the link to view the newsletter directly in most browsers).
Automatic Enrolment for WorkPlace Pensions: Many SMEs Are Still Confused
Back in April we wrote about the new Workplace Pensions and Automatic Enrolment. Since then some concerning information has been brought to light following some research by HW Fisher & Company:
- 67% of the 750 SMEs responding to the survey said that they have no idea when their ‘Staging Date’ is;
- 49% of them said that they understand little or nothing about the preparations they will have to make;
- 35% said they don’t know how to start the process so have done absolutely nothing so far;
- 30% of the respondents are concerned about the set-up costs;
- 32% of them said that they do not know how to gauge the future impact of participating in Workplace Pensions;
- 62% are worried about the costs of continuously having to make employer contributions to staff pensions;
- and 47% voiced concerns about the additional administrative overhead which would be involved managing the scheme.
The findings are not surprising. After all, many SMEs will not have any previous knowledge of dealing with staff pension schemes, nor will they have experience or perhaps even the budget to cover the associated costs. While the reasoning behind the introduction of WorkPlace Pensions and Automatic Enrolment is sound, the reality is that this is likely to become another unwelcome administrative burden for the smaller business owner – and of course it represents Read more
Change to permitted VAT return submission methods
In a vote for common sense, HMRC has finally relaxed its requirements, under certain circumstances, in respect to the methods it allows for submission of VAT returns. Previously almost* all businesses were forced to submit VAT returns on-line while paper and telephone submission methods were phased out forcibly even for those who did not have access to a viable on-line method. We’re pleased to confirm that HMRC are now relaxing submission requirements for those businesses who can show that the on-line method is not a practical one for their particular circumstances, for example based on limitations caused by age, disability, remoteness, quality of internet connection etc. HMRC now requires those unable to file on-line to file by telephone. And if that’s not practical for similar reasons, they may then be able to submit good old-fashioned paper VAT returns. If HMRC decline both methods, the business or individual concerned will be able to appeal if it thinks it has a reasonable reason to do so.
This change of heart follows a tribunal Read more
Workplace Pensions & Automatic Enrolment
Between October 2012 and 2018, all UK employers must have complied with the new government initiative and have enrolled all eligible staff into a new ‘Workplace Pension’, a process known as automatic enrolment. Employers will each be allocated a staging date, which is the date by which they must launch the new Workplace Pension scheme for eligible employees. Failure to comply could mean penalties and enforcement actions being taken against the non-compliant employers.
Who pays in?
- Employees who do not opt out of the scheme* will pay a minimum percentage of their earnings above £5,668 (figure correct at time of writing);
- Employers will also contribute to the pension fund for employees;
- The Government also helps because payments into the scheme are, in effect, tax-free.
What date do employers have to launch the scheme?
The date that the scheme goes live will vary from one employer to another, based primarily on the number of employees in the organisation. Larger employers will launch earlier (from October 2012) while those employing only a few employees will launch later (up to 2018). The exact launch date is known as the ‘staging date’ and employers can find out their own particular staging date by visiting this link and entering their PAYE reference. The Pensions Regulator advises that, once they know their staging date, employers should begin preparations at least 12 months in advance.
A quick PDF guide to preparing for automatic enrolment can be found by right-clicking this link or by visiting the Pensions Regulator help area. Tools for creating an employer’s action plan are also available, here.
Eligible Staff
Eligible staff are employees who Read more
Autumn Statement by the Chancellor
Hot off the press is this recording of the Chancellor, George Osborne’s Autumn Statement made in the House of Commons on Thursday of last week (5 December 2013). In it he addressed Parliament and outlined his ‘fiscally tax neutral’ plans and proposed changes, which will affect the personal tax allowance, married couples who will receive a transferable allowance of £1000, National Insurance Contributions being waived for those employing people under 21, alteration of capital gains tax when applied to non-domiciled landlords who make gains from UK lettings, changes to the ISA limits and much more. For full commentary and finer detail either view the video above or click here to read the full story on Taxfile’s blog. Read more
National Minimum Wage for Interns
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (‘HMRC’) is clamping down on employers who employ interns without paying them at least the National Minimum Wage. While internships are a very important mechanism for students and graduates to gain work experience and to move towards full-time employment, all too often in the past, some companies and organisations have used interns as a way to get work done for free.
So UK employers must now abide by the national minimum wage laws, which covers both interns and those on work experience as well as anyone who can be considered a worker. If they don’t, they may Read more
Business Club Meeting
A Fair Tax On Profits
This event is free of charge to members of the London Southside Chamber of Commerce and their guests.
The presentation should be of interest to anyone seeking a greater understanding of how individuals and businesses are taxed. Guy will outline the expectations of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), illustrating how individuals and organisations share the same responsibilities in calculating profits and managing their tax affairs. He hopes to enliven the debate about how we should deal with the challenge of maintaining profitability and paying tax and will explore the concept of what is fair in today’s society and suggest measures to create a more level playing field.
Date & Venue:
Tuesday 5th February 2013, 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Anthony Gold Solicitors, The Counting House, 53 Tooley Street, London Bridge City, London SE1 2QN
Booking:
Email: gerry@londonscc.co.uk
Phone: 020 3174 0989 or 07958 584479
A free buffet with wine and soft drinks will be served.
Guy Bridger, the speaker, is an accountant and tax advisor with offices in London and in Devon. He has won several awards and has recently been advising the Office of Tax Simplification.