Latest News

Hunting Growth

I once asked a successful business owner which was the best type of customer.  The answer was “a client who is experiencing growth”*.

But how can business owners find or switch-on “growth”? Lots of companies want it, but not all attain it. If it was easy to achieve, then everyone would be at it.

HMRC collected extra £3.3bn in unpaid VAT from SMEs

HMRC has collected an extra £3.3bn in unpaid VAT over the last year, following investigations into SMEs. Such successful returns from these enquiries means more are likely to follow, and business owners should ensure that tax affairs are in order as a result.

The extra tax was collected by two newly created specialist HMRC teams, the Individuals & Small Business Compliance unit and the Wealthy & Mid-sized Business Compliance unit.

Is the Lifetime ISA for you?

The Lifetime ISA (LISA) became available to investors under the age of 40 from 6 April 2017. The design of the account has specifically been for a dual purpose:

1. to provide a deposit for a first home (worth up to £450,000) and/or;

2. to save for retirement

The average income in retirement

According to new research from Prudential, people planning to retire in 2017 expect to receive an average annual income of £18,100, but how realistic is it to achieve this figure?

Those relying exclusively on the State Pension to fund their lifestyle in retirement will find themselves some way short of expectations - the maximum level of state pension is rising to £159.55 per week from April (£8,297 per annum) - assuming that they receive the full entitlement, so most will need to make additional provisions to plug the gap.

Proactive succession planning

We recently published our Family Business Insight for 2017 and one of the key highlights was that 38% of businesses are now surviving into 2nd generation and the same number, 38%, plan to pass their businesses on directly to family members. Coincidence?… probably not.

Businesses which proactively plan a succession strategy, involving and engaging with family members, will almost certainly have a far better chance of survival than those that are forced into an unwanted or unexpected strategy.

HMRC putting added pressure on ‘gig economy’ workers as it looks to drive up tax take

HMRC has collected a total of £438m from investigations into self-assessed taxpayers over the last year, highlighting the need for close attention to detail and careful organisation when filing returns, especially for those workers reliant on the ‘gig economy’. The healthy take from investigations means HMRC is likely to continue to conduct enquires of this kind.

Making Tax Digital – are you ready for the biggest change to business administration since VAT?

In the Budget in March 2015, the then Chancellor George Osborne announced that the annual Self Assessment Tax Return was going to be abolished, and individuals and businesses were being brought into the digital age with ’Making Tax Digital’. This has been described as the biggest change to business administration since the introduction of VAT in 1973. Instead of completing an annual Self Assessment Tax Return, information will be submitted to H M Revenue and Customs (HMRC) via a ‘Personal Tax Account’ throughout the year.

National Insurance Contributions U-turn

Commentators were not expecting much in the way of big announcements in the Budget on 8 March. This was partly due to the preoccupation with Brexit, and partly due to this being the last Spring Budget and the expectation that changes to be introduced in April 2018 will be announced in the Autumn Budget.

Brexit – what are the corporate tax implications for companies?

On 29 March 2017 the UK Government triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to formally notify its intention to leave the European Union (“EU”) within a two year period.

Although it is difficult at this stage to provide specific details of how the UK taxation system will be impacted by Brexit, the likelihood is that there will not be any immediate change to direct and indirect taxes. The actual tax impact of Brexit will be better understood once the terms of any Brexit agreement have been concluded with the EU.

Helping the people of West Cumbria achieve their financial dreams with quality face to face advice

Armstrong Watson is delighted to announce that Stuart Smith has joined the team in West Cumbria as a Financial Planning Consultant. Stuart has spent most of his working life in West Cumbria with over 15 years’ experience in financial services. Stuart prides himself on developing trusted relationships with clients and identifying their financial goals and more importantly, how they can achieve them with the right foundations in place.

Stuart comments: