Latest News

Corporate partner structures – what happens now

The Government announced at the Autumn Statement last year new legislation regarding ‘mixed partnerships’.  These are partnerships which are made up of individuals and, generally, a company or ‘Corporate Partner’ and have been popular and flexible structures that provide the benefits of both a partnership and an incorporated entity.

Legislation was introduced on 5 December 2013 and the main changes are set to apply from 6 April 2014. Our Tax Consultancy Team have reviewed the legislation in detail and considered the likely impact on our Corporate Partner Structures.

Nine reasons why you should consider accepting card payments

Accepting card payments has become the norm for many businesses but there are still many that have not yet taken the leap and joined the plastic revolution, and the main reason for resisting is cost.

I have recommended to many of my clients that they should see past the downside of cost, and consider the benefits of accepting card payments. This is not the preserve of retailers, it is also equally beneficial for business to business operations.

I have set out below nine benefits to businesses that accept card payments.

Four tax benefits (and one disadvantage) to marriage/civil partnership

Since it’s only a couple of days until the Valentines weekend, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to balance out my last article on divorce with a look at how tax works in marriage and civil partnerships. I’d like to say it’s essential reading should you be thinking of popping the question, but I suspect mentioning the tax advantages in your proposal won’t be seen as desperately romantic. Still, it does no harm to be fully prepared…

Agriculture grants open for a limited time

The latest rounds of both the Farming and Forestry Improvement and Catchments Sensitive Farming Grants are now open again.

The application windows for these grants are quite tight. Please see the links below for more details on both schemes.

Farming and Forestry Improvement Grants - deadline 4 April 2014

Catchments Sensitive Farming Grants - deadline 31 March 2014

Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster Member Meeting

Today I attended the monthly BECBC member meeting at Energus, Lillyhall (Workington) . There were over 100 in the auditorium again, which seems to be the case every month now. The membership of the cluster now exceeds 200, and 13 new members were listed on screen for January 2014.

MSI Global Alliance reports strong growth of 12% in 2013

Armstrong Watson became a member of the MSI Global Alliance a number of years ago in order to provide access to high quality accounting, tax and legal advice to our clients with overseas interests.  As a result of our association with the MSI Global Alliance, we have been able to help and support many of our clients, and our membership also provides our clients with confidence that they can get the help and advice they need through Armstrong Watson when doing business outside of the UK, without the need to go to the expense of using an international firm of accountants. 

The ideal mortgage process

On introducing me as the new Property Finance Consultant at Armstrong Watson, a member of staff started to explain how much trouble they had securing a mortgage for the new property they had recently bought.

They said it took absolutely ages to sort out, as they had to approach four or five different lenders before getting an offer that they felt was right for them. It wasn’t a great experience and just increased the stress that everyone feels when making such a huge commitment.

Armstrong Watson survey reflects positive year for Lake District hotels

Hotels and guest accommodation in the Lake District have had a fantastic summer and autumn 2013, according to a new survey by Armstrong Watson.

Supporting local charities

In times of austerity and with recent cut backs in core funding within the charity sector, fundraising and donation giving has become vitally important to charities and community amateur sports clubs (CASC) to ensure that they can continue to fund their charitable activities and to provide those vital services to the general public which only the third sector delivers.

Should you sell online?

I read an article in The Telegraph recently in which it stated that online sales were up 19.2% in December 2013 compared to December 2012, and that a British Retail Consortium survey revealed that non-food online purchases had risen from 16.5% to 18.6%, meaning that almost one in five non-food purchases is made online.  This backs up the obvious; that online selling is and will continue to be a growing market.