Tax Essentials – Guest Houses and Owner Occupied Hotels

The decision to purchase a guest house or hotel can be a stressful time for most, and understanding your options is crucial to achieving your future aspirations.  The day you commit to buy a business is the first day of your commercial journey, from which you should have a clear strategy and be making decisions based upon your eventual goals and ambitions.

Financial Assistance Available to Cumbrian Farming Communities

A new emergency relief fund has been established by Cumbria Community Foundation and the Herdy Fund. The Fund will be administered by The Farmer Network, Penrith supported by the Prince’s Countryside Fund who will be covering administration costs. Farming households suffering hardship caused by the recent extreme weather can apply. This might include farming families that had sheep buried in snow drifts, damage to boundaries, uncollected milk and other uninsured losses or additional costs incurred as a result of the snow storm.

Off Payroll Working and Combating Tax Avoidance

Modern employment practices have resulted in an increase in the number of workers who are not treated as employees.  Many of these workers act through an intermediary company set up for this purpose.

Armstrong Watson welcomes Rob Adamson to Restructuring, Recovery and Insolvency team in Leeds

Robert Adamson has joined the Restructuring, Recovery & Insolvency team in the Leeds office of Armstrong Watson Accountants, Business and Financial Advisers in the post of Restructuring, Recovery & Insolvency Partner.

Commenting Robert Adamson said,

“I am delighted to join the Armstrong Watson Restructuring, Recovery & Insolvency team in Leeds and hope to make a significant contribution to the firm’s growth and continued success

Bainbridge Electrical Ltd Sold in Seven Figure Management Buyout Deal

Cumbria-based industrial, commercial electrical engineering contractors, Bainbridge Electrical Ltd, has been sold in a seven-figure management buyout deal.

The deal sees James Dickinson, the company’s former Commercial Manager, acquire the Kendal-based business from the Bainbridge family, who founded it over 50 years ago.

The corporate finance team at Armstrong Watson brokered and advised on the deal, which was supported by debt funding from Mercia Fund Managers and Nick Hodgson of Cartmell Shepherd provided legal advice.

Redundancy and Unpaid Trials: How Employment Law Imapcts Payroll

The payroll profession is itrinsically linked to employment law. You can be sure that if new legislation is announced under the title employment law, it was have some impact on payroll. Our Director of Payroll, Karen Thomson, runs through some recent cases where this has been exactly the case.

New Tax Rates in Scotland from 6 April 2018

As of the 6th of April 2018, the tax rates in Scotland will be changing. Essentially, those that pay tax at the intermediate rate or above will generally pay more tax than their neighbours south of the border. Brendan Kelly details the changes to each tax band.

Innovation and the Glencroft chair of wool

In our recent Family Business survey, we asked how often companies “felt pressure to adapt and innovate in order to keep up with an ever changing environment”.  As I look at the results it occurs to me that one survey question cannot do justice to the vast subject of innovation.

There were some really interesting results from the original question.  38% did not feel any pressure to adapt or innovate at all. A further 11% felt that they “sometimes” felt the need to adapt or innovate. 

Proud sponsor of Cumbria Family Business Awards

This Friday 9th March we’re proud to join forces with businesses across Cumbria as we celebrate the second Cumbria Family Business Awards. The county’s family firms will battle it out in 11 categories, with the winners from each then competing for the coveted ‘Outstanding Family Business of the Year.’ With nearly 90% of businesses in Cumbria being family run, and with Armstrong Watson’s 150 years of experience advising and supporting family firms, we are delighted to see the awards return for a second year and repeat our role as a main sponsor of the event.

GDPR is here to stay...is your business ready?

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (‘the GDPR’) comes into effect on 25 May 2018 with the ICO’s enforcement powers to include powers to ban or suspend data processing, potentially at great cost and inconvenience.

The ICO will have the power to issue increased fines of up £17 million or 4% of global turnover, whichever is the higher. Currently, fines are capped at £500,000.