New employment protections

The following changes were enacted from 6 April 2024. These changes apply to England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland is not included as employment law is devolved. The information that follows is reproduced from a post on the House of Commons Library at https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-employment-laws-are-changing-from-april-2024/#:~:text=New%20legislation%20has%20expanded%20rights,effect%20from%206%20April%202024. Changes to flexible working Employees can now make two rather than […]

Opening up small company reporting

Companies House are working on detailed changes that will require small and micro sized companies to file information about their turnover and profits at Companies House. Once filed, this data will be available to anyone searching affected companies’ records at Companies House. At present, smaller companies can file abridged accounts that do not include a […]

Boost for small businesses

In a recent press release, HMRC underlined the benefits to smaller businesses from the increase in the VAT registration threshold and the business rates freeze. Here’s what they said: “Small businesses have received a boost as the VAT registration threshold is raised from £85,000 to £90,000, and £4.3 billion of business rates relief comes into […]

A new acronym

Most readers of our posts will recognise the acronym CGT or IHT -Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax. And the myriad of other taxes that affect most UK taxpayers in or out of business: IT – Income Tax NIC – National Insurance VAT – Value Added Tax But what about MTD? What is MTD? MTD […]

Check your National Insurance record

There is an online service available on HMRC to check your National Insurance Contributions (NIC) record online. The service is available at https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record In order to use this service, you will need to have a Government Gateway account. If you do not have an account, you can apply to set one up online. By signing […]

HMRC helpline changes on hold

HMRC has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown on plans to close the Self-Assessment, VAT and PAYE helplines from early April until September this year. HMRC has now confirmed that these helpline changes have been abandoned following feedback from many concerned stakeholders, including MPs, accountants and members of the public. This means that the helplines […]

Journey out of debt

Hopefully, this post will be of help to individuals that find themselves in debt and are struggling to keep up with repayments. It’s interesting to consider how easy it is to get into debt and how difficult to get out of debt. In times of rising prices and high interest rates the temptation to use […]