Why it’s important that your employees are fit and healthy

Why it’s important that your employees
are fit and healthy

We all know that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce.

As well as being more motivated during the day and getting more done, they are also less likely to take sick days. The government has recognised these benefits and has introduced tax breaks to employers who promote good health so encouraging your staff to be fitter and healthier is now also more tax efficient.

Provide basic health care

Subject to certain qualifying conditions, employers can provide free medical check-ups and eye tests. As from the 1st January 2015, they can also contribute up to £500 a year for rehabilitation treatment to help an employee return to work after an injury or illness.

Cycle-to-work scheme

One way to encourage employees to get active is to introduce the cycle-to-work scheme. When introduced properly, this can not only save your staff up to 42% of the cost of a bicycle, it can also provide companies with a big tax break.

Additionally to this, you can also benefit in cash terms through a saving in National Insurance costs as well as promote that your business encourages more environmentally friendly ways of commuting to work.

Gym membership

Providing free gym membership to your staff is an excellent way of encouraging them to get active and it also creates a taxable benefit in kind. If your company can’t afford to pay for everyone’s membership you can still help your employees by approaching a local gym to agree discounts or maybe they will offer you a corporate discount.

Gyms frequently give discounts to local companies and whereas an individual might have to pay circa £40, through the company group rate they may be able to get it for around £30. Whilst there are no tax advantages of this, it’s still a great benefit for those who are looking to get fit.

These schemes can also be good for team moral and in getting good comradery between employees too, this can be good for business in general as it spills into the work environment. Healthy and happy employees help in driving success.

Exclusive discount for Walsall CHANGEurSHAPE Fitness Centre and Boot Camp Experiences

To find out more about how your business could provide a free of charge gym membership – and to get an exclusive corporate membership discount from Walsall based CHANGEurSHAPE fitness centre (including exciting boot camp experiences) - call us today on 01902 837408 or request a free of charge call-back from our website www.taxandaccountancysolutions.co.uk today! 

HMRC cracks down on business tax evaders

Business raids have risen quite dramatically in a bid from the HMRC to crackdown on tax evasion to meet their 1165 prosecution target – in fact, nearly 600 properties have been raided this year so far.

According to research from Pinsent Masons, this figure is nearly treble the amount of raids that have been carried out over the past four years.

Nearly 600 properties were raided this year as HMRC pursues its target of 1,165 tax evasion prosecutions over the course of 2015.

The number of tax evaders who have gone to prison as result of tax evasion has risen by around a third over the last four years, with the average sentence length falling by around 60% over the same period.

These facts suggest that HMRC is now making better use of its powers to prosecute and also pushing for custodial punishment in a wider range of cases, according tax director at Pinsent Masons, Paul Noble.

Noble said;

"An increase in the number of raids conducted and custodial sentences meted out for tax evasion reflect the fact that HMRC is now casting its net wider. It is no longer focusing narrowly on HNWIs and those guilty of the most serious evasion. It is targeting a broad range of taxpayers and refusing to let those suspected of more minor offences slip through the cracks.

"Raids on premises are often an essential means of gathering evidence that is needed in cases dealt with for prosecution. It is labour-intensive work but needed in such investigations. A non-criminal tax enquiry is much more cost effective but does not always send the deterrent message HMRC wish to convey."

If in doubt, check it out! Omni Chartered Accountants are here to help with any tax or accountancy advice that you have – contact us on 01902 837 408 or request a free of charge call back from our website www.taxandacountancysolutions.co.uk.

The Power of the Pension

Chris Bourne is a Senior Consultant at leading Midlands based Independent Financial Advisers, PIA Wealth Management. He specialises in all aspects of wealth and retirement planning, with specific expertise in investments, pensions and taxation.

The 6^th April 2015 was a momentous day in financial services, as it marked the beginning of a new pension regime and some of the most significant changes we have ever seen. Much has already been written on the subject, but what difference will these changes make to you?

Fundamentally, the whole game has changed. Previously, if you hadn’t started making private pension contributions by a certain age, it was almost pointless doing so, because the pot wouldn’t have time to grow enough to produce a reasonable income at retirement. This is no longer a problem, because you are not restricted on how you withdraw from your pension when you retire; you can take as much or as little as you like.

Let’s make no bones about it; some people just don’t like pensions, and this is usually because they, or somebody close to them have lost money in a pension in the past or have received poor value from an annuity. This now needs to be put to one side and pensions looked at for what they are – fantastically tax efficient investment vehicles.

It must be remembered that when a pension falls in value, it is the underlying investments that have fallen, which is not the fault of the pension itself. A pension is simply a wrapper, like an ISA or an investment bond, with its own special tax treatment.

Consider the situation of Mr and Mrs Jones now in their 50’s, where Mr is the sole income earner and is in a good company pension scheme, and Mrs does not work and has no pension provision of her own. Their situation is comfortable and they have some spare money to save or invest… As anybody can pay up to £3,600 per year into a pension, regardless of their earnings, it would now seem sensible for Mrs Jones to make some pension contributions.

Every pension contribution made has 20% added to it by the government – this is called tax relief. As soon as you make a payment into a pension, you have made 20% growth on it. In Mrs Jones’ case, she can pay in £2,880 every year between now and when she retires, which will be made up to £3,600 with tax relief (£720 added on top for free!).

When the Jones’s retire, Mrs Jones can take whatever she wants out of her pension, but it would make sense to withdraw an amount within her personal allowance (£10,600 in 2015/16) to enhance the household income, which is largely derived from Mr Jones’s own arrangements. This way, not only would she have benefited from the tax advantaged growth of the pension, but she can take the money out tax free too. You are of course allowed to take 25% of any lump sum withdrawal tax free, regardless of your income situation.

If Mrs Jones was working and received an income greater than £3,600, she could pay even more into her pension every year – any amount up to her annual earnings (subject to a yearly maximum of £40,000) could be paid in.

The above is just one of a multitude of opportunities presented by the new Pension Freedoms and it is important to seek qualified, independent financial advice to see how you can benefit.

Chris Bourne

Accountancy firms excludes working class job applicants

Many of us will have heard the news this week – it seems that some sectors are deliberately favouring upper class applicants for jobs within their companies.

Accountancy, sadly, is one of these sectors, according to results from the government’s social mobility watchdog , where top accountancy firms have found to be “systematically” excluding working class applicants from their workforce.

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has report shows that 70% of job offers from elite accountancy, financial services and law firms in last year went to graduates who had been educated at in private or selective schools.

Alan Milburn, commission chair, said;

“This research shows that young people with working-class backgrounds are being systematically locked out of top jobs.

“Elite firms seem to require applicants to pass a ‘poshness’ test to gain entry. Inevitably that ends up excluding youngsters who have the right sort of grades and abilities but whose parents do not have the right sort of bank balances.”

However, the report did note, that the accountancy profession did support more flexible routes to qualification, with the CIPFA being singled out as being one of the UK’s professional accountancy organisations that backs the Association of Accounting Technicians.

It is not too long ago that we wrote about the inequality in wages between gender and this is also something else that has to – and no doubt, will – change.

As the commission said, this report was a “wake up and smell the coffee moment”; let’s hope that employers take note and going forward, some form of action can be taken if it is found that candidates have been selected not on merit and hard work, but purely by background.

Have your say and join in the conversation on Twitter with us @OmnitasTax – we would love to hear your thoughts! Follow us on Facebook too and we will keep you posted with all of the latest accountancy and tax news, and of course, some great tips for small businesses.

Investment report: portfolio diversification

Chris Bourne is a Senior Consultant at leading Midlands based Independent Financial Advisers, PIA Wealth Management. He specialises in all aspects of wealth and retirement planning, with specific expertise in investments, pensions and taxation.

As we approach the midway point of the year, I am reflecting on what has been a generally positive year for investments (although not completely plain sailing!) and I ask myself what will the coming weeks and months bring?

I don’t know the answer to my question and I don’t think there is a person on earth who can honestly say that they do, so how do you navigate uncertainty? The only answer is ‘diversification’.

We can all see what has happened in the past and try to make guesses at what is coming next – some people are better at this than others, but no one gets it right every time. Commentators can tell you about the events that unfolded last week and how these impacted on different assets.

They may even be able to give some insight into what opportunities these events ‘might’ present, but is this scant information enough for you to go out and choose appropriate investments on your own? In this increasingly small world, where economies are interlinked more so than ever before and the flow of news and information can turn things on a six-pence, trying to make your own decisions on where to invest is fraught with danger.

A good portfolio should blend together different assets, sectors, geographies, investment managers and management styles in order to reduce risk. Risk is essential to get a real inflation beating return on your money, but risk can be minimised by not putting all your eggs in one basket.

In this low interest rate environment, it won’t do to leave large amounts of money sitting on deposit – its real value will be eroded over time. Even when interest rates start to rise, you can be sure they won’t rise quickly, and it is unlikely that bank and building society returns will be adequate for probably another five or ten years.

Careful advice is essential, not only to provide guidance on investment strategies, but on which vehicles to invest in. With so many positive changes having taken place to pensions legislation this year, making contributions for your retirement even later in your working life is now very attractive.

Since April 6 this year there are no longer any restrictions on how you withdraw money from your pension; as long as you are 55 or above a pension will be as accessible as any other investment. As I regularly say to my clients, there is no other investment vehicle readily available to almost every person in the UK that will give you 20% growth on your investment immediately.

Now is the time to take advantage of this very supportive system.

Chris Bourne

6 useful websites for small businesses

6 useful websites for small businesses

At Omni Chartered Accountants, we are proud to be involved in mentoring programmes for new business start-ups.

Whether you are a start-up or a successful business seeking further growth, we understand the importance of SMEs around the UK having a wealth of useful resources at their disposal, not only to keep up to date with important business news, but also ever-changing trends.

Business is constantly evolving the more resources of knowledge the better.

To help, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite business resource websites for your reference. Be sure to have a look at them!

In no particular order:

1. Smallbusiness.co.uk provides solid sound advice and help guides aimed at startups and small businesses in the UK. They feature a section dedicated to questions answered by small business experts, covering a whole range of pertinent subjects.

The website is a must-read for any up and coming business in need of financial, business management, or technology advice.

2. Start Up Donut provides up to date and useful information for small businesses. They cover a wide range of important business topics, denoted by several coloured donuts, including startup ideas, business planning, sales & marketing, and IT.

Their in-depth blog is interesting and informative, definitely worth a read!

3. Businesszone is a great website full of up to date business articles on a wide range of topics, including finance, technology and business regulation. They feature a business trends section to help businesses keep ahead of the game in an easy to read format. You can sign up for a free account to access their articles and post general business questions.

4. SMARTA was founded by some of the UK’s top entrepreneurs and acts as a support platform for business owners and entrepreneurs. Their blog section always has interesting content designed to get you thinking —with tips and tricks to help you grow your business.

5.  Business is Great is a government owned website that provides inspiration to start-ups and advice for how they can grow and become successful businesses. With a ‘new announcements’ section, you can view up to date news about stories that affect business in the 21st century.

They also offer a handy resources section to help accelerate the growth of your business, along with a clever business support tool that takes you through a number of questions to assess the type of support available to you. Well worth a look.

6. Business Matters  has over 50,000 annual subscribers. Offering a wide range of support in different areas such as setting up your business, financing your business and legal issues, this magazine is UK-centric and has a great section based on businesses that are ‘Made in Britain’.

We hope you find this useful and beneficial, Omni is here to help you and your business to be successful – why not take our Accountancy Savings Challenge today and find out how much you could save! 

Even Dragons can be subject to fraud

Even Dragons can be subject to fraud - protect your business!

Shocking, but true – it seems even super-savvy Dragons’ Den stars can fall prey to rogue finance directors.

A finance director who worked for Duncan Bannatyne’s group of companies has been charged with almost £8m worth of money laundering and fraud charges.

The alleged fraudulent activity apparently occurred between July 2008 and July 2014, whereby Christopher Watson has been accused of transferring money from the Bannatyne Group accounts to his personal accounts and also some of his private business interests.

It is also alleged by the Crown Prosecution Service that the monies were used to settle debts, buy and do-up houses and gamble.

Specialist lawyer for the CPS, John Werhun, said;

"The CPS has authorised the police to charge Christopher Watson with fraud by abuse of position of trust, and six counts of money laundering."

The hearing will take place before Newton Aycliffe magistrate’s court on 24 June: meanwhile, Bannatyne appointed a new finance director at the fitness arm of Bannatyne Group back in January after Watson was arrested.

It just goes to show – you have to be able to trust people that you work with. In such a large organisation, this sort of fraud can occur but obviously, as an SME, you can take precautions to make sure that your money is being managed and accounted for in the correct way.

Omni Chartered Accountants are here to advise and guide you on all of your tax and accounting affairs; call us today on 01902 837 408 to see if we can save your business money and also protect it at the same time. 

Are keeping books and records a benefit or hindrance to your business?

Are you confident and happy with your bookkeeping and records?

Do you see them as a hindrance or a benefit?

At Omni Chartered Accountants, we see many different levels and quality of the way businesses record and hold vital and pivotal information.

When records are poor, inaccurate or incorrect, it is imperative that they are reviewed and put right to ensure the correct numbers are available for all aspects of the business, not just the accounts.

Bespoke accounting solution for poor company records

Omni applies a very cost effective and totally bespoke approach to such situations. We will correct the information, show or train you how to ensure that the correct records are kept, or alternatively, we can take over the bookkeeping altogether if preferred, meaning that the level of involvement and assistance is very much tailored to your abilities, budget and circumstance.

It is so important, boring and dull, maybe!

But, it is important that you understand you have to keep proper and accurate records, not only for the tax and vat man, but also for yourself.

How else do you know who you owe, who owes you, what areas of your business are performing, underperforming, and what areas need your attention or are a priority? Crucially, how else do you know if you are actually making or losing money?

You need to look on your books as your very own window to viewing the health and wellbeing of your business.

So, now you know why you need to keep accurate books and records, just how confident are you with yours, do you want them health checked? If so get in touch by requesting a free of charge call back from our website or by clicking here to contact us.

Why not take the Accountancy Savings Challenge today! 

How to make the HMRC Annual Return easy work

How to make the HMRC Annual Return easy work

When you see the HM Revenue & Customs or Companies House brand at the top of a letterhead, do you get shivers down your spine?

If you do, you are certainly not alone.

We often get calls where clients phone us up in a panic after receiving an ‘Annual Return Reminder’.

What is an Annual Return?

The annual return is not referring to the accounts as such, but a form that can be submitted online or hard copy via the post, which basically confirms any changes to the shareholders, directors and registered office.

In normal circumstances, nothing will have changed and it is a relatively simple task.  You have to complete it every year and it is on the anniversary of the incorporation date.  You have 28 days to complete it. You can check out the date by looking your company up on the Companies House website – which is free.

Why not put a reminder in your diary or calendar system now?

Annual return fines

It may well seem a little OTT for Companies House to send out a letter reminding the company of an annual return threatening fines of £5,000 for non-compliance. 

Actually, we have known no company fined for late submission of an annual return but we have known plenty where they haven’t filed the company accounts on time; this misdemeanour carries fines of £150, £375 or £750, depending on how late you are.

If you need any help just ask, but it is relatively easy and straightforward to file the annual return online - the cost is £13.00 for an online filing (£40.00 if hard copy via post).

So if you do get a letter like this, or any other HMRC letter for that matter – don’t panic, give us a call a call on 01902 837 408 or request a free of charge call back from our website.

Click here to take our Accountancy Savings Challenge, as our competitive rates and no-nonsense advice could save your business both money and time!

Have HMRC really waived £100 fine for late self-assessment filing?

If you keep up to date with accountancy news, you may be aware of the rumours that HMRC have been waiving the £100 late self-assessment fine that is usually imposed by HM Revenue & Customs, if the filer has a “reasonable excuse”.

HMRC staff were asked to waive the £100 fine if people with mitigating circumstances appealed after paying up – this was all reported in an internal memo allegedly leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

It is estimated that up to 890,000 people could have potentially benefitted from the amnesty for missing the 31 January deadline as HMRC deals with a backlog of nearly a million letters from British taxpayers.

HMRC said it was trying to focus its resources on tackling major tax avoidance instead of "penalising people for trying to do the right thing".

However, previously, people who appealed the fine faced a two- or maybe even three-week investigation of their tax affairs before a decision was reached.

Leaked HMRC memo

The HMRC memo questioned the "lengthy" process, especially given that the "overwhelming majority of appeals" were actually accepted.

The alleged leaked document stated;

"Our penalty regime is intended to influence customer behaviour, but also be clear and cost effective, fair and proportionate.

"The current way of managing penalties does not meet these objectives, and so we have decided to take a more proportionate approach where a customer has filed their return late, and then appealed against their penalty.

"This means that in the vast majority of cases we will be accepting the customer's grounds for appeal, and we can cancel the penalty."

So, have HMRC really waived the £100 fine for late self-assessment filing?

It may be a hunch, but perhaps the recent act of goodwill could be something to do with a backlog of paperwork and the need for a less complicated appeals system?

In any event, don’t risk filing your self-assessment late - a spokesman for HMRC did add that despite the policy, nobody will be getting off the hook unless they've now sent in their return and "have a good reason for sending it in late".

Don’t take a chance – particularly when affordable help is at hand from Omni Chartered Accountants. Click here to contact us now, request a free of charge call-back from our website http://www.taxandaccountancysolutions.co.uk  or take our Accountancy Savings Challenge today!

What is an HMRC trivial gift?

What is an HMRC trivial gift?

As you will be aware, HMRC tax certain gifts to staff. Instead, you should consider giving your staff the following which have been stated as “trivial” by HMRC:

Small gifts

As an employer, you may provide an employee with a small gift, such as a box of chocolates or bouquet of flowers.

As long as this is made in recognition of a particular event (e.g. an employee’s marriage or birth of a child), and is not part of any reward for services, the benefit should be treated as trivial.

Tea and Coffee

As an employer, you may provide your employees with access in the workplace to tea, coffee or water from a cooling dispenser. If this refreshment is available generally to all employees, the benefit is exempt from charge.

Seasonal gifts

As an employer you may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas.

If the gift extends beyond one of the items mentioned above, for example from a bottle or two to a case of wine, or from a turkey to a Christmas hamper, you will need to consider the contents and cost before being able to determine whether the benefit is trivial.

If you are in any doubts then talk to us – Omni Chartered Accountants are on hand to help guide you through in tax matters for your business, however ‘trivial’ they may be.

Why not take our price challenge today and see how much we could save you, as well as getting the very best advice at the same time!