BS Business Club

What does the Scheme aim to do?

- This Government backed scheme enables eligible businesses, across the whole of the UK, to obtain a discount of up to 50% on approved software solutions up to a maximum of £5,000 (excluding VAT).
- This discount covers 12 months’ worth of the approved software’s’ core product costs.

What cost does the discount not cover?

- Planning and delivery services.

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As inflation rises and the cost of living crisis bites, accountancy firms could consider alternatives to pay rises with share schemes as one option

There are three options that could potentially help employers and employees alike:

1. Consider enterprise management incentives (EMI)

Employees are granted options to acquire shares at a point in the future (such

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

The result of the case

- The Court of Appeal found in favour of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that certain types of modified crew cab vehicles should not be classed as ‘vans’ for income tax and national insurance purposes but as cars instead. Click here for judgement1.

What does the tax legislation say a van is?

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What is the aim of the PPT?

- PPT is an environmental tax designed to provide a financial incentive for businesses to use recycled plastic in the manufacture of plastic packaging.

Who could be affected by PPT?

- Businesses that manufacture or import plastic packaging, including if you import packaging which already contains goods.

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

1. LPP

What is the aim?

- To bring the LPP regime in line for both VAT and income tax.

When will the new penalty regime start?

- For VAT – From 1st January 2023.
- From an income tax perspective, for those self-employed and property landlords who will be caught by Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment (MTD ITSA) – From 6th April 2024.

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

When employers make an employee redundant and a ‘redundancy payment’ is made, it is easy to make the wrong decisions on the tax and national insurance (NI) position of such a payment, especially if it is made up of several constituent parts.

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

For many property landlords (PL), completing a self-assessment tax return may soon become a thing of the past. Depending upon your particular circumstances, the last one might be in respect of the year ending 5th April 2024.

On the surface this would seem to be a cause for celebration. The reality is the exact opposite. Why?

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

- Do you control more than one business?
- Are they VAT registered or about to become VAT registered?
- Do they not only trade with unconnected businesses but also between themselves?
- Is there a cash flow problem arising from one of your entities having to charge VAT on a supply of goods or services to another one of your businesses?

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

Family finances are being stretched at the moment, be it rising heating and fuel bills, food prices on the up, mortgage hikes and the health and social care levy starting to bite. On top of that, for working parents, there may be childcare costs to fork out for as well.

Every penny counts.

Childcare- the missing opportunity Family finances are being stretched at the moment, be it rising heating and fuel bills, food prices on the up, mortgage hikes and the health and social care lev

The Energy Profits Levy

- A windfall tax will be charged on the profits of oil and gas companies at a rate of 25%.
- The levy will raise around £5 billion over the next year.
- It will be used as part of the package to support people struggling with rising energy costs.
- There will be a new 80% investment allowance to encourage firms to invest in oil and gas extraction in the UK.

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

What is a service charge?

- It is added to the customer’s bill before being presented to them.
- It could be either discretionary or mandatory.
- For it to be discretionary it must be made clear to the customer that it is a voluntary contribution (e.g. reflected on the bill).

Mandatory Service Charges (MSC)

- VAT at the standard rate should be charged on a MSC.
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

What is the TRS?

- It is an online register of the beneficial ownership of trusts operated by HMRC.
- It was set up as a result of anti-money laundering legislation introduced in 2017.
- Deadlines to register the Trust on TRS depend upon:

a) When the trust was created.

b) Whether it was a non-taxable trust or not.

c) If taxable, the nature of the income involved.

Non-taxable

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

Founding, managing and growing a business is a BIG commitment. For most business owners, it will take years to build a customer following, turn a profit and create a truly scalable business. It's a journey that can sometimes be pressurised, stressful and risky.

Business tips: Have you achieved your goal for the business? Have you achieved the goal you set out to achieve as a new startup? We’ve posed 5 important questions for you to ask yourself – before you take the next step in your business journey. ...

Using public WiFi in cafes, hotels and coffee shops is something we all do. It’s convenient and gives you the benefits of working online wherever you happen to be. But are you aware of the data security issues of working from a public network?

Keeping your data safe as a remote worker We’ve all been doing a lot more remote working in recent times. But have you thought about the security implications of using your device on a public #...

As an owner-manager, your chief concern will be making your business profitable and building up cash reserves in the company. But you’ll also want to be able to extract funds from the business too – whether this is via a regular monthly salary, or ad-hoc dividend payments.

Remuneration strategy - Salary vs Dividends Do you have a remuneration strategy in place? If not, we’ll help you to review your business finances and private wealth and generate a remuneration strategy that’s tax-efficient, straightforward and well-suited to your cash needs.

When your limited company makes a profit, you can choose to pay a percentage of that profit to your shareholders. This is known as a dividend payment and is one of the most common ways for directors and shareholders to extract cash from a successful business.

But did you know that the dividends you receive are taxed separately from other sources of income?

Paying dividends the tax-efficient way Planning on taking a dividend this year? We’ve got some important advice on how to do this in a tax-efficient way, so you don’t pay a penny more than is necessary.

Asset finance allows companies to collect funds for the purchase of assets they might need to make their businesses run successfully. At times, paying a huge amount of cash at one time for buying assets can be really hard to manage. Moreover, it would significantly affect the company's working capital.

- Bright & Smart Business Club Smart Accounting - Professional Accountants & Tax Advisors in UK. Fastest growing company providing Tax, VAT, Bookkeeping & Payroll services in UK

To successfully set up your export business, you'll need to do your research. This means talking to your accountant, advisers and other business owners in your network so you don't enter the market without enough preparation. With the right planning and organisation, you set the best possible foundations for moving into a brand-new international market.

Business tips: Trading in a different country Are you ready to trade in a new country? Here are the important things to get right before you go international with your operations. ...

Every business owner needs to take cash out of the business at some point. But if you’ve just moved from being a sole trader to a limited company, you may get caught out by the different rules around withdrawing cash from the company.

Why are the rules different for directors and sole traders?

When you’re a sole trader, you and your business are one and the same legal entity.

Taking out cash for Directors vs Sole Traders If you’ve just moved from being a sole trader to a director, you may get caught out when withdrawing cash from the business. The rules are different. We’ll help you tick all the right boxes and keep your finances compliant.

Top tips for successfully securing funding for your business

The key enabler for success for many startups and small businesses is securing funding. Even with the growing support around the world for investing in entrepreneurs, many businesses still struggle with the preparation required when applying for funding.

Here are our top tips:

- Network - get out there and build your network.

Looking for business funding? We can help Applying for funding is tough. Ensure you have all the data to prove the viability of your business, in order to secure the support. We have the experience and tools to help with your funding drive.

Holiday breaks are a chance to recharge for the year ahead especially after the year we have had. We look forward to warmer weather and finally setting up an out-of-office email for the break. However, for business owners, this time is a stressful without careful cash-flow planning.

Have you got a strategy for a financially stress-free holiday period? Holiday breaks are a time to re-charge for the year ahead. However, for some business owners, holidays can be a stressful time for cash-flow. Have you got the strategies in place to ensure you are in the best financial position this year?

Producing regular management information is one way to help improve your business decision-making. But looking at historical numbers can only tell you so much.

In business, you want to know what the future holds. And to make truly informed decisions about your future strategy, it’s important to use forecasting tools to project your data forwards in time.

Business tips: Using forecasting to help your decision-making A crystal ball would be handy in business. Good-quality forecasting can be just as useful, giving you an informed view of the future of your business and finances.

P11D submissions for the 2021/22 tax year are now due, together with payment of any associated National Insurance (NI) that’s due. The P11D form is used to report expenses or benefits that you’ve paid to your employees during the tax year.

You can complete the forms online or by post.

It’s time to submit your P11D forms Did you know that P11D forms are due? If you’ve paid benefits in kind to employees during the 2021/22 tax year, your P11D submissions must be made.

Renting out a spare room in your house is one way to bring in a little extra income. But did you know that you can claim rent-a-room relief rather than calculating the actual costs incurred.

Claiming rent-a-room relief will generally simplify the administration burden and reduce (or even eliminate) the tax charge. But what are the key rules to bear in mind?

What is rent-a-room relief?

What is rent-a-room relief? Thinking of renting out a room in your house? We can explain the benefits of claiming rent-a-room relief to simplify the tax and admin implications. ...