Business news and opinion from Evans Weir | Page 6

The 2023 Autumn Statement is due to be delivered on Wednesday 22nd November. We look at what might be announced by the chancellor.

Adam Janering MA MCIPD is an HR consultant, supporting local SMEs with HR advice. He’s kindly offered to share some thoughts with our clients through a short series of blog posts. First up, Adam addresses whether HR is still required in today’s word of work.

At the same time as the French government announced plans to mandate e-invoicing, the UK government confirmed it is set to act on late payments, the scourge of the SME and something that is estimated to cost the economy £billions each year.   eInvoicing to become mandatory in France With the EU version of Making […]

Recently released data would suggest that things remain tough in the economy as the number of insolvencies in August was the highest in that month in four years and the number of VAT and PAYE registered businesses overall dropped by almost 40,000.

For the first time in almost a generation, there’s actually some incentive for investors to invest. With interest rates at their highest for more than a decade, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reporting that these are likely to remain above government targets for around 5 years, even the novice investor has plenty of options to put their savings to work.

Since the pension triple lock was first introduced in 2010, the economic circumstances have always meant that it’s a manifesto commitment that any party is willing to stand behind, after all, who wants to be the political party that alienates the ‘grey pound’?

But in 2023, off the back of double-digit price inflation and significant pay increases, the triple lock is looking like an expensive policy for the government to apply.

As if to prove that nobody is immune to internal fraud, BrewDog CEO, James Watt, has gone public with information of a rogue employee at his firm in a bid to show it can happen to anyone and to remind companies to check their internal fraud systems.

It’s an interesting question isn’t it. In the UK we’re used to things being relatively cut and dried when it comes to VAT. There is the prevailing rate (currently 20%), zero rated VAT, (0%), VAT exempt (equally 0% but needs to be identified differently to Zero rated) and then the odd few idiosyncrasies such as energy at 5%. But by and large, the overwhelming majority of transactions will be either standard rate, 20%, or zero rated, 0%. That is unless you deal with someone like Amazon, who, it would appear, have been able to agree some of their own rates with HMRC.

Our latest Autumn Tax briefing is now available to download here.

Next in our series looking at how functionality in accounting software can be put to good use in SMEs, we consider the use of Cost Centres and Departments and how these can help you further analyse your accounts and support budgeting.

The Treasury and HMRC are reportedly looking at the removal of a ‘double tax break’ which currently enables families to inherit pension savings and not pay income tax or Inheritance Tax (IHT) on the proceeds. At present, families inheriting pension savings from somebody who dies before the age of 75 can withdraw funds and not pay any tax on the proceeds.

At the same time as a poll for the Sunday Telegraph suggested voters believe Inheritance Tax (IHT) to be the most unfair tax levied on UK residents, revised HMRC forecasts were suggesting that up to 50,000 more families would be faced with an IHT tax bill by 2028.