Business news and opinion from Evans Weir > Tag: business

In a rather combative presentation, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered what is widely expected to be the last budget statement before the general election. With limited headroom and the now usual trail or announcements in the lead up to his commons speech, there were no big surprises arising from this budget. Even the 2p reduction in the National Insurance contribution paid by employees, which was supposed to be his big curtain call announcement, had already been ‘leaked’ before the budget.

Former United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld might have called Covid an ‘unknown, unknown.’ Nobody saw it coming and when it arrived nobody knew how to react. It was, in economic terms a black swan. Back to the present day and Mr Rumsfeld would probably say, when considering the outlook for 2024, we have a series of known unknowns facing us.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which received its royal assent in October, will herald a major shake-up for Companies House. The new legislation is set to introduce new powers which will allow UK authorities to proactively target organised criminals, reduce fraud, improve security, and enhance company data.

There are a number of reasons for running your own business. It may be the flexibility of working hours, the opportunity to work for yourself or a wish to build something to pass on to the family. But whatever your driver for starting out, one thing is for sure, you’re most likely not doing it all for free. As well as securing a regular income for you and your employees, you’ll be looking to build value into your business. This value is called the equity.

Changes to the rules around IR35 and the legislation being applied rigorously by HMRC is resulting in a number of high profile cases making headlines.

As the runners and riders begin to line up, one thing is for sure, the subject of taxation will play a key part in the election process as each candidate tries to woo their colleagues and prove that they truly are a Conservative Prime Minister.

How can I diversify my business is a common question asked by directors, shareholders and business owners for a range of different reasons. It may be the next step on the growth strategy or it may be about balancing risk and in the same way as there are a lot of drivers to diversification, there […]

People working from home are being warned about the risk of invalidating their home insurance. With the stay-at-home order issued in March 2020, two subsequent national lockdowns and government guidance still recommending people work from home wherever possible, the number of people making adaptations to residential properties to create a long-term workspace is on the […]

I was recently asked whether we had witnessed any corporate ‘casualties’ as a result of the Covid pandemic, the answer to which was, I am pleased to report, no. However, I fully accept that being early June, we are far from clear of the woods and still remain in a somewhat cosseted environment, with the […]

Making Tax Digital, the initiative introduced by HMRC in April requiring businesses to keep digital records for the calculation and submission of VAT returns, has met with early reluctance to register. Whilst many businesses may have ignored the passing deadline, in the belief that they were already compliant as a result of using approved accounting […]

The Taylor review, set up by the Government to investigate working practices and the ‘gig economy’, has now reported back to business secretary Greg Clark, with the promise that many of the recommendations will be taken forward and some expanded upon. The review was set up following significant employment cases involving major employers in the […]

With the news full of questions about how Carillion continued to be awarded huge contracts despite multiple warning signs of financial failure, we look at what it takes to win the tendering game. In times of uncertainty in the wider economy the public sector can look like an attractive source of stable income and successive […]