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Most of the businesses feel that the government must work in partnership with businesses to prioritise stability as Britain starts Brexit talks as per the Confederation of British Industry.
“By supporting businesses to invest, the government can promote growth at a critical time for the UK economy as we enter into EU exit negotiations,” says the CBI.
The CBI says that as uncertainty about how the UK leaves the EU dampens investment and higher inflation erodes consumer spending growth, “the government must show it is serious about supporting companies to invest, to help our regions and nations prosper”.
Another important aspect that the business are worried about is the business rates. It wants Mr Hammond to deliver “real reform” to the business rates system.
“Despite attempts by successive governments to introduce marginal reforms, the fundamental unfairness of business rates remains,” says British Chamber of Commerce. While the government needs to act to help small businesses facing business rate hikes, “we should also look to the future, launching a new Tax Commission to look at what the growth of self-employment and online business mean for the tax system.
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Nov 16
24
Summary of Autumn Statement 2016
Below is a summary of the key points that was outlined during the autumn statement yesterday by the Chancellor.
Taxation
- Income tax threshold to be raised to £11,500 in April, from £11,000.
- Higher rate income tax threshold to rise to £50,000 by the end of the Parliament
- Tax savings on salary sacrifice and benefits in kind to be stopped, with exceptions for ultra-low emission cars, pensions, childcare and cycling
- National Living Wage to rise from £7.20 an hour to £7.50 from April next year
- Employee and employer National Insurance thresholds to be equalised at £157 per week from April 2017
- Insurance premium tax to rise from 10% to 12% next June
Public Borrowing
- Government finances forecast to be £122bn worse offin the period until 2021 than forecast in March’s Budget
- Debt will rise from 84.2% of GDP last year to 87.3% this year, peaking at 90.2% in 2017-18
- Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts borrowing of £68.2bn this year, then £59bn in 2017-18, £46.5bn in 2018-19, £21.9bn in 2019-20 and £20.7bn in 2020-21
- Public spending this year to be 40% of GDP – down from 45% in 2010
State of the Economy
- OBR growth forecast upgraded to 2.1% in 2016 – from 2.0% – then downgraded to 1.4% in 2017, from 2.2%
- Forecast growth of 1.7% in 2018, 2.1% in 2019 and 2020 and 2% in 2021.
Housing
- Ban on upfront fees charged by letting agents in England “as soon as possible”
- £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund to help provide 100,000 new homes in high-demand areas
- £1.4bn to deliver 40,000 extra affordable homes
Business
- Doubling UK Export Finance capacity
- £400m into venture capital funds through the British Business Bank to unlock £1bn in finance for growing firms
Transport
- £1.1bn extra investment in English local transport networks
- £220m to reduce traffic pinch points
- £23bn to be spent on innovation and infrastructure over five years
- £2bn per year by 2020 for research and development funding
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38075649
Within the last time there has been a continued decrease of firms which provide audit services. The reason for this might be the regulatory and legislative edicts.
Watchdog Financial Reporting Council published a report called “Key Facts and Trends”, it shows that 304 practices have ditched their audit licences since December 2014.
Smaller audit firms had to deal with regulations that pushed clients out of the statutory audit. The government announced in January that the audit exemption threshold would be aligned with the revised ‘small company’ thresholds, which exempts companies that meet two of the three following criteria:
- Turnover of less than or equal to £10.2m
- A balance sheet total of less than or equal to £5.1m
- Employee number fewer than or equal to 50
In addition to that the report highlights an important direction of travel for the large end of the audit market.
Business news by .
Aug 16
15
Claiming VAT for Private use
The response to the question whether a sole trader can claim VAT on a car purchase was no, unless the purchaser is a taxi driver, driving instructor or the person re-hired the car to a third person.
Court of Appeal, has long prevented sole traders from claiming VAT. But now a certain case has come to light giving a different dimension to the situation.
A person insured her new Land Rover Freelander for business use only. Thus private use would be illegal. The Tribunal held that the car was unavailable for private use, so input tax was deductible.
The First Tier Tribunal announced that later on there might be the option that the trader might alter the insurance to cover the private use. However, for the first time she had registered for business use only. Further, following a previous HMRC inspection, when input tax was disallowed, the taxpayer had sought guidance from HMRC. They said; “for purchase VAT to be recoverable, the vehicle should be used exclusively for business purposes, should be registered and kept at the business address when not being so used, and should be insured solely for business use.“
Therefore the Tribunal was entitled to be satisfied caused by the trader’s intention, at the time of the purchase, to make it unavailable for private use.
For advise on VAT, bookkeeping, year-end accounts or tax returns, contact KVS Accountants surviving small businesses in Battersea, Earls Court, Kensington, East Sheen and Chelsea.