Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Wednesday 19 February 2014
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/our-blog-has-moved/
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Thursday 28 November 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/northenden-christmas-lights-switch-on/
Andrew Flynn
F.C.C.A., B.SC. (Hons.)
QUESTION: I have my own self-employment business. I like to look smart for my clients, so I buy designer clothes, which I wear at the office and sometimes at home. As I wear them for business, can I claim them as a deduction on my tax return?
ANSWER: No, you will not be able to claim the cost of your clothes as a business deduction. Clothes are not considered a business expense, even if worn for business activities. It makes no difference whether they are designer or retail clothes, as clothing is a need regardless of employment status and they could be worn outside of the work environment.
Tax relief can be claimed for specialist clothes. For example, protective helmets and boots would be an allowable expense for the building sector.
Tax relief is also available for uniforms. To be classed as a uniform, it must be clothing of a specialised nature and recognisable as a uniform, identifying the wearer as having a particular job. For example, the uniform of a nurse.
Where it is customary to wear a specific form of clothing, in performing the duties of a particular occupation, it may be allowable. For example, dinner jackets worn by waiters may be allowable.
For ordinary clothing to be classed as a uniform, a conspicuous badge or logo would need to be attached, permanently.
An employer can pay for clothing for an employee but that would be a benefit in kind, which would be taxable on the employee.
Don’t forget that the deadline for filing 2012/13 tax returns online is 31st January 2014. 1,548 tax payers submitted their tax returns on Christmas day last year with a further 4,685 on Boxing Day.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Nabarro Poole!
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Monday 18 November 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/the-employees-new-clothes/
Regardless of what industry you’re in from Accountany to Zoology, Asbestos Removal to Zen Mastership (you get the idea with that), how important is digital marketing?
My answer is… I have no idea! Do you expect your accountant to have a facebook page with pictures of balance sheets and action shots of them reconciling a bank? Are you interested in knowing what your local florist thinks about their day (in 140 characters or less, obviously).
We tend to blog about the things that we know or do. But what if the things you know and do aren’t interesting to anyone who doesn’t work in your industry? Is it better to talk about things that are fairly interesting to the masses or to talk about things that are VERY interesting to a few people, but not interesting at all to most people?
I know that for many people, Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In are crucial to the success of their business and helps them generate a large proportion of their new business. I also know that the thought of having a Twitter feed and a Facebook page is equal to being tortured (no offence to anyone that has actually been tortured as I’m sure one is a fair bit worse than the other)
Nabarro Poole’s business is the business of helping other people be successful. We can analyse costs, help make decisions about funding and future strategy and another large aspect of what we try to do is to help them to create more income. So, this is the question I’d like to put out there. We have many followers on Twitter that help companies with their digital marketing and I expect to hear their thoughts, but what do you think?
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Wednesday 9 October 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/digital-marketing-a-minefield-or-a-treasure-trove/
Tyler Lappage
ACCA
We just wanted to post a quick note about the increase in the national minimum wage.
From 1st October 2013, the hourly minimum wage will increase to £6.31 (from £6.19) for people aged 21 and over. There are different rates for younger employees.
The government web-site is very useful for employers and also goes through how to work out minimum wage for different types of work (annual salary, paid by piece, etc.)
A link to their web-site can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage/what-is-the-minimum-wage
Many employer’s choose to pay their employees the living wage instead of the minimum wage. Please see our blog from a few months ago if you’d like more information about that.
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Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Monday 23 September 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/minimum-wage-increase/
The next instalment in our guest blog series has been kindly done by Roseanne Stockton of Nu-Recruit. I asked her to share some of her experience and expertise for SME’s thinking of recruiting a new member of the team and she has provided some fantastic tips and advice. Here it is:
So it’s time to get a new Team member / employee / member of staff & it’s daunting & last time you did it you hated it as it’s time consuming & not your forte AT ALL!!
Well. Remember: it shouldn’t be. I interview daily & I should be pretty good at it. You add numbers up / weld metal / ship freight / manage a small printers etc etc & that’s your forte. We can’t all be genuine ‘Jacks of all Trades’.
So I wrote this Blog Guide to try & put some pointers your way. Things to do & things to avoid & to self help the process go along.
If I could, however, give anyone recruiting two pieces of advice it’s this: it’s rare to find THE perfect person & it rarely goes the way you plan. We’re humans & issues – crazy & unforeseen issues – can & do crop up. And compromise (to a degree) is essential. On both sides!
So, here we go. Recruiting for your SME:
And off you go. Lots more HR comes into play now, but if I helped getting you to this stage – brilliant!
I’m Roseanne Stockton. Chester SME Business Woman of 2013 & I successfully run Nu-Recruit.
I place permanent & temporary candidates of the very best quality into great local employers & jobs in Liverpool, Chester, Wirral & Manchester. In a no-fuss, no nonsense way.
And I love what I do. And I’m good at it!
Thanks to Roseanne for sharing her knowledge with us. As always, if anyone has any comments or wants to share their experiences, we’d love to hear them.
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Tuesday 17 September 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/im-an-sme-and-i-dont-usually-recruit-help/
Tyler Lappage
ACCA
Questions are pouring in on this topic:
What happens if I charge for non staff guests to attend the party? Can I offset that against the party cost and claim the rest? If I do that what about VAT?
If the company charged a fee for attending the party, which off-set the cost of non-employee entertainment, a good case could be made for the remaining cost to be allowed for tax purposes. Similarly, for VAT purposes, input VAT cannot be reclaimed on business entertainment, but is allowable for staff entertainment. If the costs can be readily apportioned, the element of VAT connected to staff can be reclaimed.
If I charge guests, how do I work out how much? Do I need to only charge for their meal and refreshment or must I charge for their share of the Buckingham House venue and Adele entertainment?
To be clear, charging non-employees a fee to attend is not necessary to get some tax relief. If the event is for employees and the costs of the event can be individually identified, as long as the costs were split correctly, you could have costs for both staff entertaining (allowable) and business entertaining (not allowable) on the same night.
The key point is the nature of the event; i) to reward staff + invite a few non-employees is okay, ii) to entertain clients + invite the staff along to serve drinks and take coats is not okay.
The cost of each meal is easily identifiable and could be analysed readily. The cost of hiring a global superstar to entertain is less easy to split between client and staff entertainment, so prepare for an argument with HMRC on how much of this is allowable.
If I have a staff only party, can I claim as much as I like? For example, a Nabarro Poole Ltd. party in Melbourne this year, on Boxing Day at the 4th Ashes Test!
I’ll leave this question to HMRC – ‘If the employer provides one annual function for employees no charge to tax arises if the cost of the event per head does not exceed £150/head.‘
So, if you’ve got a good travel agent and friends in Melbourne, you may be able to stay under this threshold. If not, the trip would be taxed as a benefit on the employee and would need close consideration on whether there would be tax savings gained for the company.
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Monday 9 September 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/christmas-party-a-more-in-depth-look/
Tyler Lappage
ACCA
We just answered a question from a reader of Lift-Off magazine, in our regular Accountant’s Clinic, about whether the cost of the Christmas party is an allowable business expense. Like all things connected to UK tax law, it’s not quite a simple yes or no…see our answer in full below:
The economy is bouncing back (so they say), but wages and salaries are still frozen in many business sectors. More and more employers are looking at other ways to reward their employees. There are a number of benefits that employers can offer staff throughout the year, from child-care vouchers to cycle-to-work schemes and even reduced membership fees at the local gym. The reduced membership fees may come in handy in January for everyone’s new year resolutions! One benefit that most businesses offer is the annual Christmas do, but is it an allowable expense?
The answer is…it depends.
If the Christmas party is for staff of the company only (this includes retired members of staff as well as partners of current and past staff members), then these costs are a legitimate and allowable expense for the company. These costs should be included in the accounts and deducted from profit before calculating tax.
If there are non-staff members (suppliers, customers, etc.) invited, however, the cost of the party is not allowable for tax purposes, so be careful when putting together the guest list this year.
Perhaps throw a second party for your most important non-staff members. Don’t forget to invite your accountant, of course.
We have a few more guest blogs from Gina and her team at Enjoy Benefits over the next few weeks. Please get in touch if you have any questions or if you’d like to contribute to our blog.
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Monday 9 September 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/christmas-party-i-know-its-too-early-to-think-about/
Tyler Lappage
ACCA
HMRC have always been clear when it comes to ‘business’ expenses that also have a personal benefit. A past example includes a director who sponsored his local rugby team, but since he was a fan of his local rugby team, these expenses were dis-allowable for tax (see our earlier blog for more information).
A recent case (RCC v Healy) looked at a situation where an actor rented a flat in London while working on a stage production. He had not moved to London, and was staying there exclusively for work, so the expenses were allowed at first. This is what we would expect and how we would advise our clients.
HMRC were not convinced though and at a 2nd tier tribunal argued that there was dual purpose in the renting of the flat;
HMRC appealed against this decision to the upper tribunal. He argued that the first-tier tribunal had erred in law in failing to consider, or consider properly, whether Healy had a dual purpose in incurring the expenditure in question, namely to meet his ordinary needs for warmth and shelter as well as his stated business purpose.
So, the dual purpose is… not living on the street?!
Now, we have seen in the past that high profile names (especially actors and such) have a harder time convincing HMRC than regular people, but this could be a key case to keep an eye on going forward.
Note: if you are what HMRC consider an itinerant worker (eg. a jobbing builder), then short term accommodation is allowable. A bit confusing at he moment, but we’ll see how it turns out.
So, if in doubt, either commute or sleep on the street… or find a place to stay and ring your accountant!
Nabarro Poole does not accept any liability for actions that readers may take and recommends obtaining specific professional advice before action.
For more information, please contact us through our website: www.NabarroPoole.com
Posted by nabarropoole on Tuesday 3 September 2013
https://nabarropoole.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/business-or-pleasure/
Nabarro Poole 