The Fizz! Blog

Another scam aimed at new businesses

This is from the ICAEW website:

Fraudsters invent a new registration requirement for VAT

We regularly receive emails from members alerting us to the latest scams as fraudsters invent new ways to try to defraud taxpayers in the UK. We always advise the sender to contact HMRC at phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
 
The latest scam purports to relate to tax obligations under EU law.
 
In this case, a newly incorporated company receives a fraudulent letter asking it to pay £320 by credit card to register on the ‘Intracom VAT Registry’. The form and style of the letter suggests to the recipient that it has the official backing of the UK or EU tax authorities and it would be easy for innocent businesses to be taken in by this scam.

If you receive anything like that, ignore it.  There's no liability to pay anything at all.

www.fizzhq.com

Investing in new kit for your business?

When a business buys equipment for long term use (computers, furniture, vans and the like - most assets of that nature qualify), it can usually set the cost against its profits before working out its tax bill.  This tax year, every business can deduct the first £100,000 of investment against its taxable profits in that way.  Obviously, that £100,000 allowance covers most of us!  Any excess will get tax relief eventually, but on a much slower basis.

Next year (i.e. from April 2012), that allowance is going down to £25,000.  That will still cover the entire spend of most small businesses, of course.  But there are some businesses that invest more each year - and some small businesses could spend more if they had a big one-off project, like an office move or a big new IT system.

So, if you're in that position, you might want to look at bringing forward some spending so that it falls under the period covered by the £100,000 allowance rather than later on, when only the first £25,000 of your investment will save tax in the first year.

It's potentially a bit more complicated than that, but those are the basics.  Talk to your accountant if you think it could be an issue for you.

www.fizzhq.com

New National Minimum Wage rates

New NMW rates came into force on Saturday 1 October:

• Adult rate £6.08 (currently £5.93)
• 18-20 year olds £4.98 (currently £4.92)
• 16-17 year olds £3.68 (currently £3.64)
• Apprentice rate £2.60 (currently £2.50)

If this affects your staff, remember not to just process the same salaries in October as you did in September!

www.fizzhq.com

Fuel-only mileage rates change

Taxman-approved fuel-only mileage rates changed today.  These are the rates that HMRC are happy for employers to use a) to reimburse staff for fuel used for company business that they've paid for and put in company cars, or b) reclaim from staff the cost of company fuel they've used for their own private motoring.  But they're also the rates that businesses can use to reclaim VAT on some of the mileage allowances paid to employees and directors.

Employers can pay a mileage allowance of up to 45p a mile, tax-free, when employees use their own car for business.  That hasn't changed, it remains 45p.

You can’t reclaim VAT on all of the 45p, but you can reclaim VAT on the part that represents fuel, as long as you retain VAT receipts covering the cost.  As fuel costs have increased so sharply, the approved rates - the part of the 45p that the taxman is happy to accept as representing the cost of fuel - have just been increased once more.  The new list of rates is here:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cars/advisory_fuel_current.htm

The new rates are to be applied from 1 September.  If you're VAT registered, not on the flat-rate scheme, and failing to reclaim VAT on your mileage costs at all, you should start.  You can even reclaim some of the VAT you've missed out on in the past - get in touch with us to find out how.

www.fizzhq.com

New National Minimum Wage rates from October

It's still a way off, but new NMW rates have been announced that will apply from 1 October:

• Adult rate £6.08 (currently £5.93)
• 18-20 year olds £4.98 (currently £4.92)
• 16-17 year olds £3.68 (currently £3.64)
• Apprentice rate £2.60 (currently £2.50)

It's easy to just forget about the change and process the same salaries in October as you did in September, so you might want to make a diary note now if this will affect you.

www.fizzhq.com

Adwords can work

We meet quite a lot of people who tell us that they've tried Google Adwords and it hasn't worked out for them.  Google Adwords, in case you don't know, is paid, click-through advertising.  You pick some search terms (say Plumber Aylesbury) and if anyone searches for that on Google then there's a chance an ad for your business (which you've written) will appear.  If the searcher clicks on it and comes to your website, you pay.

Pretty often, when we look at the website of the person who's told us Adwords doesn't work, it's not very good.  The thing is, it's really a three-step process:

1. Get someone to click on your ad
2. Impress them with your website
3. Impress them personally when they get in touch

Blaming or criticising Adwords when your website isn't up to scratch - or is inconsistent with the kind of click-throughs that you're getting - is missing the point.  It's like telling people to get lost when they phone up and then blaming Yellow Pages.

The further problem is that there are a ton of Adwords consultants in the market now, and some of them are so keen to get business that they'll encourage customers to launch into an Adwords campaign without making sure that steps 2 and 3 are going to work as well.

So, Adwords can work, but - as with any marketing - make sure that you're going to be able to successfully manage the whole process - clicks aren't worth anything in isolation.

www.fizzhq.com

New networking group in Thame

There's a new networking group starting just outside of Thame, on Wednesday 22^nd June (8-10am).  It's part of the 4N Networking group. 

You can find more out about it here:

http://www.4networking.biz/Events/Group/Thame

We've no formal connection with it, but we're very likely to pop along and check it out.  Perhaps we'll see some of you there?

www.fizzhq.com

A semi-serious proposition

Sometimes we think it would be good if there were business networking meetings where participants had to make the accounts of their business available for everyone else to look at.

We regularly download accounts from Companies House to do background research on companies that want to do business with us, or who we've talked to at a networking event of some sort.  Even if they're just the abbreviated accounts that most small companies put on the public record, they can still be revealing.  Often we find that a rosy picture painted by a director is somewhat unrealistic.  Your eagerness to do business with someone is going to be affected - or at least it should be - if their company is £50k in the red, or just hopelessly behind in its preparation of accounts and returns.  If you run a company and we talk to you for more than a couple of minutes, we'll almost certainly download your last accounts and have a look at them, so there isn't any point telling us things that are immediately undermined by the evidence of the public record.

But most people aren't going to check out people's accounts, they'll often just accept the assurances of a director or salesperson at face value.  So I wonder if there would be any demand for a group where full disclosure of accounts is a prerequisite for participation.  Perhaps people just aren't interested in knowing more about who they're doing business with.  But maybe enough are interested that it could have some potential.

And, of course, if you're thinking of doing business with us - download our accounts!

www.fizzhq.com

Small company accounts must remain available to the public

One of the benefits of trading via a limited company is that, if things go wrong, then - assuming you've done nothing wrong or reckless personally - you can walk away from any liabilities that your company can't pay.  The price that you've always had to pay for that privilege is that you have to file documents including annual accounts at Companies House, so that the public can see (in pretty general terms) who is behind the business and how it's doing financially.  If you want to keep that information private, that's absolutely fine - you just don't form a company.  You remain as a sole trader or partnership, and in return for the privacy you consequently accept a greater degree of personal risk if things go wrong.

The idea has now been proposed of exempting small companies from making accounts available at Companies House at all.  So, the shareholders would still have the benefit of being able to walk away if things go wrong, but the public would have no right to see who was behind a business or how it was doing.

That would be grossly unreasonable.  Whenever someone wants to pitch something to us or otherwise do business with us, or when we meet people at networking or other events, we'll routinely download their accounts from Companies House.  And the information this turns up can often be really interesting and relevant.  It's not unusual to find businesses telling the public one story about their prosperity when the accounts tell a very different story.  And sometimes we find that companies are hopelessly in arrears with their own accounts and compliance - which should give pause for thought to anyone thinking of doing business with them.

Take that facility away, and the business is getting the benefits of limited liability without fulfilling their part of the bargain.  However much money that saves, it isn't fair on the public or on other businesses.

www.fizzhq.com

Some better fraudsters

Last night we got a slightly more convincing bogus email than the last couple of feeble attempts:

"Hi

I have tried calling but got no answer. Can you give me a call.

Thanks

Paul Worthing
07031952616"

Googling the phone number immediately revealed it to be a con, but it was at least convincing enough for us to check.  The moral of the story - if you're trying to scam British people then if you get your email written by someone who speaks English as a first language then that's a good start.

www.fizzhq.com