Many small companies, including those providing professional services to clients, perform a lot of work from home. One of the most frequently asked questions by directors is what expenses can you legitimately claim back against your company? Here is a breakdown of claiming home office expenses.
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Over 672,890 start-up businesses were launched in the UK in the tax year 2018/19 – that’s equivalent to 1,844 new businesses per day. However it is a sad, but the inevitable, fact that not all of these will succeed in the long term. So what can you do to try and tip the scales in your favour? One of the most important things is making sure that you get off to a good start, so here are some tips for starting a small business, given by Jeff Barber, Partner at Selling My Business.
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If you’re self-employed, you can claim for a wide range of expenses against your tax bill, although you have to be careful to only apportion costs which have been genuinely incurred in the running of your business. Here is how to claim home office expenses as a sole trader.
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With the pandemic creating thousands of job losses across the country, the government has launched the ‘Kickstart’ scheme to create jobs for young people. There is a risk, especially for young people who may face a long time of unemployment. This scheme looks to help young people gain skills and training in their field.

Responding to the coronavirus lockdown protocols, many businesses have embraced remote working as a safer, sometimes more convenient, alternative to being in the office. This has been widespread and will, in the long-term, likely normalise the practice of remote working. Yet, as a less than desirable short-term side-effect, many organisations are overlooking basic compliance with tax regulations and data protection laws.

Hiring the right people for your team is both a science and an art. You might have a very clear idea about the qualifications and experience you require for a role, but how do you find the right person among the many candidates with similar credentials? It requires rigorous enquiry, intuition, experimentation and knowledge of the key areas to consider.

If your contracts are caught by the IR35 rules, the financial impact will be considerable. Here, we look at the tax difference you will incur if you are inside or outside IR35.
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Once you’ve started up a new venture, you’ll need to ensure that you have banking facilities in place before you can start trading. So, do you need to set up a small business bank account for your business, or can you use your own personal bank account?

Value Added Tax is charged on almost all products and services provided in the UK. The current standard rate is 20%. If your business becomes VAT-registered, you will charge VAT on all invoices you submit to your clients.
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Salary aside, most limited company directors (and shareholders) typically draw down most of their income in the form of dividends. Dividends are distributed by companies of all types in order to return a proportion of company profits back to their shareholders. Here we look at what are company dividends and how to calculate them.
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Every small business wants success, but achieving this goal can be challenging and demanding. The good news is that there are ways to capture your audience’s attention and assist them on their journey to find your products. There are plenty of eCommerce strategies that can help you impress customers enough so that they come back for more products and services.

2020 has brought on more challenges than small businesses were prepared to deal with. One of them is the rise in cyber attacks taking advantage of the panic caused by the pandemic. To give businesses some breathing room, we’ll be exploring what no-logs VPNs are and how they can stem the tide of hacking activity and mass surveillance.

If you are facing business challenges, they can conspire to make us feel down and sap our energy and enthusiasm, which is not good for business. Consider what it would be like if you could have a positive mindset permanently! If these things didn’t affect you negatively but could be faced without fear or stress?

When your company turnover reaches the ‘VAT threshold’ (currently £85,000) in a twelve-month period, you must register for limited company VAT. Even if you don’t, there may be professional reasons why you would want to register anyway. So, how does the VAT registration for limited companies work?

We’ve had recent good news in relation to vaccines but also a reminder that Covid-19 will be with us for some time yet. This means it is very important for all small businesses to have processes in place so that you can keep going safely and without business owners feeling too much weight on their shoulders.

Having a digital marketing campaign that does not use a stable strategy for SEO is similar to driving on an unfamiliar road without using a roadmap. The chances of success become slim as you are not able to find a way. SEO is a tool that can be used to let the customers find you on the internet. The continuous changes in the Google search algorithms and the cut-throat competition in the market makes it necessary to improve your SEO techniques constantly. You are constantly required to adapt to the movement of these algorithms.

Scope creep is a silent killer for many projects as we don’t typically catch these issues until it’s too late. This phenomenon happens when your project’s scope grows beyond what you originally anticipated. A high scope happens when a client has too many edit rounds, your team spends too long on a project or even when your boss’ standards are way too high.

Readers questions:  I’m in my first year of running my limited company, and I am the Director and only employee. I haven’t paid myself any salary in this tax year yet, because I earnt a salary in this tax year before I set up my business. My Limited Company will reach it’s one year anniversary in mid-May 2020. My question is, is it tax efficient to pay myself £8632 next financial year, and before mid-May when my Limited Company reaches its 1st anniversary, to minimise corporation tax payment?

Influencer marketing is no longer just an optional strategy to help you get a few more followers. Over the past few years, it has proven to be an effective way to significantly improve brand awareness.