Blog Posts: September 2011

There seems to be a never ending stream of initiatives from HMRC relating to how they handle tax enquiries where (rightly or wrongly) they consider that something needs explaining. Now HMRC’s procedures are being streamlined with the aim of reducing the time an enquiry takes. Specifically there will now be 4 levels of enquiry under the Single Compliance Process (SCP). At what they call level 1 they are reducing the time taken to just 1.5 days. That’s for very simple enquiries wher....

With reduced economic growth meaning potentially less buying activity from existing customers now is certainly not the time to cut marketing investment, indeed it is probably time to increase marketing spend in order to replace potentially falling sales. However, for many, effective marketing can be elusive unless you go back to first principles. Proper marketing will enable you to identify your target customer, enable you to provide services that the customers want and enable you to retain th....

There will be few business owners who haven’t dreamt of being offered a multi-million pound inducement to sell their company. But for most it remains just that, a dream. You can take some steps towards making that dream a reality however, once you’ve decided that selling your business is the right move for you. Business succession planning or exit is something many business owners put off, often to the point where it’s too late. My advice to every business owner is the same &....

It is always frustrating when a client tells me of a financial transaction they have just completed without thinking to consider the tax implications first. In many ways it is not unreasonable for clients to assume that the transaction they are undertaking is straightforward and nothing can be done to improve it. However, there are a surprising number of ways to reduce tax that most people would know nothing about. Here are some examples: Mitigate stamp duty on property purchases It is lega....

It may sound futuristic but in fact web based accounting , in the cloud, is now a reality for many small and medium sized businesses around the world. For many it allows them to delegate a non-core activity and reap the full benefits of outsourcing. Yet, I’ve been surprised how few local businesses in Birmingham have embraced the major advantages offered by ‘the cloud’. Over my twenty odd years in the accountancy profession I’ve been searching for a solution to an age o....