Artaius Limited Stevenage : Outsourced Accounting, UK VAT advice, Inward Investment & Company Formation
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ARTAIUS - DECEMBER 2011 NEWSWIRE
Welcome to this Festive edition of the Artaius Newsletter!
We have been off on our travels again delivering seminars in conjuction with UK Trade and Investment, this time to a new destination...Turkey! you can read more about this in our Marketing update below.
Christmas and New Year for most people include catching up with friends and family.....and getting the dreaded Tax return information collated to meet the January 31st Filing deadline! Francis Hudson from our tax team shares with us some useful pointers regarding self assesment in our tax update below.
We hope you find this edition of our newsletter interesting and if you would like any further information on any of the articles below or would like help and guidance on any other issue please do not hesitate to contact us at advice@artaius.com.
Happy reading!
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Oxford House, Campus 6, Caxton Way, Stevenage Herts, SG1 2XD
Also at: 235 Old Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5QT
Tel: +44 (0) 1438 758 100
Fax: +44 (0) 1438 847 150
Email:advice@artaius.com |
 HR Update
Artaius are delighted to announce the Launch of our new Outsourced HR service from 1st December.
Why outsource your HR needs to Artaius Limited?
There are numerous advantages to outsourcing your HR requirements to Artaius Limited. These include reduced costs, improved efficiency, and direct access to the kind of expertise that a company may not have, be able to build, or even afford on a full-time basis internally .
Typical reasons for outsourcing the HR function include:
- Reduce internal HR costs and improve efficiency
- To help support and facilitate change - whether the business is growing or facing the challenge of streamlining its operations how it handles its people and employment issues will go a long way towards determining its success.
- False economies - businesses often rely on line managers to undertake additional specialist HR functions and roles to save money - this often proves to be a false economy.
- Knowledge of the UK - companies moving into the UK may have little or no experience of operating within the UK's legal framework and employment culture. Using our outsourced HR services saves you money and time consuming mistakes.
- Reducing the risk to your business - we can review contracts and undertake a range of activities to ensure that your business operates within the letter of the law. Employment tribunals are both time-consuming and costly.
- Improving staff retention levels - high staff turnover will adversely affect your business and cost you a fortune in recruitment fees. There are a number of things we can do to help, including exit interviews to understand why staff are leaving.
- In addition to the tangible benefits, HR outsourcing offers a wide range of less measurable but equally important benefits. For example, the ability to effect major change and improvements to processes through the fresh perspective and independent status of Artaius Limited. We can also help the HR function shift from being an administrative function to a strategic one matched to the business objectives of the business.
Why not call us on 01438 758100 to see what we can do for your business. |
COMPANY SERVICES
Single Person Corporate Form considered by The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
One of the key objectives of the Companies Act was to simplify company law for small companies. Despite this there remains a large difference between small companies as defined by the Act (up to £6.5 million turnover) and the smaller single person business.
BIS are considering the issues again and are keen to promote the idea of new legislation to govern small single person companies and significantly reduce the requirements for filing for such companies.
Artaius will keep you posted with developments and any consultations in this area.
Red Tape Challenge
From 26th January 2012 there is to be a three week focus on company law, as part of the Red Tape Challenge, which the government is using to try to fulfil its policy of reducing regulatory burdens.
In advance of this, Companies House are anticipating and promoting this period of focus and are seeking our views in advance. These views will be fed to BIS officials to help them prepare for and consider possible amendments at an early stage.
If you wish to make any comments on regulatory matters that you consider burdensome, Artaius would be interested in hearing your views. These could be put to Companies House by Artaius without mentioning specific respondents but with a hope to influencing the matters for consideration.
Please contact Ian Saunders if you would like to make any comments.
Electronic Registration of Charges
At some point in 2012 and subject to all the relevant regulations being passed by Parliament, Companies House will implement the electronic registration of charges. This should simply and reduce the costs associated with registration. Artaius will watch carefully and inform you nearer the time of the date of introduction and will ensure that our company secretarial software will be able to deal with such registrations. |
TAX UPDATE
As we fast approach the holiday season, with retailers advertising on the television in order to grab their share of a UK public's reduced Christmas budget, the Artaius tax team are working busily to ensure our clients' UK self assessment tax returns are completed in time to file the return and pay the correct tax due before the 31 January 2012 deadline.
This year sees a number of important changes impacting on the tax return process. Of note is the change to the penalty regime for filing a tax return late. This has been changed with effect from 6 April 2011. Non mitigable penalties will now be imposed for filing late even if no tax or a refund is due!
These penalties start at £100 and rise quickly to over £1,600 depending on how late the return is - daily penalties of £10 start after three months. In addition both interest and 5% surcharges arise if any tax due is not paid on time.
Further, for those tax clients with fee insurance, to cover the cost of professional fees in the event of HM Revenue & Customs enquiring into the return, such late filing of a tax return will normally invalidate any fee insurance policy that may exist.
Another change of note is that for the tax year concerned 2010/11 running from 6 April 2010 to 5 April 2011, a number of changes occurred to the tax system that have led to increased tax liabilities for most higher paid taxpayers.
Firstly for those earning over £100,000, the UK Personal Allowance is removed - this effectively creates an income tax rate of 60% on the first £12,950 of taxable income above £100,000. Secondly the 50% tax rate on income over £150,000 was introduced. This, combined with restrictions on tax relief on pension contributions, means that the above interest and penalties for late filing and payment can soon add up.
For individuals coming to the UK from abroad this is even more important as the UK system requires action to be taken on first arriving, in order to register with HM Revenue & Customs and file tax returns and pay tax if necessary.
Artaius is experienced in dealing with such matters to ensure that our clients and key employees meet their UK tax obligations.
For more information concerning UK tax returns please contact Francis Hudson at Artaius Limited. |
VAT UPDATE
'Salary sacrifice' arrangements.....new rules
Important VAT changes are to be introduced on 1 January 2012 that could affect a business that gives benefits to staff in return for a reduced salary.
The arrangement in question is known as a 'salary sacrifice' agreement and VAT will be due on the value of the salary sacrificed by the employee if the benefit he receives is subject to VAT e.g. the use of a cycle paid by the employer, or the benefit of gym membership. There is no problem if the benefit in question is exempt from VAT e.g. in relation to childcare.
The new procedures can be best illustrated by a practical example. Further guidance can be found on the HMRC website www.hmrc.gov.uk.
Example
- London Bank gives John (an employee) the opportunity to use a company bike, linked to the bank's cycle to work scheme. A deduction of £36 a month will be made from John's salary to cover the costs to the bank.
VAT position - the salary deduction represents payment for a standard rated supply by the bank - output tax of £6 must be accounted for by the bank on each deduction from John's salary slip. This treatment has always applied.
Example
- London Bank gives Jane (another employee) the opportunity to use a company bike, linked to the bank's cycle to work scheme. Jane's annual salary for 2012 calendar year will be reduced from £18,000 a year to £17,700 a year to reflect the benefit of the bike.
VAT position - no VAT has been payable on this type of arrangement in the past. However, from 1 January 2012, the VAT treatment of salary sacrifice and salary deduction arrangements will be the same. From this date, Jane is deemed to be paying the bank for a standard rated service worth £300 a year, so output tax of £50 a year will be payable to HMRC (i.e. based on a 20% rate of VAT).
HMRC have confirmed that the previous rules can continue to apply to those salary sacrifice arrangements in place before 27 July 2011, and which extend beyond 31 December 2011, but only until either the agreement is completed or the date of an employee's annual salary review, whichever happens first. If an employee's salary is reviewed but the salary sacrifice arrangement continues, then output tax will be due (if the benefit is taxable) after that date i.e. the new rules will apply.
Key message - be aware of HMRC's changed view that output tax will be due on both 'salary sacrifice' and 'salary deduction' arrangements after 1 January 2012, assuming the service/goods provided in return for the sacrifice or deduction are standard rated. |
 Business Records Checks - Update
You may have read about HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) latest initiative called the "Business Record Check". The 2008 Finance Act gave HMRC extended powers to assess the accuracy of financial records kept by both incorporated and unincorporated businesses. HMRC stated that they believed that 40% of the nation's 4.9 million small and medium sized businesses failed to maintain proper records. HMRC also stated its aim to penalise the 50,000 worst offenders. The maximum penalty was set at £3,000.
The Business Records Check represented a step forwards for HMRC in that it sets out to review business records relating to the current year. Most other forms of enquiry relate to earlier periods for which tax returns have been submitted. In short, HMRC are seeking to shorten the period that they must wait to interrogate financial records, and identify underpayments of tax.
There have been a number of developments since then. The pilot programme was completed in March 2011. However, in September 2011 HMRC announced that it was to scale back the number of companies to be visited from 50,000 per year to 20,000 per year. At the same time, HMRC would increase the number of dedicated staff from 30 to 120. This can be seen as an extension of the pilot programme. HMRC will take a decision on a nationwide roll-out of the scheme in early 2012.
However, it must be remembered that the Business Records Check is only one method by which HMRC can make such enquiries. HMRC also make routine enquiries into PAYE, VAT, Corporation Tax and Income Tax compliance. Each of these four areas is subject to separate penalty regimes.
While one may baulk at HMRC's suggestion that the purpose of the Business Records Check is to help businesses improve their record-keeping, rather than to raise money, it is clear that accurate and timely record-keeping is a characteristic shared by many successful businesses. These developments provide us with another reminder that non-compliance with tax regulations is becoming more costly for businesses. |
Marketing Update
During the month of October Melanie Troiano and Robert Coe of Artaius visited Istanbul and Izmir in Turkey to deliver a series of seminars on "Doing Business in the UK" aimed at Turkish companies looking to expand into the UK Market.
We would like to send our thank you to our hosts at the British Consulate in Istanbul and also the Izmir Chamber of Commerce where the respective seminars were hosted.
The two events were attended by aproximately 80 companies looking to explore the UK market. We were pleased to be accompanied by Paul Salmon from Salans Solicitors and also James Blakemore from Sector Marketing which enabled us to cover all aspects of setting up a UK company, from establishing a market presence through to incorporation of a UK company and the accounting and legal implications of this.
We hope to be back in Turkey next year to continue our ongoing support of Turkish business looking at the UK Market as part of theiur global expansion plans.
Artaius are proud to be members of the Turkish British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TBCCI) here in London and Melanie recently attended the TBCCI conference in Istanbul in order to build and develop new relationships with both Turkish companies and also Turkish Professional Service firms.
For more information regarding our work in Turkey please do not hesitate to contact Melanie who would be too happy to discuss this with you. |
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