Welcome to our round-up of the latest business and tax news for our clients. Please contact us if you want to talk about how these updates affect you. We are here to support you!
I hope you have a good weekend.
Kind regards,
Steve
Steven Hillman BSc (Hons) ACA
Chartered Accountant
Tel: 01934 444100
https://www.hillmans.co.uk
Thinking long term is a key
business strategy
We were finally
getting over the financial crisis when Covid struck. Then, in the trough of the
worst economic downturn in 300 years, we discovered that recovery was driving
the FTSE to new heights and the job market into a frenzy. In the wake of
that, it became clear that the recovery was overheating and that we are now
facing a period of rising inflation and industrial action.
Russia’s war in
Ukraine has made things worse. It has not only meant human suffering – it has
affected the entire global economy, driving up the cost of food and energy. It
adds to the hardship for those on low incomes and means serious food security
risks in the world’s poorest economies.
The economy has
always had its ups and downs, but its resemblance to a roller coaster is
currently more marked than ever.
Businesses of
every size face challenges that are now suppressing growth. A business might
have a great product or service, but without a strategic plan to help it
define, articulate and communicate where it is going, it will be at the mercy
of outside events. We encourage our clients to take some time to think
long-term about their business and to establish goals or targets that you can
control.
A plan starts
with identifying and accessing opportunities within your market and should
address how your business is going to evolve to meet the challenges of today
and the future. The plan gives your business purpose and answers questions
about your long-term goals.
The first step
is to look at five important areas:
- Think long term – invest time in
understanding where the market is going and what this means for your
customers. Short-term decisions do not help grow a business.
- Having a good value proposition is
essential – this states the relevance of your product or service, what it
does and why customers need it. What is yours?
- Expand your reach – who is your target
customer and what do you need to do to let them know you exist and that
your product or service is relevant to them?
- Growth means new people, systems and
(maybe) different ways of doing things. Grow at a pace you can manage.
- How will your marketing get your value
proposition to relevant customers?
Once you have
taken time to write your plan and decide where you want your business to be in
(say) 2 years, the next step is to work out a marketing programme with actions
to make it happen.
A marketing
plan is a business document outlining your marketing strategy and tactics. It
is often focused on a specific period of time (i.e. over the next 12 months)
and covers a variety of marketing-related details, such as costs, goals, and
action steps. But like your business plan, a marketing plan is not a static
document. The plan should outline:
1. How you are going to keep existing
customers happy and returning to buy more often.
2. What the goals are for getting new
customers.
3. The marketing methods you are
going to use to achieve 1 and 2.
We specialise
in helping our clients manage their businesses. We do this by preparing and
updating detailed forecasts, using the latest and most powerful software.
Please
talk to us about strategic planning. We can help with a template so you can do
this yourself or work together to produce estimates for various scenarios and
help you take control of your business!
Bills and Notes Guarantee
UK Export
Finance has launched a new product to help support SMEs through challenging
market conditions.
The new Bills and Notes product is now open to guarantee
payments by overseas buyers. The product will be available to more financial
institutions with a simpler, more streamlined process.
Bills and Notes
are a standard method of payment where money is due under bills of exchange or
promissory notes. UKEF has now improved its offer to enable overseas buyers of
UK goods to benefit from extended payment terms structured using these methods.
Simply put, it
means that small UK businesses can get paid more quickly and easily for their
exports.
See: Bills and Notes Guarantee - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
HMRC reduce advisory fuel rate for
petrol company cars
HMRC has
announced their suggested reimbursement rates for employees' private mileage
using their company car from 1 December 2022, which are summarized in the table
below. The rates have been reduced in line with the recent fall in petrol
prices. However, diesel prices remain the same and LPG reimbursement rates have
increased.
Remember, that
provided all private fuel is fully reimbursed by the employee/director, the
fuel benefit does not apply.
|
Engine Size |
Petrol |
Diesel |
LPG |
|
1400cc or
less |
14p (15p) |
|
10p (9p) |
|
1600cc or
less |
|
14p |
|
|
1401cc to
2000cc |
17p (18p) |
|
12p (11p) |
|
1601 to
2000cc |
|
17p |
|
|
Over 2000cc |
26p (27p) |
22p |
18p (17p) |
Where the
employer’s policy is that they do not pay for any fuel for the company car,
these are the amounts that can be reimbursed to the employee in respect of
qualifying business journeys for the payments to be tax-free. Where there has
been a change, the rate for the previous quarter is shown in brackets. You can
continue to use the previous rates for up to 1 month from the date the new
rates apply.
Note that for
hybrid cars, you must use the petrol or diesel rate. For fully electric cars,
the rate is now 8p per mile (previously 5p per mile).
Self-Assessment: don’t forget to
declare COVID-19 payments
HMRC is
reminding taxpayers that they must declare COVID-19 payments in their tax
return for the 2021 to 2022 tax year.
These grants
are taxable and should be declared on tax returns for the 2021 to 2022 tax year
before the deadline on 31 January 2023.
The
Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) application and payment windows
during the 2021 to 2022 tax year were:
●
SEISS
4: 22 April 2021 to 1 June 2021
●
SEISS
5: 29 July 2021 to 30 September 2021
SEISS is not
the only COVID-19 support scheme that should be declared on tax returns. If
taxpayers received other support payments during the 2021 to 2022 tax year,
they may need to report this on their tax return if they are:
●
Self-employed
●
In
a partnership
●
A
business
See: Self Assessment: don’t forget to declare COVID-19
payments - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Data protection employment
practices: monitoring at work draft guidance
The Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is producing topic-specific guidance on employment
practices and data protection. The ICO is releasing drafts of the different
topic areas in stages and adding to the resource over time. A draft of the
guidance on monitoring at work is now out for public consultation.
The draft
guidance aims to provide practical guidance about monitoring workers in
accordance with data protection legislation and to promote good practice.
The public
consultation on the draft guidance and draft impact assessment will remain open
until 11 January 2023.
Artificial Intelligence for
Decarbonisation Innovation Programme
The Department
for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched
the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Decarbonisation Innovation Programme.
It will support the development of innovative artificial intelligence
technologies for decarbonisation applications to support the transition to net
zero.
The programme
will also promote coordination and collaboration between AI and carbon-emitting
sectors in the United Kingdom in order to maximise the economic and carbon
benefits of AI solutions in solving our most critical decarbonisation
challenges.
See: Apply for the Artificial Intelligence for Decarbonisation
Innovation Programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Resource efficiency for materials
and manufacturing competition
Innovate UK has
launched a competition which will invest up to £1 million in innovation
projects to improve resource efficiency. The aim of this competition is to
support United Kingdom materials and manufacturing organisations to become more
resource efficient. Simultaneous demonstrations of how UK materials and
manufacturing will become more resilient or technologically advanced are
encouraged.
Circular fashion recycling and
sorting demonstrator
Innovate UK are
to invest up to £4 million in an innovation project. This will be to develop
and demonstrate closed-loop recycling for the fashion and textile sector at
scale. This is the initial activity of a £15 million UK Research and Innovation
Circular Fashion Programme.
The aim of this
competition is to fund a research and development activity demonstrator. This
will demonstrate new technologies, services, processes and business models
capable of addressing the recycling and sorting challenges, as part of the UK’s
fashion and textile sector and their direct supply chains.
Future flight skills gap
competition
The future
flight challenge for Innovate UK will invest up to £500,000 in projects to
close aviation industry skills gaps.
The aim of the
competition is to create and deliver course content and materials that will
support skills, talent and training across the future flight sector. The
purpose of this is to build awareness of future flight emerging markets and
fill key gaps in the United Kingdom's workforce talent and training
capabilities.
Projects can
deliver one or more of these objectives:
●
Schools’
engagement
●
Apprenticeships
and internships
●
Upskilling
and reskilling of existing workforce
●
Technical
courses and vocational training
●
Undergraduate,
postgraduate and continuing professional development (CPD)
Airlines, airports and passengers
to have their say on independent aviation regulator
The government
has launched a call for evidence as part of its
review of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s independent aviation
regulator.
Open to all
interested parties, it will provide an opportunity for anybody who uses
the CAA or is affected by its work – including airlines, airports,
pilots and passengers – to provide insight and evidence to inform the
government review, on everything from the CAA’s strategy to its organisation
and performance.
The call for
evidence will close on 22nd January 2023. It will ask questions such as whether
the CAA has the right powers to effectively regulate the aviation
market, whether its charges are good value for money and whether it is
effectively structured.
Funding for the country’s
woodlands and timber industry
Projects that
tackle some of the greatest threats to trees and forests will get government
funding, it was announced last week. This is alongside additional investment
announced for local authority tree planting initiatives which will see hundreds
of thousands of trees planted in communities across England.
The funding
aims to drive long-term woodland creation efforts, create jobs, boost
biodiversity and support innovative approaches to tree health and resilience,
in the face of climate change and the mounting threat of pests and diseases.
Successful
applicants include:
●
The
University of Lincoln’s ISILDUR project, which will work with tree nurseries to
address labour shortages in the forest nursery sector by developing an
intelligent robotics solution for plant processing.
●
The
University of Cambridge’s TIMBER project, which is designing and creating
prototypes for new building materials to drive home-grown, low-carbon and
long-lasting construction nationwide.
●
Red
Squirrel South West, which will be given funding to develop a management
programme for invasive grey squirrels across a 35-mile stretch of native North
Exmoor coastal woodland, helping to regenerate woodlands and supporting the
reintroduction of native species like red squirrels.
The United
Kingdom consumes 53 million tonnes of wood and wood products each year;
however, 81% is imported from abroad. The major investment announced today will
support projects developing new technologies and working practices to help
homegrown timber production meet a greater proportion of domestic demand. This
will help to improve timber security and grow the United Kingdom’s forestry and
primary wood processing sectors, which support 30,000 jobs and contribute over
£2 billion to our economy every year.
See: Funding boost for country’s woodlands and timber industry
- GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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