I must agree with Giles - we should just accept that our corporate clients have had a great deal for a long time. For many clients, dividends are still more tax effective than salary with Class 1 NIC employee, not forgetting employer NIC if not covered by EA, and still cheaper than self employed income with Class 4 NIC at 9%.
Next step for the Chancellor is to stop multi nationals avoiding UK tax on turnover from UK citizens. Do we all really believe that Facebook, and other famous names made such tiny profit in the UK, or from UK customers that little or no UK tax is due ??
Completely agree with the earlier comments. I see that a lot of small companies currently using FRSSE will have to operate FRS 102 because they are above the Micro company threshold - simplification or what ?
It is just a load of twaddle (polite wording), and means absolutely nothing to sme owners, indeed they will just look at us as if we've lost our marbles - a loan of £50,000 to go on the accounts at say £48,999, or some other fictitious value; I'm sure that makes no sense to the client or to the bank or to HMRC.
No doubt some will say that it puts "real" value into the balance sheet, but it doesn't - because different people will use different discount rates, and no-one will consider inflation anyway.
I've tried explaining to one client who enters into forward currency contracts to fund the purchase of materials bought in US $, and explained how the accounts will have to reflect spot rates for the derivative contract at the year end instead of the contract rate - his expression was priceless !
Let us at least prepare accounts that the we, the client, the bank and the taxman understand.
My client has received a bill for PAYE Month 12 which is not due. After spending about 2.5 hours on the telephone I am told that the March EPS which was submitted on 31 March, with HMRC confirming email received, was just posted by HMRC into a "pending" file and then entered as received on the day HMRC decided to process it at the beginning of May. No generic notice issued, but HMRC thought it would assume that £272 would be due for PAYE for month 12 and just instructed Debt Management Office to chase this fictitious debt. HMRC representative says it's not her fault - ok not her personally - but it is HMRC's fault and they now have the nerve to say it take at least 2 months to correct !
How dare HMRC state publicly that the system is fine. Woe betide anyone chasing my client for this fictitious debt again !! .... and there will be a complaint, with bill, for wasted time to date
... and another thing Absolutely right about the id confirmation. If I get an unsolicited phone call from someone who cannot or will not confirm their identity to me then I will not discuss even the time of day with them. If HMRC call me they should at least know my Agent ID number or be able to refer to a date of a submission. Data protection laws can result in severe penalties for disclosing information to third parties and I for one am not going to Court for trusting someone allegedly calling on behalf of HMRC or anyone else. The same applies to Banks !!!!!!
I know history is important but all that was all 25 - 30 years ago now. Isn't it time to move on.
I for one am a bit fed up of hearing that every ill today is down to events of 30 years ago when times and circumstances were different. We can't keep blaming everything wrong today on what happened so long since. What about the actions, or inactions of all the Governments since Margaret Thatcher ? .... and what about people taking responsibility for their own characters .... and what about the "Powers That Be" today actually doing something coherent instead of just looking for tomorrow's headline and then changing their minds (wishful thinking on my part) when someone asks a sensible question.
This is not a party political comment ... but are you listening Dave, Nick and George any more than Tony or Gordon did ?
My answers
still a good deal
I must agree with Giles - we should just accept that our corporate clients have had a great deal for a long time. For many clients, dividends are still more tax effective than salary with Class 1 NIC employee, not forgetting employer NIC if not covered by EA, and still cheaper than self employed income with Class 4 NIC at 9%.
Next step for the Chancellor is to stop multi nationals avoiding UK tax on turnover from UK citizens. Do we all really believe that Facebook, and other famous names made such tiny profit in the UK, or from UK customers that little or no UK tax is due ??
FRS 102
Completely agree with the earlier comments. I see that a lot of small companies currently using FRSSE will have to operate FRS 102 because they are above the Micro company threshold - simplification or what ?
It is just a load of twaddle (polite wording), and means absolutely nothing to sme owners, indeed they will just look at us as if we've lost our marbles - a loan of £50,000 to go on the accounts at say £48,999, or some other fictitious value; I'm sure that makes no sense to the client or to the bank or to HMRC.
No doubt some will say that it puts "real" value into the balance sheet, but it doesn't - because different people will use different discount rates, and no-one will consider inflation anyway.
I've tried explaining to one client who enters into forward currency contracts to fund the purchase of materials bought in US $, and explained how the accounts will have to reflect spot rates for the derivative contract at the year end instead of the contract rate - his expression was priceless !
Let us at least prepare accounts that the we, the client, the bank and the taxman understand.
RTI alerts
My client has received a bill for PAYE Month 12 which is not due. After spending about 2.5 hours on the telephone I am told that the March EPS which was submitted on 31 March, with HMRC confirming email received, was just posted by HMRC into a "pending" file and then entered as received on the day HMRC decided to process it at the beginning of May. No generic notice issued, but HMRC thought it would assume that £272 would be due for PAYE for month 12 and just instructed Debt Management Office to chase this fictitious debt. HMRC representative says it's not her fault - ok not her personally - but it is HMRC's fault and they now have the nerve to say it take at least 2 months to correct !
How dare HMRC state publicly that the system is fine. Woe betide anyone chasing my client for this fictitious debt again !! .... and there will be a complaint, with bill, for wasted time to date
... and another thing
Absolutely right about the id confirmation. If I get an unsolicited phone call from someone who cannot or will not confirm their identity to me then I will not discuss even the time of day with them. If HMRC call me they should at least know my Agent ID number or be able to refer to a date of a submission. Data protection laws can result in severe penalties for disclosing information to third parties and I for one am not going to Court for trusting someone allegedly calling on behalf of HMRC or anyone else. The same applies to Banks !!!!!!
Time to move on ....
I know history is important but all that was all 25 - 30 years ago now. Isn't it time to move on.
I for one am a bit fed up of hearing that every ill today is down to events of 30 years ago when times and circumstances were different. We can't keep blaming everything wrong today on what happened so long since. What about the actions, or inactions of all the Governments since Margaret Thatcher ? .... and what about people taking responsibility for their own characters .... and what about the "Powers That Be" today actually doing something coherent instead of just looking for tomorrow's headline and then changing their minds (wishful thinking on my part) when someone asks a sensible question.
This is not a party political comment ... but are you listening Dave, Nick and George any more than Tony or Gordon did ?