For us, there are two main reasons why every small business should be using a card reader to take payments from clients. And they are: customers spend up to 100% more when they use a card compared to when they use cash, and that feeling of going into a retail premises, picking out what you […]
Business Electricity Suppliers for 2021
Competition among the business electricity suppliers in the UK is intense since the market was deregulated more than a decade ago. There are now well over 40 direct suppliers providing the UK’s companies with electricity and dozens more energy brokers. For most business customers, there’s always a benefit in switching electricity supplier to help reduce […]
Best Commercial Mortgage Rates
Entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors actively seeking a commercial mortgage could lock in some of the lowest and best commercial mortgage rates in history right now. That’s not an exaggeration – the Bank of England’s base rate has never been this low since it was established way back in 1694. Despite this, competition amongst mortgage […]
Best Free Business Bank Accounts
Free business banking – this is a welcome development that’s been a long time coming. We’re so used to free personal banking in the UK that, when most of us open a business bank account for the first time, we are surprised to find out that we had to pay a monthly fee (and much […]
Bad Credit Business Bank Accounts with No Credit Check
Do you want to open a new bank account for your business but you’re concerned that a bad credit score might mean that you’re not able to? In years gone by, you would have genuinely struggled to find a bank willing to work with you. Slowly but surely, things are beginning to change. There are […]
Best Business Bank Accounts For 2021
Which providers offer the best business bank accounts? And what makes it the best? Are the best business bank accounts necessarily the cheapest business bank accounts? There is so much competition now in the business bank account sector that it might actually be better and more productive for your company to open an account with […]
Sole Trader Vs Limited Company
What you want to know is whether you should set up as a sole trader or a limited company. On most occasions, we recommend a limited company. And in this article, we’re going to explore why. Setting up a limited company doesn’t offer all the advantages it did ten years ago. However, for us, the […]
Capital gains allowances
Capital gains tax becomes payable on the profit that you make when you sell (dispose) of an assets whose value has increased in the time that you’ve owned it. You can claim capital gains allowances as you can find out in this article. Just as with your income tax annual personal allowance, there’s a capital […]
Fuel scale charges
Claiming VAT on mileage is a benefit you should only take advantage of if you provide free fuel to employees (for both business and personal use) and reclaim all of the VAT on that fuel. This is done under a scheme called the “fuel scale charge”. You shouldn’t use the fuel scale charge for your […]
Dividend Tax
Dividend tax, for many company directors a favoured way of extracting cash in a tax efficient manner from their business, has become a much worse deal in the last few years. Dividend tax 2015/2016 Dividends are payments distributed by companies in order to return a proportion of their company profits back to its shareholders. Traditionally, […]
How to register for VAT
If you want to know how to register for VAT, this is the article for you. It’s a straightforward process so let’s go through the steps together. What is VAT? VAT is something you need to register for if your business is already or is expecting to be turning over more than £85,000 (around £1,635 […]
Personal Tax Rates and Allowances 2021
Personal tax rates and allowances for 2019/2020 are available online via the HMRC’s website. In this article, we’ll look at when you start paying taxes, how much you’ll pay, and what you’re able to keep for yourself and away from the clutches of the taxman. Personal allowance 2019/2020 2019-2020 2018-2019 2017-2018 2016-2017 Annual personal allowance […]
Corporation Tax Rates 2021
Corporation tax is payable by companies on the profits they make. Corporation tax is only paid by limited companies. If you’re doing business as a sole trader or a partnership, this guide doesn’t apply to you. Corporation tax rates Corporation tax is currently at 19%. The government has set a target for corporation tax to […]
Capital allowances for 2020
Using capital allowances is a great way of reducing the amount of corporation tax your business has to pay. There are lots of different ways to do it as well. Capital allowances 2020 In this article, we look the breaks that are open to business which allow them to keep more of the money they make […]
2020/2021 PAYE tax codes
2020/2021 PAYE tax codes – your guide. All employees (including directors with shareholding) receive a tax code from HMRC which helps employers understand how much tax and National Insurance to deduct from their wages. What should my PAYE tax code be? Tax codes are issued by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) soon after an employee […]