Sheffield based Accountants and Business Advisers
Tel: 0114 288 0775     Email: info@firstaccountancy.co.uk

John Chapman’s Passing


Unfortunately due to a sudden illness John Chapman has passed away. For anyone interested in the funeral next week you can find the details on the memorial card here.



(Click to download the full PDF)

The business is still operating so please don’t panic, and if you have any enquiries please drop us a email at info@firstaccountancy.co.uk or phone the office on 0114 288 0775 and one of our staff will be there to answer any questions you may have.

HMRC announce MTD has been put back to April 6th 2024


As you have probably have heard MTD ITSA has been delayed, so this is what the delay means after reading the new legislation.

MTD ITSA will be delayed until April 6th, 2024 for 

– Self Employed
– Landlords and Property 
 
Regardless of the year-end dates, all of the above clients are mandated to be on MTD compliment software on April 6th, 2024M.

One impact that most businesses may wish to change their year-end to 6th April as it will make it much easier to submit your self assessment using MTD.

The £10k turnover, quarterly reporting, End of period statement + End of year Submission are all staying the same and there will be a slight change in how penalties work.

MTD ITSA will be delayed further until April 6th, 2025 for Partnerships. MTD for all VAT registered businesses to be on software by April 2022 is also staying the same.

If you have a business account with NatWest/RBS/Mettle we can set up a free use of free agent software which is designed for small businesses, also we can assist clients if they are interested on transferring to a different software.

For clients not wishing to transfer onto a computerised system we are looking to operate an inhouse computer system to need the MTD requirements but clients will still be required to provide information quarterly to our office.

The attached from free agent may be of interest to help your understanding.

https://www.freeagent.com/blog/major-changes-mtd-for-itsa/

Happy to speak to you if you require any additional information.

Best Wishes

John Chapman

HMRC Scam


HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) is aware of an automated phone call scam which will tell you HMRC is filing a lawsuit against you, and to press one to speak to a caseworker to make a payment. We can confirm this is a scam and you should end the call immediately. This scam has been widely reported and often targets vulnerable people.

Please call us for advice, do not call them before taking advice.

IR35 Delay


R35 reforms to be delayed for a year due to coronavirus. Chief treasury secretary Steve Barclay last evening announced that the IR35 tax reforms would be pushed back by one year, less than a week after the controversial measures were confirmed in the Budget.

The changes will therefore be scheduled to commence in in April 2021, hopefully the government will look to change the legislation before then.

Stay Outside IR35


Stay Outside IR35

To stay outside IR35 is crucial for the financial health of contractors.

The new rules commence on 1st April 2020 which puts the onus on the contractors to decide if you are within or outside the scope of IR35 if you are a subcontractor operating through limited company.

Nothing is certain in an IR35 case but here we put together some factors that seem to point to Contractors being outside IR35.

Advice for Contractors (courtesy of the Special Commissioner)

Here are the pointers for ordinary contractors, that the Special Commissioner considers helps their case for being a small business rather than an employee. All of these have come out of judgments in IR35 cases at the Special Commissioners. Following these is crucial to stay outside IR35.

Special Commissioners Advice To Stay Outside IR35

  1. Vary your contract hours
  2. State the services you will provide in your contract
  3. Don’t have a fixed end date in your contract
  4. State the work you will do in your contract renewal
  5. Have a Substitution Clause in your contract
  6. Set up a company website
  7. Set up an office
  8. Pay your own traveling expenses
  9. Do something specific for a client company
  10. Have your company name on your badge
  11. Have your company name listed in the Internal Directory
  12. Have your company name in your email address
  13. Don’t use the company sports facilities
  14. No holiday pay or sickness benefits
  15. Use your own equipment
  16. Write a letter to your agency if they don’t pay on time
  17. Have your own company business cards
  18. Charge VAT to your client (individuals do not charge VAT

If you do all of those things, or even most of them, you will be able to stay outside IR35

if you believe the commissioners.

You may find however that companies are just blindly putting everyone inside IR 35 just to minimise risk to them, as they do not wish to carry out individual assessments.

If you wish to discuss this with us please call on 0114 2880775

MTD for VAT CAN WE HELP?


MTD for VAT CAN WE HELP?

MTD for VAT is the name HMRC are using to describe the new VAT regime which commences from 1st April 2019 This is a major change which affects VAT registered businesses with a turnover of £85000, VAT submissions will now have to be submitted in a digital format, clients will no longer be able to use the HMRC portal to submit returns. VAT registered businesses
• All VAT businesses must keep their VAT records stored digitally
• VAT return must be sent via MTD compliant software, to help HMRC to interact digitally with the client.
• Help HMRC to tax in real time
• All VAT registered businesses will now have a single financial account for their business
VAT Notice 700/22 Making Tax Digital for VAT addresses the issue of what constitutes a digital record. Digital records of the required information can be kept in a range of compatible digital formats, but the transfer of that data must be digital.
If you are our clients we would assure you that we are fully complaints to submit VAT returns for MTD for VAT
• If we submit VAT returns for you there will be no change as we we are compliant with MTD for VAT.
• Clients who have up to date software should be able to submit as normal, although check as only the latest version tends to be mtd compliant. You will probably need to set up a new account with HMRC.
• If your system is not up to date or you use spreadsheets to work out your VAT we can provide a MTD for VAT filing service if that makes your life easier.
If you are not a customer of our practice please contact us on 0114 2489508 as we can help you with VAT for MTD in a number of ways to cope with this change in VAT rules. We offer free MTD software for our clients ig they wish to use this, including submission through our in house bridging software.
Please note MTD for VAT commences with your first VAT return after 1st April 2019:which must be filed as follows.
• By 7th August 2019 for VAT quarter to 30th June 2019
• By 7th September 2019 for VAT quarter to 31st July 2019
• By 7th October 2019 for VAT quarter to 31st August 2019
We are happy to hear from you and look forward to answering your questions telephone 0114 2880775 or email info@firstaccountancy.co.uk

Free Offer for Nat West and Royal Bank of Scotland Customers


FreeAgent, the innovative award-winning cloud accounting company which is appropriate for freelancers and small businesses.

Free Agent has launched a new set of licences specifically for accountants with clients that bank with the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.

Under the move, the company – whose award-winning software is designed for accountants working with small businesses and contractors – will now enable accountancy practices to add their new clients to FreeAgent for free, provided that they have either an RBS or NatWest business bank account.

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of Free Agent said: “We’re delighted to be able to now give accountancy practices throughout the country the chance to enjoy the benefits of our RBS and NatWest relationship.

More information on Free Agent is available on their website

Freeagent/

“Furthermore, as FreeAgent was recently added to HMRC’s list of software providers that are ready for the introduction of MTD for VAT, it also means that accountants and small business owners banking with RBS and NatWest now have access to a free, MTD-ready solution. We envisage that this will prove very popular.

For our clients, if they have a business account with the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest. We can set up free access to the software.

We can discuss with all clients about your requirements and can advise if the free agent software is suitable for your organisation or signpost you to one more suitable software if your requirements are more complex.

Make certain that you are not caught out as HMRC change the way you have to submit VAT returns.


From 1st April 2019 there is a major change affecting VAT registered businesses with a turnover of £85000, VAT submissions will now have to be submitted in a digital format, clients will no longer be able to use the HMRC portal to submit returns.

• All VAT businesses must keep their VAT records stored digitally
• VAT return must be sent via MTD compliant software, to help HMRC to interact digitally with the client.
• Help HMRC to tax in real time
• All VAT registered businesses will now have a single financial account for their business

VAT Notice 700/22 Making Tax Digital for VAT addresses the issue of what constitutes a digital record. Digital records of the required information can be kept in a range of compatible digital formats, but the transfer of that data must be digital.

If you are using software the accountancy software provider will ensure that these changes are integrated however the software MUST be the current version so many clients may have to upgrade which will bring added expense.

The good news is our clients do not need to worry about this as we can give advice and assist you.

We use the BTC MTD Solution, this enables us to validate and submit VAT in a MTD compliant format from a number of different sources.
Unlike many of the MTD solutions this has greater flexibility in working with bookkeeping software and spreadsheets. So this can help us meet MTD requirements, we can use your existing methods of work as it integrates as below:

• Integrates with VT Software
• Software integrates through API’s with Zero, Quichbooks , FreeAgent ,Reckon One etc
• CSV imports can also be imported from other programmes
• It is intended to be spreadsheet friendly so we will be able to import from spreadsheets (single and multiple)

We are happy to hear from you and look forward to answering your questions

HMRC Dynamic Tax Coding


HMRC have introduced computer controlled updates to tax codes which can affect your cash flow
The new system has recently started and a number of clients have received new tax codes for the current tax year ending 5th April 2018 . They do not seem to have coded into the calculations, anything about clients paying through self assessment,
A number of clients who have submitted Self Assessment returns have received tax coding to collect the money by 5th April 2018, so if these go through and the SA return is paid the client may pay twice.
This effects mainly directors of limited companies and employees with other incomes eg dividend income, property income etc
So if clients receive these codes they should contact their accountant to avoid problems.