Posts Tagged ‘business planning’

Gift Hold-over Relief

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

This relief will help you to defer capital gains tax (CGT) when you give away chargeable assets or if you sell something subject to CGT for less than its market value. The relief is called Gift Hold-Over Relief and could be claimed if you give away business assets (including certain shares) or sell them for less than they are worth to help the buyer.

Gift Hold-Over Relief means:

  • you don’t pay Capital Gains Tax when you give away the assets
  • the person you give them to pays Capital Gains tax (if any is due) when they sell (or ‘dispose of’) them

Tax isn’t usually payable on gifts to your husband, wife, civil partner or a charity.

Eligibility

The conditions for claiming relief depend on whether you’re giving away business assets or shares.

If you’re giving away business assets you must:

  • be a sole trader or business partner, or have at least 5% of shares and voting rights in a company (known as your ‘personal company’)
  • use the assets in your business or personal company

You can usually get partial relief if you used the assets only partly for your business.

If you’re giving away shares the shares must be in a company that’s either:

  • not listed on any recognised stock exchange
  • your personal company

The company’s main activities must be in trading (e.g. providing goods or services) rather than non-trading activities like investment.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2015 at 12:00 am by Slaters and is filed under Capital Gains Tax, Company Tax, Personal Tax, Tax, Tax planning, Tax relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Business plans

Tuesday, February 17th, 2015

 

Why you need a business plan 

A business plan is a written document that describes your business. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts.

 A business plan helps you to:

  • clarify your business idea
  • spot potential problems
  • set out your goals
  • measure your progress

 

You’ll need a business plan if you want to secure investment or a loan from a bank.

It can also help to convince customers, suppliers and potential employees to support you.

Initially, you should aim to convince yourself that your new business idea is feasible. There is no point in approaching your bank or a potential investor, until you have researched and proven that there is a real possibility that you can achieve two key financial objectives:

  1. Make a profit after paying all expected costs, your remuneration or drawings and taxation. Retaining profits in your business year on year will gradually make you independent of banks and provide you with the funds to expand.
  2. Make a decent return on your investment. You should aim to grow your business by an amount that compensates you for the risks you have taken in starting the business. Most new entrepreneurs invest their own cash and you should ensure that your business plan demonstrates that any retained profits, as a percentage of the net assets of your business, is a decent rate.

 

Find a business mentor

Learn from the mistakes and successes of others. See if you can strike up a friendship with someone who has been successful in business. Someone who you can test out your business ideas and achieve a measure of objectivity.

Take professional advice

Most accountants will have assisted numerous businesses in starting up their business. When you have all your facts and figures to hand take them to your professional advisor who will help you put the finishing touches: prepare the actual business plan.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2015 at 12:00 am by Slaters and is filed under Accountancy, Business, Business planning, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

New rules to safeguard value for money in workplace pensions

Thursday, February 12th, 2015

From April, people automatically enrolled into a workplace pension will see their charges capped at 0.75%, unless they have chosen a more expensive option. The details are set out in draft regulations laid before Parliament on 4 February 2015.

For an average earner currently paying into a fund with a charge of 1.5%, this new cap could save them around £100,000 over the course of their working life. Over the next decade, the default fund charge cap will transfer around £200 million from the pensions industry to savers.

Minister for Pensions Steve Webb said:

Today is an excellent day for pension savers. It is vital that workplace pension schemes are run in the interests of their members and that their hard-earned savings are not eaten away by excessive charges.

Over 5 million people have now been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension and by 2018 millions more will be saving for the first time, or saving more. This is why we are building a pensions system that these workers can save into with confidence – and not see their money disappear in opaque charging structures.

There is an understandable buzz around what April will bring for those retiring now, with the unprecedented pension freedoms coming in. But these reforms show we are also determined to help the pensioners of tomorrow – people working hard and saving hard for their families’ future.

The next stage of the government’s work to ensure full disclosure of costs and charges throughout the value chain is also set out in the February paper – with the plan to publish a joint call for evidence with the Financial Conduct Authority in spring 2015.

Most of the updated draft regulations will come in to force on 6 April 2015, subject to Parliamentary approval.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2015 at 12:00 am by Slaters and is filed under Auto Enrolment, Buy to let, Landlords, Personal Pension, Property, Renting, Workplace Pension. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.