Monthly Archive for October, 2011

Consult.Autus Ltd joins ICAEW Business Advice Service

Published on October 27, 2011 in Our news. 0 Comments

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has recently launched its Business Advice Service (www.businessadviceservice.com) to promote the use of ICAEW Chartered Accountants to businesses.

Participating ICAEW member firms offer initial meetings free of charge to SMEs and start-ups to discuss their business needs. After the no obligation initial meeting, it can then be decided whether a business association (short- or long-term) is valuable to the client. The service is being offered, to a certain degree, to replace the local Business Link services which are in the process of being withdrawn.

Only firms participating in the service are identified on www.icaewfirms.co.uk with the ’BAS’ symbol to allow users of the site to easily identify which firms are participating in the service.

Consult.Autus Ltd is pleased to confirm that it is a ‘founder member’ of the scheme, which has been endorsed by Lord Digby Jones, the Mayor of London and Minister of State for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk, amongst others.

Rob Bell, managing director of consult.Autus Ltd, says “The service is an excellent new initiative from the ICAEW.  In these tough times, for any business to have the best business and financial support in place, allowing it to focus on its core offering, is critical to the point of being able to make the difference between strength and bare survival.”

If you are a new or growing business, and you need advice on a range of issues (setting up, business planning, cash flow management, budgeting, employment issues, management information, systems etc amongst many others) then please feel free to contact us for the initial free consultation. More information, and local searches, available from www.businessadviceservice.com.

Taxman Targets Private Tutors

Published on October 18, 2011 in Tax. 0 Comments

Further to my June ‘heads-up’ on Big Brother’s tax collector, HMRC have announced its latest campaign to recover some of the estimated £35 billion unpaid tax – they are next targeting private tutors, of which they estimate there are some half a million!

HMRC’s Tax Catch-up Plan (TCP) gives tutors and coaches the ‘opportunity’ to declare their outstanding tax for the year to April 2010. There is a deadline for declaring an ‘intention to disclose earnings’ of 6 January 2012, followed by a payment deadline of 31 March. Based on the declarations, HMRC may impute up to six years’ worth of tax, and an option may be available to pay in installments.

HMRC state that those making a declaration by this deadline will receive ‘the best possible terms’ for paying the overdue tax, and any penalties are unlikely to be more than 20 per cent of the unpaid tax. HMRC confirmed that those who wait to be found out will face higher penalties or even criminal prosecutions.

Many tutors give private lessons to supplement their income from the ‘day job’, they are likely to be paid in cash and may not declare their earnings to the tax man; my opinion is that many may not even sit down and consider whether these earnings are taxable or not.

This latest announcement follows similar ‘amnesties’ for plumbers, doctors and dentists, and will target tutors teaching academic subjects, fitness and dance, musical instruments, art etc.

Head of HMRC Campaigns, Marian Wilson, commented “Our campaigns…ensure tax is paid so that the money is available to spend on public services used by everyone. We are making it as easy as possible for [tutors] to use this unique opportunity to put their tax affairs in order”.

And now for the Big Brother bit…she added “We are using various intelligence sources to identify and target those who do not take advantage of this opportunity to declare their full income. The message is clear: contact us before we contact you.”

Clearly, many tutors (unless they are tutoring in tax law) may struggle with potentially complex tax declarations and any future tax returns. As ever, the advice must be to make contact with an independent tax advisor if you have any concerns – preferably before Big Brother finds you.