Choose A Low Emission Car And Claim 100% Allowance

19 Jul 2012 / By taxinsider

The annual investment allowance is not available in respect of cars. However, it is still possible to obtain a 100% deduction against profits for a car purchased for your business by choosing a car with very low CO2 emissions, Cars purchased on or before 31 March 2013 qualify for the first-year allowance if the CO2 emissions are 110g/km or less. However, for cars purchased on or after 1 April 2013 and on or before 31 March 2015, the FYA is only available for cars with CO2 emissions of 95g/km or less. Make sure you keep all receipts for expenses incurred in this way.

Example:
John has a small family business and is looking to buy a company car.
He chooses a car that has CO2 emissions of 105 g/km and which cost £15,000.
As the car’s CO2 emissions are less than 110 g/km he can claim a 100% first-year allowance thereby obtaining an immediate write-off against profits of £15,000.
If he pays tax at the small profits rate of 20% (financial year 2012) claiming the 100% FYA rather than an 18% WDA will save tax of £2,460 in that year. Choosing a low emission car also minimizes the benefit in kind tax that John will pay on the company car.

Follow the link http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/camanual/ca23153.htm or see your accountant.e company car.

Setting Up a Credit Control System

Mismanagement of cash flow is the single biggest reason that small businesses go under. Therefore, a good credit control system is an essential part of any business’ accounting procedures. Maintaining consistent cash flow, avoiding bad debt and minimising late payments are essential for survival. Use the following checklist to set up a system.

Things to do

1. Set up a detailed credit control system

It must allow you to identify

• Invoices that have been raised,
• sent to customers
• Paid
• Need chasing
• Train several people on the system and test it thoroughly.

2. Credit-check your customers

To do this, you can approach their bank for a reference; use a credit reference agency; or ask their other suppliers. Establish how solvent the customer is and whether they are likely to have any problems paying their invoices on time.

3. Decide on your general payment terms

Most importantly, decide on a payment date. Bear in mind that new customers should only be given a short time in which to pay. Go through the terms with each customer.

4. Send invoices promptly

Try to send all of them out the same day as goods are sent or delivered or service provided. Make sure the invoice is sent to the correctly named and titled person, at the right address.

5. Start an automatic reminder procedure

Flag invoices that are due; Phone, to chase up payment.

6. Appoint a ‘debts person’

This should be a trusted employee in charge of following up bad debts. They should keep a record of all calls and letters sent. Remember you can charge interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation.

7.  Have a stop list for late-paying customers

Circulate this list to all appropriate employees to prevent further credit or goods being supplied. Inform the late payer that they are on the list.

9. Organise a sufficient overdraft

You should have enough overdraft to cover the worst possible periods of cash flow.

Best practice

• Educate yourself/your staff with credit control training.
• Employ the services of a credit management consultant at least once every year to see if there are improvements you can make.
• Keep talking to debtors. Don’t lose your temper with them, but make it clear you are prepared to take debt recovery action if they do not settle the invoice.

By Liquid Recovery

Guest Blog Telephone 0844 811 9463 ask to speak to Lorna

                                           

The Law On Pensions is changing.

From October 2012 you must automatically enrol certain members of your workforce into a pension scheme and as an employer, you will need to make a contibution towards it.

The law will come into force first for large employers and smaller employers will follow.

It is important to sign up to the e-mail mews that will keep you informed on what & when changes will come in to force.

Table 2: List of staging dates for PAYE schemes with fewer than 250 persons

The dates in this table are indicative and under consultation. You should therefore check your date again once the consultation is complete and the dates have been finalised by Parliament. Sign up to news-by-email so we can tell you when this happens.

Employer by PAYE   scheme size or other description	Staging date
160-249	1 April 2014
90-159	1 May 2014
62-89	1 July 2014
61	1 August 2014
60	1 October 2014
59	1 November 2014
58	1 January 2015
54-57	1 March 2015
50-53	1 April 2015
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 92, A1-A9, B1-B9, AA-AZ, BA-BW, M1-M9, MA-MZ, Z1-Z9, ZA-ZZ   0A-0Z or 2A-2Z	1 June 2015
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference number BX	1 July 2015
40-49	1 August 2015
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference number BY	1 September 2015
30-39	1 October 2015
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference number BZ	1 November 2015
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 02-04, C1-C9, D1-D9, CA-CZ or DA-DZ	1 January 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 00 05-07, E1-E9 or EA-EZ	1 February 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 01 08-11, F1-F9, G1-G9, FA-FZ or GA-GZ	1 March 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 12-16, 3A-3Z, H1-H9 or HA-HZ	1 April 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers I1-I9 or IA-IZ	1 May 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 17-22, 4A-4Z, J1-J9 or JA-JZ	1 June 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 23-29, 5A-5Z, K1-K9 or KA-KZ	1 July 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 30-37, 6A-6Z, L1-L9 or LA-LZ	1 August 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers N1-N9 or NA-NZ	1 September 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 38-46, 7A-7Z, O1-O9 or OA-OZ	1 October 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 47-57, 8A-8Z, Q1-Q9, R1-R9, S1-S9, T1-T9, QA-QZ, RA-RZ,   SA-SZ or TA-TZ	1 November 2016
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 58-69, 9A-9Z, U1-U9, V1-V9, W1-W9, UA-UZ, VA-VZ or WA-WZ	1 January 2017
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 70-83, X1-X9, Y1-Y9, XA-XZ or YA-YZ	1 February 2017
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers P1-P9 or PA-PZ	1 March 2017
Fewer than 30 with the last 2 characters in their PAYE   reference numbers 84-91, 93-99	1 April 2017
Fewer than 30 unless otherwise described	1 April 2017
Employer who does not have a PAYE scheme	1 April 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April   2012 and 31 March 2013)	1 May 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April   2013 and 31 March 2014)	1 July 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April   2014 and 31 March 2015)	1 August 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 April   2015 and 31 December 2015)	1 October 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 January   2016 and 30 September 2016)	1 November 2017
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 October   2016 and 30 June 2017)	1 January 2018
New employer (PAYE income first payable between 1 July   2017 and 30 September 2017)	1 February 2018