Author: Jade Donno

Electrician and number 1

What help is there for the Self-Employed?

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What help is there for the self employed?

It seems that every day the realities of the situation the economy is in just gets worse. I am sure you are like us you are pleased that the government is pumping money into small businesses. But what happens if you are self-employed or trade as a sole trader rather than limited business?

So, included in this blog is a summary of what help is available for you if you are self-employed or worried about your personal financial affairs.  We are monitoring this closely and will be in touch once we know more.

Universal Credit 

Universal Credit is a monthly payment to help with your living costs. It is available for anyone, even if you are self-employed. But as always you need to meet fairly specific criteria; namely you are on a low income or out of work.  If you’re expected to look for and be available for work, then it needs to be identified whether you’re ‘gainfully self- employed’.

Gainful self-employment means that:

  • your main employment is self-employment
  • you have self-employed earnings
  • your work is organised, developed, regular and in expectation of profit

As you would expect, you must provide evidence about your business and what you are earning through your business.

Money tree in hand

If you’re gainfully self-employed, your Universal Credit payment may be calculated using an assumed level of earnings, called a Minimum Income Floor.  It’s based on what an employed person on minimum wage would expect to earn in similar circumstances. If you earn more than this, then your Universal Credit amount is based on your actual earnings. If you earn less, the Minimum Income Floor is used to work out how much you can get. You may need to look for additional work to top up your income.

To check if you are eligible for Universal credit go to: https://www.gov.uk/self-employment-and-universal-credit

Mortgage Repayment

From 17th March you can ask for up to a three-month repayment deferment on your mortgage to give you some breathing space. This deferment applies to homeowners and buy-to-let landlords, to allow them to pass on the payment reduction or deferment to their tenants. It will not affect your credit score. However, you must agree your repayment deferment with your bank, otherwise you may skip a payment and it will show a default on your credit score. Please speak to your bank if you want to organise a deferment on your mortgage.

House key ring

Talk with your network and get creative

Now is not the time to lie low. Now is the time to get talking to your network. Firstly pick up the phone, otherwise email or message via social media. They may be aware of some opportunities for you to generate some work. Now, is also the time to be creative with your skill set. For example, if you run a hospitality business and can’t work from home, how about offering skype one-to-one cooking classes?

Event cancellations

If you lost money due to an event being cancelled the outline is:

  1. Contact the organiser first
  2. Organisers that postpone events don’t have to refund until they announce the new date
  3. Ask your ticketing platform about refunds
  4. If you are struggling to get a refund then your credit card provider could help with a refund

You might not get all of your money back – but it’s worth fighting for.

Event plan written on notepad

Time to Pay Arrangement

Lastly, a dedicated Helpline has been set up to help businesses & self-employed in financial distress and with outstanding tax liabilities. Call this helpline to be able to agree a bespoke Time to Pay arrangement with HMRC. This is where you agree with HMRC a bespoke payment plan for your outstanding tax liabilities. If you are concerned about being able to pay your tax due to COVID-19, talk to us first as we can help you plan your call to HMRC’s dedicated helpline on 0800 0159 559.

July 2020 payment on account

As announced on Friday you could defer this payment but as it is 22 March, I would keep this option on the back burner as you may still have to pay it in January 2021, it is effectively a loan.

VAT Deferment

VAT on ipad

We do not know enough about this, but again it is a deferred loan that may help you now.  If you are going to take advantage of this “loan” I would take it, put it in the bank and pay it back once business is back as usual, treat it like a quick safety net but it is a loan.

Our Advice

As your accountants we can help you as part of our service (no extra charge at all!) we can help you to plan initially for the next four months by looking at your business online and helping you to forecast.  We can also negotiate with HMRC or the banks for you and anyone else that you want us to, we are here to help.

I would also suggest that you list all of your household bills including leisure time (restaurants, shopping etc) and make decisions about what you are paying for, again we can help.

Once we have done that the next step is to Plan Plan Plan and Plan even more.  We will all get through this together and once we are back to business in full with the right planning and staying on top of your business you will without doubt be stronger and in a great position to thrive.

Working From Home where POSSIBLE

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Working From Home where possible

Due to the current Covid-19 crisis, the government has issued measures stating that everyone should work from home if they can. It is important to recognise that for many businesses, working from home is impossible as they are customer facing or perform manual work that requires employees to be present.

However a lot of businesses can be completely of partly moved to home working with some very minor changes. Administrative departments for example should be able to move to home working relatively easily. This way of working could turn into the new normal, with team meetings at hubs and offices a thing of the past. Whatever happens, our lives will definitely be different after this global health crisis.

As accountants it is our job to help our clients adapt to a changing business environment. We are pleased that we can lead the way in working from home, below are some tips for how to best optimise your business to be able to work from home.

Technical Tips:

Get laptops.  Ditch the desktop computer and buy yourself and staff members laptops, this gives you the flexibility to work anywhere. Our team all use Surface Books with small hard drives as we use the cloud for all our storage. Each desk at the office has a docking station which allows any staff member to use any desk with the same set up which allows for flexibility in the office as well.

Go Online. Get rid of your server and look at having all your software and storage online.  Our IT partner Platform 365 have helped us to ensure we can operate 100% online and provide us with much needed remote support.

  Microsoft 365. Changing to subscription-based Microsoft 365 has helped us so much. We store our files on One Drive and have access to the online versions of Microsoft Office’s programmes such as Word and Excel. This allows our files and documents to be securely shared and accessed by our team on our laptops and smartphones from wherever we are working.

Accounting Online.  Our preferred software is Xero, partly as it is an online platform and allows you to run your business from anywhere, but we also work with other platforms that have a similar function. Having your accounting software online with tools such as Receipt Bank makes working online and communicating with your accountant very easy. For example, we can remotely cover your book-keeping team should they fall ill and be unable to work. This will give you peace of mind that your business will still be able to manage its cash.

Online tools. There are many online tools that can help your business to thrive and make you more efficient, we are more than happy to help and advise you with these. We use Karbon to keep track of our work and see where the team are on our clients jobs, Futurli to see trends in our business and our clients, and Zoom to keep in touch with our clients and the team.

Personal Tips:

Paul regularly works from home on a Wednesday and many of our team also have at least one working from home day a week. Here are our top tips for working from home for you and your employees

Limit Distractions. Try not to work where the family are, they are distracting and you won’t get much done. It can be tempting to have family and friends pop round for a coffee whilst you are working, but you need to be strict and politely tell them when you will be available.

Get Dressed.  Make sure to change into your daytime clothes and don’t be tempted to sit working in your PJ’s all day, especially if you have video calls! This will have the psychological effect of getting your brain ready for work as opposed to chilling out all day. The same goes for working from your bed.

Keep moving. Exercise is important for keeping both your body and mind healthy, especially when working from home. I try to not spend sustained periods of time sat in isolation at my desk, I have found that even going out for a coffee or sitting in another part of the house or garden helps to break up the day. Taking the dog out for a walk at lunchtime or going for a morning run are great ways to include exercise into your daily working routine.

Flexible Hours. For us a working day is 7 1/2 hours and as long as the work gets done they can be completed at any time in the day. If it suits to do something during the day and finish in the evening that is fine.

Communication. Keep in regular contact with the rest of your team. We have a scheduled group call at 10am every morning to catch up with our team members who are working from home during this time.  It helps us all stay on the same page and allows us to continue to work together well.  It also stops us from getting lonely!

Hands in the middle with 1 Accounts logo

Tough Times Ahead – We Are All In This Together

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Tough Times Ahead – We Are All In This Together

Without doubt we are facing an unprecedented difficult time. Small business owners are trying to make money for themselves, their family and staff. It is looking likely that we will have to make some cutbacks and decisions that go against the grain.

As a small business we have a team to pay and clients to look after. We could just throw in the towel and say that we are all doomed; but we have sat back, feet on the table and reflected on the situation. We have looked at our own business, how we should respond and what new opportunities are available.

1 Accounts is a family run business with Paul, Jenni, Jade and Katie Donno all working in the office. They all depend on 1 Accounts as well as the fantastic team around them. We have very strong family values and we hope that this comes across to our clients in all that we do.

Unfortunately we will know someone that may well loose a loved one and we will be there to help them and support them in the best way we can. Pauls dad has been in poor health and the Donno family are continuously worried about him contracting the virus. We have found ways of supporting them with Paul’s mum phoning him nearly everyday with her food shopping order.

We are being told that 80% of the population will catch the virus. Experts have said that it is actually a mild flu and most people will recover. This means that at the end of this pandemic we will need to live again. The 1 Accounts team are looking forward to going back to the pub for a beer of three.

Here are our top tips for small business owners: 

Be Positive 

There is a lot of fake news out there and the media loves to sensationalise what Boris says. On March 16th Boris announced that where possible work from home. He used the phrase where possible as it is not possible for everyone. We would suggest you limit the news, especially Facebook (hard we know) so you can stay positive.

Smiling Child

What do your customers need?

Shipping button

We have seen some great examples in and around Haverhill. Nine Jars are delivering coffee and paninis to the high street for £5, they are also offering food deliveries from their normal menu; for every 10th meal they deliver they will donate one to the local food bank. This is a great example of how to think ‘outside of the box’. Another local business Ben & Ella’s Farm Shop are offering an ‘Isolation Box’ that they can deliver.  If customers can’t come to you – go to them.

Even Domino’s have a ‘no contact’ delivery service now – so even the big boys are adapting.

Small Wins

Look for the small wins and keep your overheads covered. When this finishes in a couple of months people will want to engage with you and will be craving human contact. You will need to plan, plan, plan to be able to survive the next couple of months. It is a good idea to watch China and see what they are doing, they are in front of us and will be showing the rest of the world what is next and how there economy is starting to bounce back. Also watch out and listen to people who have had the virus and how quickly they have recovered from it.

Communicate!

Phone

Tell your customers what you are doing and if you are suffering, tell them that too. Being open will help to gather the support you need. Also keep your team informed, this is a worrying time for them too. You need them as much as they need you.

Don’t cut back on your Marketing!

If anything increase your marketing and keep your message going. Tell your investors and suppliers what is happening and ask for help if needed.

If you are stuck on your social media speak to Jade and she will be happy to help you free of charge whilst the crisis is on. We want to help you in anyway we can to keep your business afloat. Afterall we need your business to keep going, to keep ours going.

Cash Is King 

You will need more cash now more than ever before. Securing your cash is paramount. The government has announced that it will help small businesses with Statutory Sick Pay and government back lending; we will update you on this when we know more.

HMRC are extending their time to pay arrangements for PAYE, VAT and Corporation Tax to help you through this. We again can help you to organise this.

Check your business interruption insurance to see if you are covered and work with your broker to see how you can claim.

Look at your personal position and see if you can cut costs. Sky sports are not showing the Football or Rugby, now is the time to discuss this and get a reduction. Do you need the cinema and Gym membership if you can’t go?

We can help you and have changed our business model to treat your immediate needs above our normal day to day work.

We are all in this together.

Think Outside Of The Box

Your business will change by the end of this and hopefully for the better. We have lots of ideas and would be happy to brainstorm with you free of charge to help you get through this difficult period.

Gift Box

Be Kind

Above all, help your fellow small business and they will help you now and in the future. Do not take this opportunity to sell hand gel or toilet rolls at an inflated price, you will possibly have a more comfortable time now but you will not survive when business returns to normality. Paul still avoids a garage that inflated costs during the fuel crisis. Harming your reputation could be detrimental in the future.

 

Please give us a call – even if it is just to vent and we will be more than happy to help.

We are all in this together

Plants growing from coins

Being Green = More Green

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Going Green = More Green

Going green can help your business in more ways than one. Making changes can seem overwhelming, but just small changes can make a difference.  Many of these changes will also help your businesses bottom line. So what are you waiting for?

How can it save me money? 

We understand that as a business owner your time is limited. However depending on the size of your business, you could save a substantial amount of money by just making a couple of small changes.

  • Switch to eco-friendly lighting – LED bulbs can use up to 30% less energy and last longer than your average bulb.
  • Use eco-friendly paper or go paperless – If you are using paper processes this can save money and time. If you are not ready to go paperless, you can reduce paper use by printing double sided and asking your team to take messages on scrap paper.
  • Reusable Products – depending on your industry you can implement using reusable products. If you are in retail, you can offer reusable bags or if you are in an office simply offer your team a reusable bottle.
  • Working from home – Allowing your team to work from home can save money heating and powering your office space. Also educating everyone to turn off their appliances before leaving the office will help cut costs too.
  • Recycle your WEEE 

Tax Incentives 

The government are trying to become carbon neutral by 2030. This will rely on businesses making changes to help make the change. Therefore they are applying tax incentives to encourage businesses to operate in an eco-friendly way.

Eco Product on peg
Reusable Bag

First Year Allowances 

This means that if you buy an asset for your business that is eco-friendly you can claim 100% capital allowances within its first year. This allows you to deduct the full cost of the item from your profits before tax. Items that qualify can be; Cars with low CO2 emissions, energy saving equipment, water saving equipment, plant and machinery for gas refusing stations, new zero-emission goods vehicles and gas, biogas and hydrogen refilling equipment. To find out more about these allowances take a look at HMRC’s website.

Electric Cars

We are expecting a high increase in clients purchasing electric cars this year due to the new benefit in kind rates. The rate for the tax year 6 April 2019 – 2020 is at 16% however the benefit in kind for the tax year 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021 is just 2%. That could be a huge saving. Take a look at our blog on the Jaguar i-pace. 

Electric Car Charging Point

Employee Retention 

Employees are putting more and more value into sustainability. By making an effort to become eco-friendly you could both attract team members and keep them. It also creates a great team moral, as everyone can work together to achieve a goal.

Brand Reputation and Publicity 

Toms Logo

Brand awareness is becoming increasingly important. Publicising the changes your business is making to become eco-freindly can only be a good thing.

For example the shoe brand Toms uses the tag line ‘every purchase has a purpose’ and they give £1 away for every £3 of their profits.  This idea was not only very generous, but it has helped develop and create their brand.

Recycle your WEEE

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Recycle your WEEE

Technology is a rapidly advancing sector, with new developments and devices being made all the time. This leads to a fast turnaround of electronic equipment, but what happens to our old tech? Unfortunately, the amount of electronic technology that we throw away is also growing.

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is the term used to define redundant or faulty electronic equipment waste produced within the UK and includes most products that have a plug or need a battery. It is estimated that the UK discards 2 million tonnes of WEEE a year.

The WEEE directive 2013 regulations define how WEEE needs to be handled, transported, refurbished and recycled. One of the key objectives of the WEEE regulations is to reduce the amount of WEEE that goes into our landfills, and a good way of doing this is through recycling schemes.

WEEE for Business Owners

Whether you are a sole trader or a large limited company, you will more than likely have at least one computer that you use to help run your business, and probably one for personal use as well. In order to keep up with the advancements in technology, it is necessary to upgrade these computers to newer models from time to time. This means at some point you will be left with an old machine to dispose of, or several old machines if you have a larger company with staff all wanting newer technology. However, in many areas, including Haverhill and West Suffolk, you should not throw away electric and electronic items in the regular waste. So how do you dispose of one or multiple computer systems legally and ethically in 2020?

One way of doing this is by selling your old laptops and computers to a recycling scheme that will either resell or recycle your old machines. Computer system recycling is an important part of The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE); a governmental initiative designed to reduce the amounts of waste reaching landfill. Recycling your laptops and computers is one of the most important aspects of the directive as:

  • Systems contain toxic materials & substances deemed unsuitable for landfill.
  • The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) has been brought it to tackle landfill pollution.
  • Computer system recycling is the dismantling and raw material recycling of laptop parts. Nothing goes to landfill and nothing is incinerated in the process.

If your laptop is in good condition without any cosmetic damage, it will have the highest value, however computers in worse condition can also have reasonable value. Different parts and components inside your computers such as CPU and memory can still hold value, even if the machine is very old or damaged.

This option is great because it reduces the amount of electronic equipment ending up in landfill, and you will also get the bonus of being paid for your unwanted tech.

Recycle Your Tec


Our friends at Recycle Your Tec can recycle your redundant computer systems for free, complying with the strict information security and environmental standards in the I.T recycling industry.

They offer a service which includes collection via a dedicated courier, and data wiping or destruction. All hard drives are either wiped or destroyed onsite depending on your preference and full documentation is provided to confirm the safe removal or destruction of your sensitive data.

Your unwanted systems will be carefully & properly recycled without the need to worry about pollution and permanent environmental damage. In most cases the items are reused by giving them a new home,  but some items may also have their working parts stripped out and used to repair other systems.

www.recycleyourtec.com

What about my data?

Where possible, you should reset all laptops and desktops to the default factory settings before sending them to be recycled. In theory this will leave only the operating system and pre-installed programs on the device.

It is essential to make sure you have backed up all the files you want to keep before you begin this process. Store them safely on one or more types of storage such as an external hard drive, your new computer or online cloud storage.

At Recycle You Tec your data will be completely wiped using software from White Canyon, which is certified to the standard of the US and in accordance with GDPR regulations. Full documentation is provided to confirm complete sanitation of the data held on your hard drives.

Good Service and Good for the Environment

Recycle Your Tec aim to provide first class service to individuals looking to recycle used technology, be it coming from you personally, a school, business or charity and turning them into cash donations quickly, while removing all data on the technology to comply with current data protection and environmental regulations. They accept WEEE such as laptops, PCs, tables, mobile phones and more.

  • Courier Collection.
  • Highest standard data wiping and destruction.
  • Fast payment for items.
  • Full certification.
  • Highest value for items recycled.
  • NO minimum disposal amount, all quantity no matter the size is accepted.
  • Fully accredited by the Environmental Agency.
  • T11 license holder (highest accreditation that any limited company can have that isn’t a recycling centre, such as like council-run tips)

By recycling these items not only do you give them a second home or use, but it’s good for our environment too by keeping toxic waste out of our landfills.

Better still, your business can make some money which can be put towards next year’s budget or help with buying replacement stock. Gone are the days of just giving old items away and making do with what your budget allows, sell unwanted items to us and upgrade to better technology.

Please feel free to contact Gary Ward on Gary@RecycleYourTec.com and on 01440 710700 to book a collection today.

Raised £33274.97 for St Nicholas Hospice Care

Giving Back to the Community

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Giving Back to the Community

As a business giving back to the community is important. The size of business or contribution is unimportant, however having a caring and socially aware ethos is paramount. Many businesses are becoming more aware of their corporate responsibilities and are focusing on their environmental efforts, fundraising events, Employee wellbeing and volunteering. To give back doesn’t have to be costly or time consuming; a small contribution will help the community, your brand and staff morale.

As a business we fall into the definition of a Micro Business. We are thankful to the businesses, people and community that has continued to support us and has helped us develop the 1 Accounts we have today.

Paul’s Inspiration 

When Sage launched the Sage Foundation Paul was really impressed that such a large global company wanted to give something back. The best part was that employees could have time off to work on a community project or for a charity of their choice. This inspired Paul to create 1 Accounts on the same ethos.

Sage Accounting accounting partner

Teach a Man To Fish

Memories are golden board

1 Accounts is based in Haverhill, Suffolk. It is so important to help our community in Haverhill. As Accountants we are often asked to be treasurer of various clubs and charities. However we would rather teach them to manage this part of their organisation themselves. We have often provided training and guidance free of charge to help. As they say “give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”

We have also helped charities with their independent examination reports. These charities often have a special meaning to us as a Business.

Sponsorship 

We have supported national charity LPUK. Little People UK is close to our hearts as our Sales Manager Katie has Dwarfism. The LPUK helped Katie when she was younger by giving her a community of others with the same condition. In 2018 Paul rode the London 100 with two friends to raise the much needed money for the charity. Although Paul found this to be a huge challenge, he found participating for the charity very rewarding.

Volunteering 

Voulenteer postet note

This year we are taking a leaf out of the Sage Foundation book. We are going to volunteer at the Haverhill food bank Reach. This means all of us at 1 Accounts will spend a day helping them give back to our community.

St Nicholas Hospice 

Another charity we love to support is St Nicholas Hospice. The fundraising team at St Nicholas Hospice have their work cut out as the Hospice needs a phenomenal £11,000 every day to function. Last year we sponsored their Accumulator Challenge and helped raise £33274.97 for the hospice. We are proud to say we will be sponsoring again this year and hope to raise even more!

Accumulator Challenge Awards

Rehabilitation 

Paul giving a speech

Paul has also delivered talks on running a business at our local prison, Highpoint. Paul loves this as he gets some great (and honest) conversations on setting up and running a business. This takes half a day but doesn’t cost a penny to deliver.

Feeling Inspired? 

With a bit of planning and a little time, you can really help your community. The sense of belonging and wellbeing on you as a business owner and your team can be immense.

1 Accounts Haverhill Capital Gains Tax advice when selling your house.

Capital Gains rules are changing!

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Capital Gains rules are changing!

If you are a property investor or “accidental” landlord this is the blog for you. From the 6th of April 2020 the changes to Capital Gains tax rules will affect the sale of second homes and rental properties.

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Capital Gains Tax

Capital Gains Tax is paid at the following rates:

  • 18% for the basic rate taxpayer
  • 28% for the higher rate taxpayer

The current rule means that if you sell your property in the tax year, you will pay your Capital Gains Tax in the January after it is declared on your tax return. The new rule means that you need to declare the sale to HMRC and pay the Capital Gain within 30 days of the sale. This will need to be carefully planned by unsuspecting landlords.

Get your house in order

No doubt, there will be penalties from HMRC with those who do not comply. We are keeping our fingers crossed that letting agents have informed their Landlords of these new changes.
If you are a property investor and are in the position where you have not declared your rental income, please take a look at our recent blog – “Have you received HMRC’s Love Letter?”

PPR relief

Other changes include PPR (Principle Private Residence) Relief. This is the relief that enables taxpayers to sell their homes without having to pay Capital Gains Tax. If you buy and move into a second home, the final period of exemption for PPR relief is going to be reduced from 18 months to 9 months.
This applies to Landlords that let privately. However, with the new rules starting in April and the restriction on mortgage interest, trading through a Limited Company could be the answer for property investors for the following reasons:

  • 19% Corporation Tax if you sell the property, rather than 28%.
  • Full tax relief on the interest of the loan

Pros & Cons

As with most things there are pros & cons. We can help you make informed decisions on how you want to invest and join the exciting world of being a Landlord. Despite HMRC doing their best to penalise Landlords, with the correct set up and letting partners, renting property can be very rewarding.

House with a heart

Have you received HMRC’s ‘love letter’?

Posted on | by Jade Donno

Have you received HMRC’s ‘love letter’?

Have you declared your rental income? 

Lately we have seen an increase in HMRC asking people if they have received rental income. This comes in the form of a ‘love letter’ from HMRC and results in more and more people having to declare their rental income.

Connect 

The reason for receiving this ‘love letter’ is HMRC’s computer system “connect”. Connect draws data from all departments and connects you to every government system. It also looks at our digital footprint, snooping on our social medias, Ebay accounts and even Airbnb bookings. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) the computer will asses our profiles and see if we could afford rental properties by cross referencing with your declared income on your HMRC tax account.

Social boxes coming from computer

‘Love Letters’ 

Red envelope and hearts

The ‘love letters’ we refer to are a direct result of HMRC’s Connect talking to its mates at the Land Registry. From this data they form a list of people that have sold property. If it is not listed as your main residence HMRC will put two and two together and ask if you have sold a second home and/or rental property. This will then be subject to capital gains tax and more!

Have you declared? 

If the sold property was used as a rental property, HMRC will then look to see if you have declared the rental income. In a lot of cases this has not been done and can go back many years. In a recent case of ours, we had to declare 10 years of rental income for a Husband and Wife.

‘My Mate Down The Pub’ 

Getting tax advice down the pub is not always a good idea. In a few cases, taxpayers have been under the impression that because the mortgage payments covered the rental income they didn’t have to declare the rental income. In reality only the interest is deductible. For higher earners being able to offset the basic rate relief is being phased out, turning rental income into profit and therefore tax payable.

Beeng moved into her partner’s flat several years ago, and decided to rent out her own property rather than sell it. Being didn’t think she was making a profit which needed to be taxed, because the rental income just covered the mortgage payments.
When working out her rental profit. Being needs to be aware that the only allowable expense for her mortgage is the interest amount of her mortgage repayment.
The interest amount of mortgage payments is restricted to the basic rate of income tax, irrespective of which income tax rate Being normally pays for other income she may have

HMRC

Take a look at HMRC’s website for more examples.

Our Advice 

If you have a rental property and need a ‘health check’ we would be happy to discuss and give you the options to declare the income and profit that you have been missing off of your tax returns. Declaring the error before the ‘love letter’ arrives will help your negotiations with HMRC and reduce any high penalties. 

Laptop on the grass

How can your business become Eco-friendly?

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How to make your business more eco-Friendly.

Since the industrial revolution both carbon levels and global temperatures have increased dramatically. The carbon pollution stays in our atmosphere and consequently traps the heat from the sun. This can cause extreme weather such as intense flooding or droughts. 97% of climate scientists agree that man-made pollution is warming our climate. In May 2019 the UK declared a Climate Emergency with many local areas stating they want to become carbon- neutral by 2030. To do this we need to work together, making a few small changes to our businesses.

Reusable Plastic Bottles

Plastic convenience products have made a huge contribution towards climate change. However the sales of bottled water are still on the rise. Look around your office, are your employees drinking bottled water now? Plastic bottles take hundreds of years to decompose if they make their way to landfills. One of the simplest ways to make a difference is to get rid of the disposables and purchase a reusable water bottle for your team. You will spot in our 1 Accounts office that each of the team have pink bottles from Hyd8 m8.

Plastic Bottles

Reduce Paper Waste

Paper being thrown in the bin

Technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last 10 years. Whilst some businesses are embracing how technology can help, others are stuck still using paper processes. Moving to the cloud can not only help the environment but will help streamline your business processes too. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of human activity causing businesses with paper processes to be less efficient and under scrutiny from its customers.

Leave the car at home

Road transport contributes 22% of total UK emissions of CO2. Only 6% of the UK population are walking to work and only 3% are cycling. Walking & cycling can have great health benefits and can help reduce the carbon emissions that are caused by commuting to work. From the 1 Accounts team, Jade, Katie, Kerry & Paul all walk/wheel to the office. For some people walking or cycling to work will not be possible however encouragement to those who can cannot hurt. For those meetings where you have to drive a long distance or even fly, consider using a video call using software such as Skype or Zoom. You can also bring in a work from home policy, allowing you & your employees to work from home even if only on a part time basis. This will reduce the energy used in your office spaces each day both saving money and cutting your businesses carbon footprint.

Man riding a bike

Office Space

Small changes such as changing to LED Lightbulbs can conserve energy reducing your electricity bills and will help protect the environment. You can also improve the air quality of your office by investing in office plants. Plants will help to clean the air and specific plants such as peace lilies, rubber plants and snake plants can help to remove contaminants too.

Power Off

Many businesses unnecessarily waste energy by not turning off their computers or appliances. To help you both save money and conserve energy make it compulsory for your employees to turn off their computers. Then identify any electronics in your office that stay on overnight, such as the printer and assign someone to shut these off at the end of the day.

Power Button

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Recycle sign

The three rules of protecting the environment are reduce, reuse and recycle. Set up a recycling bin for your employees. This will help avoid any recycling going into the waste bin due to an absence of recycling bin in the office.

Making your business eco-friendly does not have to be a big chore, by just making a few small changes you can really make a difference.

Watch this space for our next blog on how your business being eco-friendly can help your business:

  • Save money
  • Attract customers
  • Utilise tax incentives
  • Increase employee retention
  • Build a good brand reputation and increase publicity
  • Keep up with competition
  • Expand revenue opportunities.

2019 piggy bank

What happened in 2019?

Posted on | by Jade Donno | Leave a Comment on What happened in 2019?

2019

2019 was another great year for 1 Accounts Online. We have streamlined our processes, brought in more team members and continue to provide a great service to our clients. With new advancements in technology such as open banking and MTD it is an exciting time to be a part of a rapid changing industry.

Automation, Automation, Automation

ClickWe encourage all our clients to use technology and automation to help streamline their business. We have continued to increase our use of automation using our workflow system Karbon. The team used to spend a few hours (at least) chasing client information. With our new automated system they no longer need to do this, as the emails automatically send requesting the required information for tax returns, quarterly reviews and accounts. There have of course been a couple of hiccups along the way, but we have saved the team time so they can focus on helping our client’s businesses grow.

MTD

One of the big changes in 2019 was MTD. HMRC decided that VAT submissions will have to be submitted through online software. Luckily for us, all our clients were using Xero or Sage Business Cloud so we had the software down. Jade then signed each of our clients up for MTD at no additional cost to the client. After HMRC’s rocky start, MTD is now underway and we look forward to seeing all taxes made digital.

New Clients

We have had an influx of new and exciting clients from web design to construction. We love adding more clients to the 1 Accounts family and look forward to helping them grow. We have enjoyed helping our existing customers thrive, our passion is to help business grow and we have seen wonderful changes in many of our clients.

New Services

In 2019 we started to develop new services for our clients. These are, The Business Coaching Service and Social Media. Watch this space as both services will be up on our website soon! If you can’t wait, email jade@1accounts.co.uk for more information.

New Team Members

2019 we brought 3 new members to the team. Katie started in the middle of the year for 2 days a week to help Jade with the sales side of 1 Accounts. Although they are sisters, they work well together and have developed a new sales process for the new year. Katie has also made great progression with her walking, and now walks the length of the office with a frame. We then had Fran start to help Jade for 3 days a week. Fran is also a pet photographer and loves to be creative and take pictures. In the last week of December we hired a new Bookkeeper Katy who will start with us this month. We are very excited to welcome her to our team and look forward to watching our team grow even more in the new year..