Our new website is live and is now much easier to navigate around to view the services we offer. If you are looking for business finance of any kind, take a look and contact us to discuss your needs.
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
New Website Live
Friday, November 19th, 2021Motivational Business Quotes
Monday, September 13th, 2021We all need a bit of motivation at times in business, especially when things aren’t going quite as planned. Here are some of our favourite quotes:
- A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. ~ Richard Branson
- You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. ~ Zig Ziglar
- To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. ~ Thomas Watson, Sr.
- Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. ~ Winston Churchill
- Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out. ~ John Wooden
- It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. ~ Confucius
- You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. ~ Steve Jobs
- Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. ~Henry Ford
- The essential question is not, “How busy are you?” but “What are you busy at?” ~ Oprah Winfrey
- Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. ~ Swami Vivekananda
- The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. ~ Vidal Sassoon
- The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. ~ Debbi Fields
- Have a very good reason for everything you do. ~ Laurence Olivier
- Capital isn’t scarce; vision is. ~ Sam Walton
TAX CREDITS FOR R&D SPENDING
Monday, July 19th, 2021If your business has spent more than £100,000 on R&D in the last five years, you may be eligible for Government Tax Credits, even if the project wasn’t completed.
We handle the claim on your behalf, submit information to HMRC and your credit can be available within 6 weeks.
Depending on your profit levels, there are two options:
- For profit-making businesses, R&D tax credits reduce your Corporation Tax bill. The rate of relief is 25%. So if your R&D spend last year was £100,000, you could get a £25,000 reduction in your tax bill.
- If you’re a loss-making business, you’ll receive your R&D tax credit in cash as you won’t have tax liability to offset. The rate of relief is up to 33%. So if your R&D spend last year was £100,000, you could get a £33,000 cash credit.
Contact us for more information and advice.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR BUSINESS
Wednesday, April 1st, 2020There are a number of schemes available to UK businesses during this time of uncertainty.
ANNUAL INVESTMENT ALLOWANCE INCREASED TO £1 MILLION AND NEW CAPITAL INVESTMENT ALLOWANCE ANNOUNCED IN THE BUDGET
Monday, November 5th, 2018The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) is to be increased from £200,000 to £1million from 1 January 2019. The announcement should provide a welcome boost to business investment during the Brexit transition period and will return to the £200,000 limit in January 2021. Businesses can claim 100% capital expenditure incurred on most items of plant and machinery of up to £1million a year.
In addition, a new allowance was announced – the ‘structures and buildings allowance’ (SBA) which will give tax relief on eligible construction costs on non-residential buildings and structures from 29 October 2018. The relief will be given at 2% a year on a straight-line basis over a 50 year period.
Under the current system, buildings and structures do not qualify for capital allowances, but allowances are available for plant and machinery inside a building. Structures and buildings qualifying for the new allowance will include offices, retail and wholesale premises, walls, bridges, tunnels, factories and warehouses. Capital expenditure on renovations or conversions of existing commercial structures or buildings will also qualify. The new allowance will not apply to dwellings or to expenditure on the land itself.
Other announcements in the budget affecting business include:
- The personal Income Tax allowance for 2019-20 will be increased to £12,500
- Basic rate band increased to £37,500
- Higher rate band £37,501 to £150,000
- There is no change to the rate of Corporation Tax, which stays at 19% for the financial year beginning 1 April 2019.
- Two significant changes to Entrepreneurs’ Relief were announced: Claimants must have a 5% interest in the distributable profits and the net assets of the company to qualify, and separately that the minimum period, during which certain conditions must be met to qualify for the relief, is being increased from one to two years.
- From 1 April 2020, the amount of payable tax credit that can be claimed under the R&D SME tax relief scheme will be limited to three times the company’s total PAYE and NIC payments for the period. Any loss that cannot be surrendered can be carried forward and used against future profits.
- The changes recently made to IR35 arrangements in the public sector are to be rolled out to the private sector. The widening of the off-payroll working rules will take effect from April 2020 for medium and large organisations. Small firms will be exempt. These changes could see thousands of contractors and consultants paying more in NI contributions and income tax.
- Smaller retailers in England, occupying shop premises with rateable values under £51,000, should benefit from a cut of 1/3 in their business rates bills for 2 years from April 2019.
- The present VAT registration limit (£85,000) and deregistration limit (£83,000) will continue to apply for a further two years; until 31 March 2022.
- The special rate of writing down allowance is being reduced from 8% to 6% from April 2019.
- From 6 April 2020, the government will change the insolvency rules so that taxes collected on behalf of employees and customers, primarily employees PAYE and NIC and customers VAT, will be treated as a preferential creditor on winding up rather than distributed to other creditors.
£15 Million secured for UK Businesses
Friday, August 31st, 2018Small businesses turned down for loans from the UK’s high-street banks have received over £15 million of funding thanks to a government matchmaking scheme.
Over the past 12 months, 670 businesses have raised over £12 million of funding through the Bank Referral Scheme, four times what was raised in the previous year. Since it was introduced in November 2016, more than £15 million has been sourced for businesses across the country.
The Bank Referral Scheme requires Britain’s biggest banks to pass on the details of small businesses they have turned down for loans to online credit brokers. The brokers then help those businesses to source funding from alternative, and often smaller, lenders.
Rejected businesses are now automatically offered the opportunity to be referred to three online credit brokers: Alternative Business Funding, Funding Options and Funding Xchange. Each platform provides access to a range of lenders and products, including business loans, revolving credit, asset finance and invoice finance. Loans resulting from the scheme ranged from £100 to £1.3 million and the average size of a loan secured was £17,285.
Revolving Credit Facilities
Friday, August 31st, 2018Download our Guide to Revolving Credit– a facility that allows you unlock cash tied up in unpaid invoices, stock and/or work in progress (WIP). The facility is completely independent from your existing business banking with limits of up to £3 million.
It works much like an overdraft: businesses receive a limit and they can draw down funds and make repayments as often as they like in a given month. If you don’t use the facility there are no charges so well worth a further look. We manage the application process on your behalf and decisions are made quickly.
Click Here to download our guide and contact us to discuss your funding requirements.
Fancy a £5,000 boost to grow your business?
Wednesday, June 13th, 2018The Small Business Grants initiative from SmallBusiness.co.uk is a free-to-enter monthly competition that gives small businesses a chance to win a £5,000 grant to invest in their company’s growth. This is a private business grant and does not have to be paid back.
Eligible businesses can apply for FREE via a simple Grant Application form. Every month, a shortlist of leading entries will be sent to a panel of independent judges who will decide on the winner, considering factors such as turnover growth, innovation, aspiration, key projects completed, contracts won and partnerships forged.
To apply, click here
Hundreds of Grants for UK Businesses
Thursday, February 15th, 2018Local Government departments and councils who have regeneration targets often meet these goals by providing grants to businesses for specific projects. The project will tackle the issue (for instance: reducing unemployment or filling empty shops) by rewarding the business in the form of a grant to employ staff or refurbish shop premises.
Although this ‘free money’ is available – it is rarely promoted because councils do not have the capacity to cope with the high demand. Therefore eligible businesses often miss out on this funding which has the opportunity to be influential to the success of their businesses. We are experts at both searching for and applying for grants. Some of the funding currently available includes:
• £10,000 for businesses who develop digital innovation
• An award for businesses who improve communities in Greater London
• £100,000 of branding and marketing support for food businesses
• £20,000 for young entrepreneurs to develop new ideas
• Up to £50,000 for Scottish businesses that promote workplace equality
• Up to £12,000 for farmers to buy new equipment
• Up to £250,000 for businesses in Leeds for capital investment
• 21 different funding programmes for businesses in the Construction industry
There are many more grants, awards and training programmes across the UK. Contact us today to find out if there are any relevant schemes available for your organisation.
