LATEST POST
“With rumours of corporation tax increasing from 19% to 25%, it has never been more important to see tax as one of your biggest business costs, and to manage it in the same way.
Our Diagnostax service will spot every relevant opportunity for you and can set a five year tax mitigation strategy in place. Clients have saved literally £10,000s from the ideas we’ve identified.
Contact us as soon as you can if you’d like a review.”
So proud of my team this year, hitting the Tax Return deadline even though it’s now been extended by one month; the 6 clients still to show have been given a stay of execution!
And we’ve generated tax refunds for 1/6 of all returns filed. I think this is a record!
“A client’s old accountant signed them up as a limited company, but they didn’t find out until 5 1/2 months later when they moved to Numbers and started trading. When their year end came and went, family issues and COVID meant that they weren’t able to come up with their year-end records in time for the deadline.
I have come up with a workaround so that they don’t receive any penalties from HMRC or Companies House”
“In the very short time that I have been working at Numbers, I have managed to generate corporation tax refunds for two clients. I was able to generate tax refunds that equated to £489.63 for one client & £2,243.33 for another client.”
Please feel free to give us a call and come in for a chat if you’d like to know how we can help you! We won’t charge you for the initial meeting.
The rate of COVID-19 cases has now exceeded 130 cases per 100,000 and the numbers are still increasing. The city is on the cusp of a Tier 2 level which means tougher restrictions – no more than one household or support bubble meeting indoors, and only six outdoors. We can expect to enter Tier 2 within a matter of days if this trend continues. However, if we act now, we may be able to make a difference, so we hope alerting the city early enough will prevent us hitting Tier 2.
Most businesses are doing everything possible and feedback from the Health and Safety Executive shows good levels of compliance from our businesses. So far Plymouth has avoided tighter restrictions, but more than ever it is absolutely essential that we are all complying fully, being COVID aware and helping to stay out of Tier 2, protecting your business, your employees and the economy.
More information and support on compliance is available here.
The government has recently given us further enforcement powers and while we only want to use them as a last resort, we will do so in order to protect our city. Action has already been taken against one licensed venue through a fixed penalty notice. Fines in excess of £10,000 can be levied so we hope we don’t have to take more action, as this is about stopping COVID-19, not penalising businesses.
Tier 2 will see all of our businesses affected by the limitations on households mixing indoors. I cannot stress how imperative it is everyone across the city understands the seriousness of COVID-19 and the consequences for our community. We must work together in order to protect our health, our NHS, our families, friends and our economy.
Much has been said about the impact of the restrictions – the actions we have been taking ARE working, as we can see from the level of R, but more needs to be done. The R rate before we had any restrictions was 2.5 to 3; it dropped below 1 during the spring, and remained low in the summer. It is currently at 1.3 and we need to get it back down.
Help and Support
How can we help you?
We understand that everyone will have different needs or concerns and it is important for the Public Health Team to be able to address those, equipping everyone with the support they need in order to keep Plymouth safe.
Part of our current insight work is looking how we can better help people across the city; if there is anything that we can provide which will benefit the business community, please share these with us: COVID19@plymouth.gov.uk. You can also contact us with any queries you have too.
Steve met with an employed client who was under pressure to give away part of his bonus to help out his employer. This represented a change in his contractual terms, so Steve was able to utilise a couple of tax exemptions to eliminate tax and NIC on the full bonus.
The client received his full bonus and the employer saves over £80,000 by implementing Steve’s ideas.
Needless to say, both are delighted.
Many of you will know that Rachael, our Practice Manager, has been studying part time with The Open University for the last five years to gain a degree. She received her classification email recently and is ‘over the moon’ with the result, giving her a 2.1 in Business Management with leadership. We have benefitted over these past years from her input, as Numbers grew in size, but more importantly in expertise.
Sadly, because of the pandemic, she can’t have a graduation ceremony this year – hopefully we can post some pictures of a 2021 ceremony.
We are chuffed to bits for her – well done Rachael!
Statement of policy on Covid-19 containment
Introduction
As a forward-thinking firm, we spend most of our lives helping clients stay ahead of the taxman and their competition.
One of the biggest challenges we face as small businesses, right now, is the threat of Covid-19 (aka Coronavirus).
We have team members who are vulnerable people (as defined by Government), and many of you have vulnerable family members. In order to protect them, and you, we have been early adopters of some preventative measures.
What we are doing
We have developed a two-stage approach to try and prevent the spread of this virus, and to limit the damage it might cause to our clients if it does hit us.
Stage 1
We will be holding all meetings via Skype, Zoom or on the phone until 31 May, where possible. This will be a new experience for many of you, and we can help you get set up for this if necessary.
Where it is impossible to avoid a visit to our office, we will not shake your hands, and will ask you to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds on arrival. We have a selection of song lyrics that will help you time your handwashing and hopefully lighten the atmosphere a little. Check the cloakroom mirrors for your selection.
Stage 2
If the Government recommend office closures, we will be working from home. We have tested our homeworking structures, and they work very well.
Most of our clients now deliver their records in electronic form, so we should be relatively unaffected.
If you are not currently using digital technology, we can help you get set up. Please call the office for guidance.
We appreciate that some of you still need to drop things to the office on occasion. To ensure you are not disadvantaged, we will open the office each day for a short period. Please call the office to check we are open.
If
you need to visit the office, this is what you’ll find….
On arrival, you will find the door unlocked and a box just inside to the left to receive your books and records.
Please place the records in the box, say a cheery goodbye and enjoy the rest of your day.
Our team member will complete the ‘books in’ form, sign it on your behalf, and cover the box with a dated lid.
Government guidance (COVID-19:guidance for employers and businesses) states that the amount of virus left on surfaces is significantly reduced after 72 hours. In order to be on the safe side, the box will be removed to our upstairs office and left unopened for a week. Thereafter, your paperwork will be processed in the usual way.
Please phone the office if you have any queries. We have prepared a few FAQs which may save the you the hassle of a phone call. Please see the attached sheet.
Hopefully these simple steps will mean a speedy return to normal working.
Please read our Covid-19 FAQs.
Congratulations to our own Practice Manager, Rachael, on completion of her degree. The grade will be revealed in the summer … watch this space!
Steve met with a client recently who recognised a need to change if he was to develop a business to support his family. A three-hour meeting uncovered numerous ways in which Chris can boost his income and profits and protect his good quality (but expensive) office coffee!!