Employees who working from home may be able to claim tax relief for some of the bills they pay that are related to your work.

Employers may reimburse employees for the additional household expenses incurred if regularly working at home. The relief covers expenses such as business telephone calls or heating and lighting costs for the home-based workspace. Expenses that are for covering private and business use (such as broadband) cannot be claimed. Employees may also claim tax relief on equipment they have bought, such as a laptop, chair or mobile phone.

Employers can pay up to £6 per week (or £26 a month for employees paid monthly) to cover an employee’s additional costs if they have to work from home. Employees do not need to keep any specific records if they receive this fixed amount.

If the expenses or allowances are not paid by the employer, then the employee can claim tax relief directly from HMRC. Employees will qualify for tax relief based on their highest tax rate. For example, if they pay the 20% basic rate of tax and claim tax relief on £6 a week, they will receive £1.20 per week in tax relief (20% of £6). Employees can claim more than the quoted amount but will need to provide evidence to HMRC. HMRC will accept backdated claims for up to 4 years.

Employees may also be able to claim tax relief for using their own vehicle, be it a car, van, motorcycle or bike. As a general rule, there is no tax relief for ordinary commuting to and from your regular place of work. The rules are different for temporary workplaces where the expense is usually allowable or if and when an employee uses their own vehicle to undertake other business related mileage.

Note, that if an employee who agreed with their employer to work at home voluntarily, or if they choose to work at home, they cannot claim tax relief on the bills they have to pay. If an employee previously claimed tax relief when they worked from home because of coronavirus (COVID-19), they may no longer be eligible for relief.

The government published the Autumn Finance Bill 2023 on 29 November 2023. The Bill is officially known as Finance Bill 2023-24. The Bill contains the legislation for many of the tax measures announced in the recent Autumn Statement.

The Autumn Finance Bill will likely be followed by the main Spring Finance Bill 2024 which will be published after the Spring Budget and will cover any remaining tax measures needed ahead of April 2024.

Some of the many measures included within the Bill are:

• Making full expensing permanent for expenditure on plant & machinery.
• Extending the sunset clause for the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust scheme to 6 April 2035. 
• Reforming the film, TV and video games tax reliefs to refundable expenditure credits.
• Expanding the ‘cash basis’ – a simplified way for over four million smaller, growing traders to use a simpler method of calculating their profits and pay their income tax.
• Legislating for more generous support for loss-making R&D intensive SMEs as announced in the spring.
• Setting the rates of excise duty and certain environmental taxes.

The Bill received its first reading in Parliament on Monday 27 November 2023. It will now follow the normal passage through Parliament.

A separate Bill called the National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) Bill, was published on 23 November 2023 and will enact the NIC changes for employees and the self-employed as announced in the Autumn Statement. 

The normal filing deadline for filing the accounts of a private limited company is nine months after the company’s financial year end. Known as the accounting reference date. For example, many companies have a year-end date of 31 March and are therefore required to file their accounts by the following 31 December. For public companies, the time limit is 6 months from the year end.

There are automatic late filing penalties if your company accounts are delivered late. The penalties depend on how long has passed from the due date for payment and whether the company is private or public.

It is possible to submit a request for more time to file company accounts. However, you can only apply to extend your accounts deadline if you cannot send your accounts because of an event that’s outside of your control – for example, because of an unexpected illness or if a fire has destroyed company records a few days before your filing deadline. An application must be made before the original filing deadline.

The Help to Save scheme is intended to help those on low incomes to boost their savings. Eligible users of the scheme can save between £1 and £50 every calendar month and receive a 50% government bonus. The 50% bonus is payable at the end of the second and fourth years and is based on how much account holders have saved. The bonus is paid directly into the account holder’s chosen bank account.

This means that account holders on low incomes can receive a maximum bonus of up to £1,200 on savings of £2,400 for four years from the date the account is opened. The scheme is open to most working people who receive Working Tax Credits or Universal Credit.

Almost 450,000 people have opened Help to Save accounts since the scheme was launched in September 2018 and March 2023, with nearly £372.5 million paid into accounts during that time. This has seen the government award £146 million in bonus payments.

The scheme had been due to end in September 2023 but was extended by 18 months, until April 2025. The extension was announced as part of the Spring Budget measures earlier this year.

Pension Credits can provide extra income to those over State Pension age and on a low income. The credits were first introduced in 2003 to keep retired people out of poverty. 

Pension Credit can top up:

• your weekly income to £201.05 if you are single; or
• your joint weekly income to £306.85 if you have a partner.

If your income is higher, you might still be eligible for Pension Credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs. Not all benefits are counted as income.

Claimants who submit a Pension Credit before 10 December 2023 could be entitled to an extra £300 cost of living boost, on top of support worth an average of £3,900 per year. This is because successful Pension Credit claims can be backdated for up to three months, as long as the applicant was also eligible to receive it during that time. HMRC estimates that there are many pensioners entitled to the credit who have not yet made a claim. 

Details of how to make an application for Pension Credit can be found on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim 

Minister for Pensions Paul Maynard said:

'We want every pensioner to receive all they help they can and with time ticking down to deadline day and the window drawing to a close, now’s the perfect time to check out our Pension Credit calculator and make sure you or your loved ones aren’t missing out on this vital support. In many cases, it’s an open goal to more money in your pocket.'

Recipients of Pension Credits will automatically get cold weather payments and are also eligible to apply for a free TV licence if they are aged 75 or over.

The Cost of Living support package has been designed to help over 8 million households in receipt of mean tested benefits. The details for Cost of Living Payments due in the 2023-24 tax year were published earlier this year and have recently been updated.

Eligible recipients will receive up to three Cost of Living Payments of £301, £300 and £299 during the course of the current tax-year. This includes those receiving pension credit and these payments will be made separately from other benefit payments. The first payment of £301 was made between April-May 2023 and the second payment of £300 was paid during August-September 2023. The third payment of £299 is due to be paid during spring 2024.

An additional one-off payment of £150 or £300 will be paid to pensioners during winter 2023-24. The Winter Fuel Payment is provided by the government to help older people keep warm during winter. The amount a pensioner will receive depends on a number of factors including their age and the age of other people living with them. You can receive a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023-24 if you were born before 25 September 1957. HMRC completed writing to eligible recipients, at the end of November, telling them how much to expect as their payment.

Most dictionaries define “bottom line” as “the most important thing to consider”.

In financial circles it’s taken to mean a focus on profitability (the last line on a P&L accounts) or net worth (the bottom line of your Balance Sheet) rather than an obsession with sales (the top line on a profit statement).

Sales/turnover is obviously a key element of your business activity and meeting sales targets is usually uppermost in the minds of most small business owners.

However, profits – particularly profits retained in a business – are the cheapest way to maintain and increase net worth and cash flow.

Without retained profits, you will need to increase borrowings or capital introduced to maintain your balance sheet bottom line.

If you succeed in retaining profits this will have an immediate, positive impact on net worth, and eventually, will help you reduce debt (borrowings) and increase cash flow.

A focus on sales should always be accompanied by a keen interest in the bottom line indicators. Most accounts software will make these numbers available at the click of a mouse. If you need help to discover how your account’s software could produce indicators that will help you better manage your business during the present difficult times, please call, we can help.

It’s the directors’ responsibility to file their company’s accounts, and make sure they’re filed on time. It’s important to understand your role and how late filing could affect your company.

Missing your filing deadline could affect your credit score or access to finance. It can affect how others view your company and whether they want to do business with you. There are also financial penalties and legal consequences – you could get a criminal record, a fine or disqualification.

If you employ an accountant to file your company’s accounts, it’s still your responsibility, as director, to make sure they’re filed on time.

Over 65% of companies use software filing as their preferred method.

There are a variety of software providers who offer a range of accounting packages to prepare and file accounts. Most types of accounts can be filed using software, depending on the functionality of the software package you’re using.

If you file using the Companies House online services, you will be sent an email to confirm safe receipt. You will also be sent a further email when your accounts are registered at Companies House.

Company accounts need to be filed nine months after the accounting year end.

Which means before the end of December 2023 you will need to file accounts with a year end of 31 March 2023.

And on or before the 1 January 2024, you will need to pay any Corporation Tax due for the same year, to 31 March 2023.

In some respects, the Chancellor’s predicament is deserving of a sympathetic ear; its as if he has a long journey ahead but has one foot firmly nailed to the floor.

Stagnant growth in the UK and global economy has driven up taxation in order to meet the goals set to reduce borrowing as a percentage of GDP.

Inflation is reducing but is still above the Bank England’s target to have inflation back to 2%. In which case we will likely have high interest rates for some time.

It is difficult to see how tax rates could fall in the short or even medium term without an increase in economic activity. If tax rates were reduced, the fall in revenue would have to be met by more austerity, which in turn, would exaggerate the current cost of living crisis.

Where does this leave UK business owners?

We should probably consider elasticity of demand for products and services delivered. For example, if you sell products or services where demand is high or where there are few or no readily available substitutes for your products, you are likely to meet less resistance to raising your selling prices to pass on your increased costs. In this way you can maintain profitability and cash flow.

Compare this with businesses who sell goods or services where there are lower cost substitutes or where demand can be deferred, for example, a new kitchen. Businesses affected in this way will be less likely to recover increased costs by raising their prices. Profits will fall followed by loss of cash reserves and solvency.

We can help. Call now so that we can consider your options. What is clear, is that unlike our Chancellor, we can make choices and business planning during these uncertain times is a must-do activity.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act received royal assent on 26 October 2023. The new Act provides Companies House with more power to reduce the abuse of corporate structures whilst at the same time tackling economic crime.

As part of the measures that will be introduced, Companies House will be streamlining the accounts filing options available to small and micro companies. At present, small businesses are able to file what are known as filleted accounts with Companies House. This means that these small or micro companies can choose not to submit a profit & loss account and/or director’s report to Companies House; accordingly, this information won’t be made public. Filleted accounts can be submitted whether or not a company has prepared full or abridged accounts. At a future date, the option to file filleted accounts will be removed. No date has yet been announced for the implementation of this change.

Other changes as a result of the Act include the following:

• Improving the quality of data on Companies House registers.
• New identity verification requirements for anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK.
• Transitioning towards filing accounts by software only.
• Confirmation statement changes introducing new requirements to provide a registered email address and to confirm that the future activities of the company will be lawful. 
• Changes to Companies House fees.
• Changes to limited partnerships.
• More effective investigation and enforcement powers for Companies House, and new powers to share data with law enforcement agencies and other government departments. 

In the Autumn Statement it was announced that the existing R&D Expenditure Credit and Small and Medium Enterprise Scheme will be merged from April 2024.

It was also confirmed that there will be an enhanced regime for R&D intensive SMEs. The rate at which loss-making companies are taxed within the merged scheme will be reduced from 25% to 19%, and the threshold for additional support for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs will be lowered to 30%.

Loss-making companies claiming the existing SME tax relief will be eligible for a higher payable credit rate of 14.5% if they meet the definition for R&D intensity. This represents an effective tax saving of £27 per £100 spent on qualifying R&D.

The intensity threshold will be reduced to 30% for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024. A loss-making SME company with qualifying R&D expenditure of 30% or more of its total expenditure will be able to claim the enhanced support for any accounting period beginning on or after that date.

There will be a one-year grace period for companies that fail to meet the R&D intensity threshold due to a qualifying one-off event. This will apply to companies that had successfully claimed enhanced support in the previous year. The one-year grace period will apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024.

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is designed to help smaller higher-risk trading companies to raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors who purchase new shares in those companies. 

To claim investor EIS tax reliefs, the company which issues the shares has to meet a number of rules regarding the kind of company it is, the amount of money it can raise, how and when that money must be employed for the purposes of the trade, and the nature of its trading activities.

The main qualifying criteria for EIS investee businesses are as follows: 

• The maximum amount of funds that a company can raise through investments qualifying for the EIS is £5M in any 12 months with a maximum of £12m over the company’s lifetime. There are higher limits for ‘knowledge-intensive’ companies. 
• There is a maximum limit on the number of employees that the investee company can have when shares are issued. The company must have less than 250 full-time employees or their part-time equivalents. For groups of companies, the limit applies across the group. There are higher limits for ‘knowledge-intensive’ companies. 
• The company’s gross assets (or the group assets if the company is a parent company) must not exceed £15 million before any shares are issued and not be more than £16 million immediately afterwards. 
• There are also time limits as to when investments can be raised by the company and how and when the money must be spent.  

It is important that businesses looking to raise finance using the EIS scheme ensure that they qualify. Otherwise, their investors will be unable to claim the promised tax reliefs. HMRC offer an ‘advance assurance’ service that can help ensure everything is in order before raising finance.