Ian Cooke, Edward Watkins and Jonathan Crowther

Our Ledbury Office team has been strengthened by the arrival of Edward Watkins and his team.

Previously trading as Edward Watkins & Co the client base is very similar with a mix of local businesses, farming clients and personal tax work.

Edward becomes a Consultant with Crowthers and will ensure a smooth transition of the client work takes place. Ian Cooke will oversee the business clients and Jonathan Crowther will lead the farming work.

Draft legislation will be published on 6 December 2011 and we will provide an update for you if significant changes are announced.

In the meantime we have provided a summary of the Statement and a reminder of other key tax developments which are to take place from April 2012 in our attached report.

Q1       What are the firm’s qualifications and experience?

“Our team” section on our website gives you some detail on the experience and qualifications of our team.

Q2       Can you offer client testimonials and examples of success with clients?

We always preserve the confidentiality of our clients and so we do not publish any client lists.  However, if you would like to discuss our services with an existing client in your business sector, please ask and we will approach one or two clients to see if they are prepared to speak to you about us.

Q3       How transparent are your costs, and who delivers your services?

Please review our fee quote and menu of services in this section of our website, then ask us for a fixed fee quotation tailored to the services you require.

Q4       Why pay more than if I use a sole practitioner (qualified or not)?

The size, nature and complexity of your business AND your desire to become ever more successful will determine your answer to this.

Q5       What added value can you provide?

Over and above all areas covered by our menu of services, we provide the opportunity for regular contact with our senior team, and business advice and support on any area of your business.  If we do not have that specific skill we will know someone who does.

We are very happy to discuss these questions further with new or potential clients.

It is vital to monitor actual performance against budget and calculate key performance indicators such as:

• Length of order book
• Sales compared with budget or last year
• Profit margins
• Stock levels and stock turnover
• Debtor days and overdue collections.

We have noted 7 bad practices that every business needs to avoid:

1. Taking on financial commitments before you can afford to pay for them.
2. Undertaking large amounts of speculative work in the hope of making a sale.
3. Overstating stock, WIP or fixed assets in your management accounts.
4. Not planning for major expenses you know will arise. .
5. Failing to prepare cash flow forecasts, particularly in today’s difficult market.
6. Failing to agree all the details of an order, leading to a customer dispute.
7. Poor credit control system, starting with credit checks before taking the order.

How do you score on these 7 bad practices?

Please telephone your main contact at Crowthers if you would like to discuss how we can help you to improve your business systems.

• £5.93 to £6.08 : Employees aged 21 and over
• £4.92 to £4.98 : Employess aged 18 to 20
• £3.64 to £3.68 : Employees aged 16 to 17
• £2.50 to £2.60 : Apprentice rate

Please contact Sarah Smith, manager of our payroll bureau, on 01386 552644 for further details.

Our Facebook Image

Have a look in our “eNews and Resources” tab. Our resource centre has been expanded to include all sorts of tax information, calculators, downloadable forms and news feeds. We are also developing a new client zone to access more tailored advice.

You will see that we have also updated our website with some bright new team photo’s that were arranged by Claire Perkins.  The photos were taken at the Perfect Image Studio in Evesham.

Claire (who is also an excellent model!) has also set up our first ever Facebook entry which can be found under Crowthers Chartered Accountants and so please join us there.  Our Facebook image is supposed to represent us as a friendly but professional firm of Chartered Accountants.

One of the most useful tax benefits of this is that when a Principal Private Residence is sold there is 100% tax relief (PPR relief) to offset any Capital Gains that may have arisen.

However, if you own a second property that is used by you for part of the year, e.g. six months in one property and six months in another property, then it is possible to split the Principal Private Residence between the two properties.

This may be very beneficial depending on the value of each property, the purchase price of each property and the length of ownership.

If you would like us to look into this on your behalf please contact us.

This change is as a result of public concern about the proposed phasing out of cheques by 2018. The issue has been of concern to many small businesses who continue to make payments by cheque and charities which receive substantial amounts of donations from the public by cheque.

According to the press release the: 

‘The Payments Council Board will continue to focus on security, efficiency and encouraging innovation in all types of payments to ensure customers have options best suited to the 21st century.’

Richard North, the Chairman of the Payments Council said:

‘It’s in the DNA of the Payments Council to consult and listen to all those people who actually make payments and use cheques. Listening to over 600 stakeholder groups, working with the banks and following our appearance before the Treasury Select Committee, we have concluded we should reassure customers that the cheque is staying.’

‘Over the last two years we have learnt a great deal about what is important to our many stakeholders and we are really grateful to all of those groups and individuals who took the time to talk to us and help us reach this decision. We will use what we’ve learnt to keep improving existing systems, as well as introducing innovation, so that customers benefit from 21st century ways to pay.  Innovation must be at the heart of what we do.’

However, many taxpayers wait for the statement to confirm what they need to pay. More importantly, if HMRC have asked taxpayers to make a second payment on account in July, they normally have to pay this by 31 July. However, due the delays in issuing some statements HMRC have advised:

 ’If you receive your statement in August, you should still pay the tax due as soon as you can. You’ll only be asked to pay interest on the tax due on the second payment on account if you still haven’t paid it more than 30 days after you receive your statement.’

HMRC estimate that around 500,000 customers are affected.

If you have any concerns regarding payment please do get in touch.

Remember that not registering for VAT when you become liable to do so is an offence.

HMRC have said that (as long as you did not know you should have been registered) the penalty for late registration will be limited to 10% of the VAT due to HMRC from the date you should have been registered.

Please note that this initiative cannot be applied for online, but must be submitted by a paper application.

If you require any assistance in this area please contact Ian Cooke at Ledbury or Nikki Walding at Pershore.