Got ideas buzzing about your business? Let's talk! Schedule a hassle-free, commitment-free consultation at your convenience. Whether it's a Zoom call, MS Teams meeting, or a good old-fashioned phone chat, we adapt to your style. In this initial conversation, share your business vision and queries. From there, we'll whip up a tailored proposal, open for your comments and revisions until it's just right. Give us a shout — let's see what we can achieve together!
Whether the business is a new start or looking to develop to the next level, seeking, securing and managing the finances is a crucial task. The greatest aid for this is a coherent Business Plan.
It is all too easy to see the Business Plan as set in stone whereas it needs to be regarded as an evolving document that reflects the pitfalls and triumphs the business encounters on the journey from concept to reality.
The Business Plan provides the opportunity for the entrepreneur to highlight their vision and objectives both to third party investors and the key personnel of the company.
Whilst the Business Plan can be nuanced to suit a particular target audience, there are certain benchmarks that need to be included.
The Executive Summary is critical. In essence, this is the chance to engage with potential investors or lenders. As a result, it needs to convey the salient points in a crisp and concise manner without drilling into too much detail.
The remainder of the Business Plan is designed to inspire confidence that the venture is more than just a germ of an idea, it is a thought through and considered proposal. For this the following should be included:
– The Key Personnel detailing who they are, what their area of responsibility will be and their experience and expertise.
– Market Analysis on the sector, the products or services provided and the competitors.
– The Client Base in terms of both the current order book and the potential pipeline.
– A Marketing Plan on how sales volumes can be increased to existing clients and how new clients will be won.
– For existing businesses, the last three years of Financial Data together with the key performance indicators.
– Financial Forecasts for the next three to five years detailing the core assumptions.
– Cash-Flow Analysis and Projections out for a minimum of two years detailing the amount of funding that will be required. In the cases of new starts and recoveries, the Projections should go forward to the point where the business moves into profit.
– A SWOT Analysis that focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the business.
– Asset Management that details the key assumptions on the control of capital expenditure, stock, debtors and creditors over the forecast period.
– Investment Schedule that shows how much the owners have committed to the venture, the details of any existing third party investment and the new funding requirement. Depending on the type of investment sort, attention should be drawn to potential tax reliefs for the lender (such as the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme featured in our previous newsletter https://cooperfaure.co.uk/business-finance/) and how either the loan will be repaid or the shareholder will receive a return.
The absolute golden rule is to ensure that the Business Plan has a sufficient inbuilt margin to ensure that the proposal is fully funded. There is no quicker way to lose an investor’s confidence than by having to revisit for additional funding for the current plan.
At CooperFaure, we have extensive knowledge of business planning and cash-flow forecasting. If you would like to discuss your circumstances or have any questions, please contact welcome@cooperfaure.co.uk to arrange an initial free consultation.
Friendly Accountancy firm based in Teddington, Middlesex is looking for an Accounts Administration Assistant to join their small but busy and dynamic team.
The candidate should ideally have at least 6 months practical experience working within an office environment. Experience in an accountancy office is not essential, as full training will be provided.
The applicant must be numerate, meticulous, have a good phone manner and be extremely self-motivated.
This role is suited to someone looking for their first placement in the sector with opportunity to develop.
Job Type – Permanent, Full-Time
Salary – £15,000 per annum
Duties this role will include: –
• Managing the daily post and filing.
• Administering the client data archiving.
• Validating Expense Reports and receipts.
• Processing data on to Sage Line 50 software and Excel.
• Generating and Distributing Invoices.
• Attending and making calls.
• Providing general office administrative tasks.
• Greeting clients.
• Assisting with a variety of secretarial duties.
Skills and Expertise Required
To be eligible for this role, candidates must meet the following criteria: –
• Intermediate MS Office skills including Word and Excel
• Excellent customer care skills
• The ability to manage time efficiently and prioritize tasks
• Excellent attention to detail
• A professional, confidential and flexible approach
• Ability to work on your own initiative
• Ability to build relationships and engage with colleagues and clients at all levels
• Personable/professional image (for client visits)
• A team player who is able to provide cover or assistance to colleagues where appropriate
• Experience using Sage is desirable although full training will be provided.
• AAT Qualification is desirable though not necessary
If you are interested in the above role then please apply to freddie.faure@cooperfaure.co.uk.
The major announcement in the Autumn Statement was the change in Stamp Duty on a residential property. This guide illustrates the impact this will have.
For an individual buying a property under the previous rules, the Stamp Duty was levied a single rate based on the purchase price of the property, as follows:
|
Amount |
% |
|
Up to £125,000 |
0% |
|
Over £125,000 to £250,000 |
1% |
|
Over £250,000 to £500,000 |
3% |
|
Over £500,000 to £1,000,000 |
4% |
|
Over £1,000,000 to £2,000,000 |
5% |
|
Over £2,000,000 |
7% |
Now, Stamp Duty is charged at a marginal rate with the total tax being sum of the parts of the property price within each tax band at each rate, in the same manner as Income Tax, with the following rates:
|
Amount |
% |
|
£0 – £125,000 |
0% |
|
£125,000 – £250,000 |
2% |
|
£250,001 – £925,000 |
5% |
|
£925,0001 – £1,500,000 |
10% |
|
£1,500,001 + |
12% |
As a result, if you now purchase a property for £275,000, the Stamp Duty would be calculated as follows:
|
Amount |
% |
Stamp Duty |
|
£125,000.00 |
0% |
£0.00 |
|
£125,000.00 |
2% |
£2,500.00 |
|
£25,000.00 |
5% |
£1,250.00 |
|
£275,000.00 |
£3,750.00 |
Under the old rules, Stamp Duty would have been calculated at 3% of £275,000.00 totalling £8,250.00. As a result there is a saving of £4,500.00 under the new method.
Similarly, for a £600,000 property, the Stamp Duty would be calculated as follows:
|
Amount |
% |
Stamp Duty |
|
£125,000.00 |
0% |
£0.00 |
|
£125,000.00 |
2% |
£2,500.00 |
|
£350,000.00 |
5% |
£17,500.00 |
|
£600,000.00 |
£20,000.00 |
Under the old rules, Stamp Duty would have been calculated at 4% of £600,000.00 totalling £24,000.00. As a result there is a saving of £4,000.00 under the new method.
However, for £1,200,000 property, the Stamp Duty would be calculated as follows:
|
Amount |
% |
Stamp Duty |
|
£125,000.00 |
0% |
£0.00 |
|
£125,000.00 |
2% |
£2,500.00 |
|
£675,000.00 |
5% |
£33,750.00 |
|
£275,000.00 |
10% |
£27,500.00 |
|
£1,200,000.00 |
£63,750.00 |
Under the old rules, Stamp Duty would have been calculated at 5% of £1,200,000.00 totalling £60,000.00. As a result there is an increase of £3,750.00 under the new method.
The ‘tipping point’ is £937,500 where the Stamp Duty calculates through to £37,500 under both the old and new method.
For residential leases, if the cost is more than £125,000, Stamp Duty will continue to be charged at 1% on the amount above the £125,000 threshold.
Likewise, there is no change to the Stamp Duty levied on non-residential and mixed-use properties which is based on the purchase price and lease premium or transfer value at the following rates:
|
Amount |
% |
|
To £150,000 – annual rent < £1,000 |
0% |
|
To £150,000 – annual rent => £1,000 |
1% |
|
Over £150,000 to £250,000 |
1% |
|
Over £250,000 to £500,000 |
3% |
|
Over £500,000 |
4% |
There is no change to the payment process with a Stamp Duty return submitted and the tax paid within thirty days of completing on your property. Although this is the responsibility of the purchaser, a solicitor or conveyancer usual handles this.
A Stamp Duty return is required even if you are not due to pay any tax unless the property costs less than £40,000.
On receipt of a valid Stamp Duty return, the HMRC will issue a certificate which allows the title of your to the property to be registered at the Land Registry or the Registers of Scotland.
If you would like more detailed guidance on Stamp Duty or the impact of any of the Autumn Statement announcements or have a specific question, please contact welcome@cooperfaure.co.uk and we would be pleased to advise you.
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer today presented the 2014 Autumn Statement which was his final chance to impact the tax regime before the General Election. Most of the changes were at the margins but this newsletter summarizes some of the main changes that will affect individuals and businesses.
The flagship announcement was the change in the Stamp Duty from a step tier rate system to a marginal rate system with the following rates:
|
Amount |
% |
|
£0 – £125,000 |
0% |
|
£125,000 – £250,000 |
2% |
|
£250,001 – £925,000 |
5% |
|
£925,0001 – £1,500,000 |
10% |
|
£1,500,001 + |
12% |
As a result, if you purchase a property for £275,000, the Stamp Duty would be calculated as follows:
|
Amount |
% |
Stamp Duty |
|
£125,000.00 |
0% |
£0.00 |
|
£125,000.00 |
2% |
£2,500.00 |
|
£25,000.00 |
5% |
£1,250.00 |
|
£275,000.00 |
£3,750.00 |
This represents a saving of £4,500.00 against the current method and the new method come into effect from 4th December 2014. If you have already exchanged but not completed on a property you will have a choice about whether to use the old or new rules.
There was modest additional increase to the Personal Allowance for the 2015-16 tax year of £100 increasing the total to £10,600. The Basic Rate tax threshold will also increase to £31,785 resulting in the overall amount over which individuals start to pay Income Tax at £40% will be £42,385.
Again, a modest increase to the limit for Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) was stated for 2015-16 to £15,240 with the Junior ISA and Child Trust Fund limits both to be increased to £4,080.
However, the government will legislate to allow an additional ISA allowance for spouses or civil partners when an ISA saver dies equal to the value of that saver’s ISA holdings on their date of death.
In a similar vein, from April 2015, beneficiaries of individuals who die under the age of seventy-five with remaining uncrystallised or drawdown defined contribution Pension Funds, or with a joint life or guaranteed term annuity, will be able to receive any future payments from such policies tax free. This is under the proviso that no payments have been made to the beneficiary before 6th April 2015.
Where the individual was over seventy-five, the beneficiary will pay at their marginal rate of Income Tax or at 45% if the funds are taken as a lump sum payment.
The Autumn Statement also revealed that Air Passenger Duty would be abolished for children under twelve from 1st May 2015 and this would be extended to children under sixteen from 1st March 2016.
The interim finding of the review into the overhaul of the Business Rates system will be published in December 2014 with the government then conducting a review of the future structure of Business Rates to report by Budget 2016.
In the meantime, the government will extend the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief for a further year from 1st April 2015.
In addition, the Business Rates discount for retail and food and drink premises with a rateable value up to £50,000 will increase to £1,500 from 1st April 2015.
There were no momentous changes to Capital Gains Tax other than a tightening of the rules for Entrepreneurs’ Relief to restrict unfair tax advantages from the disposal of goodwill where that disposal is to a related close company. This change comes into effect from 3rd December 2014.
However, also from 3rd December 2014, the government will allow gains which are eligible for Entrepreneurs’ Relief but which are instead deferred into investments which qualify for the Enterprise Investment Scheme or Social Investment Tax Relief to remain eligible for Entrepreneurs’ Relief when the gain is realized.
A notable alteration has been made to the Taxation of Resident Non-Domiciles who utilize the remittance basis of taxation. The charge paid by people who have been UK resident for seven out of the last nine years will remain at £30,000. However, the charge paid by people who have been UK resident for twelve out of the last fourteen years will increase from £50,000 to £60,000 and a new charge of £90,000 will be introduced for people who have been UK resident for seventeen of the last twenty years.
The Chancellor declared that there would be a continuing crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion with the primarily measure being the introduction of a Diverted Profits Tax to counter the use of aggressive tax planning techniques by multinationals to divert profits from the UK. From 1st April 2015, at tax of 25% will be applied to profits generated in the UK.
More transparency is to be introduced to the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) with the HMRC to publish summary information about tax avoidance promoters and schemes that are notified under the regime.
For acquisitions made on or after 3rd December 2014, a company will no longer receive Corporation Tax Relief on the acquisition of goodwill where that acquisition is from a related individual or partnership.
Despite a heavy campaign from HMRC, the government determined not to make any changes to the mechanism for the tax on Loans from close companies to individuals, trusts and partnerships that have a share or interest in them.
To boost business finance for SMEs, the Funding for Lending Scheme will be extended by a year until 29th January 2016 and £400,000,000 will be provided to the British Business Bank to prolong the Enterprise Capital Fund. In addition, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee will support up to £500,000,000 of new lending in 2015-16.
As the Peer-to-Peer platform becomes a more prevalent way for business to raise finance, the government will introduce a new relief to allow individuals lending through P2P platforms to offset any losses from loans which go bad against their other P2P income. This will take effect from April 2016 and will allow individuals to make a claim for relief on losses incurred from April 2015 through their Self-Assessment tax return.
If you would like more detailed guidance on the impact of any of the Autumn Statement announcements, whether or not featured in this newsletter, or have a specific question, please contact welcome@cooperfaure.co.uk and we would be pleased to advise you.
For many individuals working through their own Limited Company is a choice that gives them control over their career.
However, there comes a time when they may wish to retire or simply no longer run the business.
This guide looks at the most tax-efficient alternative when the sale of the business is not an option.
Once the company has ceased to trade, there are a number of tasks to be completed that might include:
– Selling the assets of the business;
– Collecting remaining monies due from the customers;
– Paying any trade creditors;
– Notifying HMRC and deregistering from VAT and PAYE;
– Paying any outstanding PAYE, VAT and Corporation Tax due to HMRC;
– Preparing accounts to the date the company ceased to trade;
– Filing any outstanding tax returns;
– Transferring pensions out of the company.
Once this has been done, hopefully, there will be a pot of money left.
The most tax-efficient method for this is via a Capital Distribution which allows the individual shareholders to claim Entrepreneurs’ Relief so long as they have held their shareholding for a minimum of a year.
Entrepreneurs’ Relief can be claimed by an individual on multiple occasions but has a lifetime limit which is currently £10,000,000. This relief reduces the rate of Capital Gains Tax to 10% on qualifying assets such as Capital Distributions.
If the amount of money is no more than £25,000.00, the HMRC have granted Extra-Statutory Concession (ESC) C16 that allows this process to be undertaken in-house.
However, if the total is more than £25,000.00, this requires a Members Voluntary Liquidation (MVL).
There is a six step process to this:
– Download a ‘Declaration of Solvency’ form (if your company is in Scotland, you will need to obtain a Form 4.25 from the Accountant in Bankruptcy).
– Fill in the Declaration that must be signed by the majority of Directors.
– Call an Extraordinary General Meeting with the shareholders that must be a minimum of five weeks later and ballot them to pass a resolution for voluntary winding up.
– Advertise the resolution in the Gazette within fourteen days of it being passed.
– Appoint an authorised Insolvency Practitioner as liquidator who will take control of the winding up of the company.
– Send the signed form to Companies House or the Accountant in Bankruptcy within fifteen days of passing the resolution.
Once the liquidator has paid any remaining creditors in full and distributed the surplus funds to the shareholders, they will seek to close their file which triggers the company to be dissolved from the register at Companies House.
At CooperFaure, we have extensive knowledge of both opening new businesses and closing out companies.
If you would like to discuss your circumstances or have any questions, please contact welcome@cooperfaure.co.uk to arrange an initial free consultation.
Raising business finance remains extremely tough for small businesses through the traditional business loan or overdraft from the bank.
As a result, many companies are now utilizing other avenues of third party funding. Likewise, many people with money to invest are benefiting from the potential yield.
A common method of raising capital for a business venture is through family and friends and the government has introduced a number of schemes to mitigate the risk to the potential investor. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is the most appropriate for a small business looking to raise up £150,000.00.
To qualify, a business has to meet the following criteria:
– have a UK permanent establishment;
– have fewer than twenty-five full time (or equivalent) employees;
– have gross assets of not more than £200,000 at the time of the SEIS investment;
– have not previously received investments under the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) or Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) schemes.
In addition, the SEIS investment must be spent for the purposes designated within three years of the investment.
The investment is in return for shares in the business which must be new Ordinary shares fully paid up at the time of issue with no preferential rights, other than some limited to dividends, and no rights of redemption.
For the investor, the SEIS offers some attractive tax reliefs with up to a 50% Income Tax relief in the year of investment and, after three years, a total exception from Capital Gains Tax.
However, there is an annual investment limit of £100,000 and there are some qualifying criteria for investors. Primarily,
– you and your ‘associates’ must not have a ‘substantial interest’ in the business. This is deemed to be not more than 30% of the issued share capital. Associates include business partners, trustees and relatives – spouses, partners, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, but not brothers and sisters.
– neither you nor any of your associates may be employed by the company (but you may be a director of the company).
These criteria must be satisfied for three years from the issue date of the SEIS qualifying shares otherwise the tax reliefs would be withdrawn completely.
Another method of raising finance for an established business that is growing in popularity is peer-to-peer lending.
One of the leading facilitators for this in the UK is Funding Circle who have created a marketplace that connects businesses looking to borrow with people who want to lend and is supported by the government through the British Business Bank.
For the business, loans of up to £200,000.00 can be applied for on an unsecured basis or more if backed by security. The application process is relatively straightforward and, once the tender has been put out to market, there is no obligation to accept the proposed rate.
In order to retain lender confidence, there is an extensive credit assessment of every application and only established and creditworthy businesses are able to borrow through Funding Circle.
However, this process is usually more expedite and less expensive than borrowing from the traditional banks.
For the investor, the returns can be far in excess of those available from deposit accounts or bonds. However, it is important to remember that these are, in effect, unsecured loans and there is an inherent risk of bad debts.
As a result, if you decide to invest through either a peer-to-peer platform such as Funding Circle or a crowdfunding platform like Seedrs, the key recommendation is to ensure that you diversify your portfolio to mitigate this risk.
At CooperFaure, we have extensive knowledge of raising business finance both through government-backed schemes and from the third parties.
If you would like to discuss your circumstances or have any questions, please contact welcome@cooperfaure.co.uk to arrange an initial free consultation.