i joined a local health program last year to get fitter and, as a bonus, lose a bit of weight after many unsuccessful attempts. I am weighed weekly by my program fitness coach in front of the class. 😮

By taking regular exercise and making better food choices, to my delight, over a period of weeks, it worked and is still working 12 months on!

But why did it work this time after so many attempts to get fitter in the past?

The difference is that I am accountable to my fitness coach for my own health and also I don’t want to let my classmates down!

I similarly see success happen when business owners are prepared to be accountable to me for their actions in trying to build a better business over a period of years.

Do you have any stories to share about how being accountable to someone outside of the business has worked for you?

hashtag#momentum hashtag#accountant hashtag#businessmentor hashtag#businessinsight
hashtag#businessresults hashtag#businessadvice hashtag#accountabilityinaction

We would like to thank all of our clients and followers for their support over 2023.

We hope that 2024 is a prosperous one and look forward to continuing to help entrepreneurs make their business goals a reality by providing an Accountable solution.

We would like to wish all our connections a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Main takeaways for directors

👉 The National Insurance main employee rate will be cut from 12% to 10% starting from 6th January 2024;

👉 Minimum wage will be upped to £11.44 per hour (from £10.42) starting in April 2024;

👉 Corporation tax relief - Qualifying asset spending will continue to qualify for a 100% first-year allowance for main rate assets, and a 50% first-year allowance for special rate (including long life) assets.

Cars, assets for leasing and second-hand assets will continue to be excluded from the 100% and 50% first-year allowances

👉 A merger of R&D tax reliefs with the aim to simplify the scheme

hashtag#autumnstatement hashtag#smallbusiness hashtag#director hashtag#recruitmentbusiness hashtag#taxsavings

Buying gifts for your clients is classed as entertaining and as a general rule any entertaining expenses are not tax deductible.

There are some small exceptions to this rule however. For example if you are gifting an item (not food or alcohol) and it has your logo on it, and is up to the value of £50, then it will be tax deductible.

Treating your staff this Christmas? ✨

You can give your employees a tax-free gift of up to £50 as long as it;
➡ isn’t cash or a cash voucher;
➡ Isn't a reward for performance at work;
➡ Isn't in the terms of their contract

This is called a ‘trivial benefit’ which if qualifies, you will be saving tax at the employee rate and national insurance at 13.8%.

hashtag#taxsavings hashtag#christmasgifts hashtag#director hashtag#smallbusiness hashtag#recruitmentbusiness

Now that the Christmas party season is upon us, here is a summary on what is a taxable deduction 🌟

The cost of the function must be less than £150 including VAT per head.

🛑 Be careful, if the cost of providing the party (room hire/food/travel) exceeds that amount, the whole amount is taxable!

If you have more than one party over the year, the amount per head is combined, which may lead to one event being fully taxable.

To get the tax relief;

👉 All staff are invited;

👉 No relief for director only parties excluding employees unless the only employees are the directors;

👉 You can invite other guests but the main purpose is for staff entertainment.

You can claim VAT where the purpose of the event is for staff welfare.

Note! HMRC may decide to block any claims where they think it is client entertaining and there can be penalties imposed where they believe you have been careless and tax should be due.

A little known and underused tax free perk is the trivial benefits exemption.

A benefit provided to an employee is classed as a trivial benefit and therefore tax free for not only them, but a tax deduction for the employer too, provided that;

✔️ It is less than £50, if given as a voucher it is non-cash transferable,
✔️ It is NOT a reward for services,
✔️ And, it isn't included in the terms of an employee’s contract.

Examples 👀

Trivial benefits could include, a gift voucher, a bunch of flowers, taking a group of employees out for a meal to celebrate a birthday (as long as it doesn’t exceed £50 incl VAT per head).

To avoid the reward for service rule, the benefits could be given for a birthday, or a turkey or bottle of wine at Christmas, the birth of a child or a bereavement.

There is no limit to employees! 😲

HMRC’s legislation does not state how many times per year you can give a trivial benefit to your employees. But be wise! Obviously a £50 gift every working day of the year would ring HMRC's alarm bells so we would advise that any trivial benefits made in the year are made as a gesture rather than a frequent payment.

An does this apply to company directors too? 👀

Yes it does! To limit company directors taking advantage of this tax freebie, HMRC will allow trivial benefits provided to directors up to a value of £300 per year. So that’s a payment up to £50 once every two months. If your spouse is also a director that is another saving of £300 from your tax bills. 💰

You’ll need to declare and pay Tax & NI on anything above e.g. £51 will mean the full amount not deductible and is reportable through P11D/PSA or payroll as benefits.

#recruitmentbusiness #recruiters #recruitmentdirectors #taxfreeperks #recruitmentaccountants #trivialbenefits #taxsavings #hasslefreeaccountancy

Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published.