Connolly Accountants

From April 13 the corporation tax on profits from approved patents will be 10%. The product you sell can contain minor patented elements to qualify. Have you the opportunity to patent your products

That’s more than 2000 Britons reaping the benefit of assets & connections in Britain but escaping the taxes the rest of us pay. They must declare a “definitive break” with Britain but must be able to afford the  circa £1/4m it takes to open a bank account and break into the most expensive property market in the world.

Politicians drone on about the morality of tax avoidance. These politicians still haven’t changed the rules – should they adopt a policy as in the US where tax is paid unless citizenship is surrendered? These “offenders” control over 1300 UK companies – Sir Phillip Green is a prominent example. Do these wealthy elite contribute to the UK economy by creating jobs, pensions and paying corporation tax at source? Are they entitled to avoid tax because they are not a burden on UK services?

This truly demonstrates that if we lowered our taxes in this country we would increase the tax take. Wealthy individuals would not then have to go to extraordinary lengths to keep their fair share of income generated.

Declan

Why can we not explain why the number of people in work in the UK has risen by 200000 in the 3 months to June but the economy is supposed to have shrunk by .7%?

We might need to hire more people to make fewer goods; we could be shrinking highly productive sectors & expanding less productive ones. Equally companies could be hoarding staff for when the economy picks up. Certainly there is a rise in part-time work largely because many have not been able to find a full time job and 1 in 4 people are self-employed some of whom may not be producing much work.

We do know that the Olympics have distorted recent figures; half of the rise is attributed to London and unemployment has in fact gone up in parts of northern England and Northern Ireland.

But even if UK employment is a sign of a stronger economy than we have been made to believe, we could be talking ourselves into a real recession. The media tend to be negative, emphasising bad news & downplaying good; customers become concerned & retract spending, trade declines and recession deepens.

Many of my clients are enjoying good trade. I noted in Harrogate this weekend a thriving café and bar culture; pavements packed with people.  So certainly there is positive attitude and money changing hands in some parts.

The Ft commented this week on the successes of both the Olympics and the Mars landing and an obvious conclusion that “aiming high” gets results. But, as Andrew Hill wrote, just small steps of progression can have remarkable positive effects, and in any case, failing to reach big goals canbe devastating. He noted the tragic Olympic interviewees who had failed to meet theirs and their country’s expectations.

I believe it is all about marginal gains; big gains don’t exist in business unless by some unique set of circumstances…and the sum of several marginal gains is what makes a business excel.

British Cycling’s performance director, Dave Brailsford, was asked by the BBC this week about his much discussed marginal gains approach towards achieving the team’s consistently supreme performance. They have been awarded 7 out of a possible 10 gold medals.

“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

And in this example some of the gains are very marginal indeed – beyond fitness and conditioning are sleeping in the same position on the same pillow and cleaning under finger nails to prevent illness (!); just a few little tweaks that on their own don’t amount to much, but when combined together could stack up to make a big difference.

How might you go about deconstructing and then improving individual grains of process in your business?

An ageing population and the fact that around 7 million people are under saving for their retirement has led to pension reform – compulsory employer pension contributions kick in from 2012 and while eligible employees might prefer more in their pay packet they will be automatically enrolled in a pension plan. The vast majority currently have no pension provision. The new pension requirements will be a big shock for small businesses..and potentially a big extra burden in already tough economic conditions.. but it will be a few years until it will hit them.

An employee can choose to opt out but many employers don’t think they should be allowed to do so. If people don’t have retirement savings the rest of the country will have to pay more tax to support them.  If money is put aside for old age when you are young, the cash has a long time to grow into something more substantial and education into thinking about money starts young.

But a pension might not be the best way for an individual to invest..shouldn’t employees be allowed to save for their retirement in whatever way they choose? People are being forced to lock their money away for up to 40 years and they may not live long enough to benefit from their savings. People close to retirement who might qualify for means tested benefits could lose the entitlement with a small pension when that benefit could be more valuable. And those with very large pension pots could breach the lifetime limit of £1.5m with severe tax consequences. Some young people need to pay off their student debts or save for a deposit. And those with debt should be able to focus on paying that off first.

Companies will be told pay in a minimum of 1% of every worker’s salary into a pension, rising to 3% by 2017. All employers need to prepare for the additional costs of their new responsibilities. They will be told to pay a minimum of 1% of every worker’s salary into a pension, rising to 3% by 2017. Then on top any additional employer contributions, as well as the additional administrative costs of communicating with staff and dealing with their queries, upgrading payroll systems, collecting and paying over contributions and retaining the required records. Employers who fail to make payments on their worker’s behalf will face fines as will any employer who persuades anyone to opt out!

I think this is another big expense for business, messy roll out program too. Employers beware, those penalties are heavy!

The Government is relying on apathy, or at least the failure to take further advice, in order to achieve high levels of take up. In that respect, it is likely to be onto a winner. If there is one thing history has shown when it comes to pensions, it is the depth of consumer apathy.

Much discussion has and will continue to take place on tax schemes and how the rich are avoiding paying their fair share of tax. Many of the critics of such schemes will most likely have fuelled the black economy by paying and accepting cash for work done. Double standards abound. The very same ministers who complain about tax scheme invariably use trusts to protect their assets and avoid tax.

I firmly believe that a universal rate of tax of 25% will stop all schemes in their tracks, resulting in a major increase in tax revenues, reduce cost of collection and free up the geeks who come up with tax avoidance schemes to do something more productive for the economy.

Under new EIS rules coming into force in April 2012 up to £1,000,000 can be invested and you will gain income tax relief at 30%. The restrictions on the size of companies is being increased to 250 employees and assets up to £15m. Up to £10million can be raised.
Will the new limits help de-risk such investments