HLAS

The Government has set out plans to drive innovation and harness pioneering technology in farming as part of its Food Strategy, in the hopes to back farmers by helping to increase domestic production. Currently, the UK only produces 15% of tomatoes supplied domestically. However, new generation technology, such as sustainable and efficient glasshouses, has opened up new opportunities for British producers which will help to reduce reliance on overseas production. The plans include incentives for industry and investment in research to support farmers and boost home-grown fruit and vegetable production, and in turn, create new job opportunities. £270 million will [...]

Companies House have recordings of webinar presentations that you can watch whenever suits your schedule. The webinars cover a range of topics, including: starting a limited company and your responsibilities to Companies House and HMRC. how intellectual property such as patents, trademarks and copyrights can affect your business. guidance on starting a community interest company (CIC). how to register company mortgages and other charges at Companies House. how to restore a company to the register. See: Companies House webinars - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Accident Book is a valuable document that organisations can use to record accident information. The Accident Book can be used to record details of all work-related accidents including injuries that employers must report under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). The book contains 50 perforated accident record forms and is designed to support users in being GDPR compliant. See: HSE: Information about health and safety at work

All workers are legally entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW). This includes temporary seasonal staff, who often work short-term contracts in bars, hotels, shops and warehouses over the summer. The National Minimum Wage hourly rates from 1 April 2022 are: £9.50 - age 23 or over (National Living Wage) £9.18 - age 21 to 22 £6.83 - age 18 to 20 £4.81 - age under 18 £4.81 - apprentice Employers can contact the Acas helpline for free help and advice. Please contact us if you need help with your payroll. See: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates Travelling [...]

The newest partner of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Working Minds campaign, Make UK, has launched a podcast series on the importance of mental health. Across six episodes, former BBC Business Editor Jonty Bloom interviews companies and experts – from large companies to SMEs. They include: Chloe Smith MP, Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work Andrew Ward, Make UK’s Health, Safety and Sustainability Director Rachel Newman, Head of People, Policy and Support, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Dr Shaun Lundy, Director for Strategy and Innovation, Tetra Consultancy You can access the podcast series by using the following [...]

HMRC have issued guidance for VAT-registered business and their agents on how to avoid penalties for non-compliance with the Making Tax Digital for VAT (MTD) rules. In particular, there is a new £400 per return penalty if you file a return but do not use functional compatible software. There are additional penalties if the business does not keep its records digitally. HMRC may charge you a penalty of between £5 to £15 for every day on which the business does not meet that requirement. Key extracts from HMRC guidance include: You must file your VAT return using functional compatible software [...]

If you have children under 12 who attend a nursery, after school club, play scheme, childminder or you are considering sending them to a summer camp, you should think about setting up a tax-free childcare account. The government adds 25% to the amounts that you save in the account, contributing up to £2,000 for each child each year (a higher amount applies for disabled children). For example, if you save £8,000, this is topped up to £10,000. The account is then used to pay approved childcare providers. It is worth noting that it doesn’t need to be the child’s parents [...]

HMRC are reminding sole traders and partners who have received Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants that there are potentially penalties of up to 100% of amounts overclaimed in certain circumstances. HMRC may apply the penalty where they believe that the trader knew that they were not entitled to the grant and did not tell HMRC within a 90-day notification period. The law treats the failure as ‘deliberate and concealed’. This means HMRC may charge a penalty of up to 100% of the amount of the SEISS grant that the trader was not entitled to receive or keep. Traders are [...]

HMRC have also issued new guidance on the penalties that they impose for non- compliance with the Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT rues. In particular, there is a penalty of up to £400 for every VAT return a business files without using ‘functional compatible software’. Functional compatible software means a software program, or set of software programs, products or applications that can: record and store digital records provide HMRC with information and VAT returns from the data held in those digital records receive information from HMRC There are additional penalties if the business does not keep their records digitally. [...]

The Research & Development (R&D) tax credit scheme for small and medium sized enterprise companies is particularly generous as there is currently 230% relief for qualifying expenditure and, where the company is loss making, this results in a 14.5% repayable credit. This means that the company receives a £33,350 refund for every £100,000 spent on R&D. This generous tax break has reportedly resulted in abuse of the system. HMRC have recently paused some repayments while they investigate an increase in irregular claims. Unfortunately, even for legitimate claims, this is going to increase processing times. For the vast majority of claims, [...]