The
Chancellor’s Autumn Statement wasn’t all doom and gloom. There is some
heartening news for small businesses, despite his assurances of continuing
austerity measures.
Changes in Business
Rates
The
vexing question of rates for small businesses has been addressed, with small
retailers reaping the most benefit. They will receive a £1000 discount in the
next two years. A 50% discount has also been announced for anyone moving for
trading purposes into a property that has been left vacant. The small business
rate relief scheme is to continue beyond 2014, and you will be able to pay in
12 monthly instalments. All business rate rises will be capped at 2%.
Checking the Rising
Cost of Using Your Car
Other
areas helpful to the small business include the freezing of fuel duty again in
2014. And the Chancellor took the opportunity to emphasise that without this and
his previous decisions not to increase the duty, petrol and diesel could be
around 20p higher per litre.
Young Persons’
National Insurance Contributions Scrapped
The
government wishes to encourage employers to recruit young people so, if you
employ anyone under 21, from April 2015, there will be no national insurance
contributions due for them. This has been criticised for making life harder for
21 year old job seekers, and for not encouraging young people to gain more
skills before taking full time employment. It is, however, good news for
workers who will be in the right age bracket, and it may slightly reduce the
financial burden on employers, who will also be eligible for the £2,000 Employment Allowance that will come into effect
in April 2014.
Responding to Regulatory Change
Every time regulatory changes are
introduced, small business owners must take note and make the appropriate
administrative changes. If you know that your outsourced
bookkeepers can be trusted to deal with all
of them, it can take a load off your mind. Without this kind of assistance a
good part of a number of working days could be taken up with sorting out what
adjustments you will have to make – time that could otherwise be usefully put
to your core business activities and developing them further.
Pretty well everything announced
by the Chancellor has a future start date, and these dates can easily be missed
when you are busy getting a firm foothold in the markets. That’s when having
proactive outsourced bookkeepers can really pay dividends. You can get on with your
everyday business life knowing that you won’t have any compliance issues and
all your financial responsibilities will be taken care of at the right time.
