GDPR and Email Marketing

GDPR is big news at this present time. We recently covered the General Data Protection Regulation, setting out the three key areas in which businesses of all sizes and types that do business with any EU based consumer will need to ensure compliance.

One of these key areas was consent. If you regularly send email newsletters or updates to a contact list that resides within the EU, then you are going to need to follow a number of steps to make sure you are not breaching the new Regulation. Remember, a breach could cost you literally millions of pounds.

Email Marketing Requires Opt-In Consent Under GDPR

Under GDPR, businesses can only send emails to those who have opted in to receive them. Whilst the current EU Privacy Directive already requires this in the majority of EU countries, the difference under GDPR is the nature of the consent. 

Consent must never be compulsory or hidden; it must be active (opt-in only); you must have separate requests for each type of contact; it has to be clear who is requesting the consent, and the consent must be easy to withdraw. 

You cannot assume that it is permissible to send marketing materials to contacts who do not request NOT to be contacted.

Why are you Collecting Data?

Your reason for collecting data must also be made clear, and you must set out how it will be used. Again this needs to be a positive action (opt-in) rather than a negative opt-out action.

For example, saying something like, “Office Assistants will use your personal details and record your purchase habits so we can provide you with appropriate offers in the future. If you would prefer for us not to do this, please tick here.” This would be non-permissible under GDPR because you are asking for an opt-out rather than an opt-in.

“Please tick the box to confirm you are happy for us to do this” is the right way to obtain consent as this is a positive action.

 Every time you collect an email address you will need to run this procedure. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a web sign-up form, a postal mailshot, an exhibition or anything else, you MUST obtain consent to send marketing materials. Under GDPR you cannot collect, store or use email addresses without consent.

Record Keeping is Essential

You will also need to keep records of all consents collected because if compliance is questioned, you will need them as evidence. This could be done by keeping copies of sign-up forms or taking screen shops of web pages or apps where consent boxes were ticked.

GDPR will apply to all data captured both before and after the introduction of the Regulation on 25^th May 2018. This means that any current mailing list you have will need to be refreshed. In other words, you will need to request consent from every person on your existing mailing list.

When to Plan for GDPR?

The best time to do this is NOW. If you leave it until the last minute, your consent request email will be lost in the midst of everyone else’s who is undertaking the same exercise. It may also be necessary to send a series of requests in case there is a lack of response in the first instance. Give yourself time otherwise you could find yourself with an unusable mailing list come May next year.

If you are in any way unsure as to how GDPR will affect your business, why not speak to your local bookkeepers?

An Employer's Guide to Christmas

Christmas time is filled with doubts and concerns for the employer who tends to spend much of his or her time during the festive season run-up dealing with all sorts of issues such as annual leave requests, overtime grievances and disciplinary issues.

 

Now is a good time to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead and to help you we’ve summarised five of the most common problems faced by employers at this time of year, together with advice on how to deal with them.

1.     Social Events

 

Employers have a duty of care towards their workforce and the Equality Act makes employers liable for acts of harassment, victimisation and discrimination during the course of employment, although if evidence can be provided that reasonable steps were taken to prevent such acts then it may be possible to avert any action.

Action to take: ensure you have a set policy on workplace social events and evidence that it is enforced.

2.     Overtime

Providing your contracts of employment incorporate clauses that require employees to work overtime as and when required, then you can expect your staff to agree to overtime over the festive period. If they refuse then you will usually be within your rights to discipline them.

Action to take: check your contracts to ensure you have stipulated that your workers must undertake overtime during busy periods before attempting to enforce it.

3.     Annual Leave Requests

Many employees have a desire to take holidays during the festive period so they can spend time with their families. However, unless there is a contractual agreement, they are not within their rights to insist upon it and must provide notice equal to twice the length of the leave they are looking to take.

Employers are then able to put a counter notice forward stating that the leave has been refused, providing the counter notice matches the length of the leave requested and the staff member is not being prevented from taking leave they are entitled to within that holiday year. You’ll need to present valid reasons if you want to refuse an employee who has enough leave accrued and who has given reasonable notice.

Action to take: be clear on the annual leave allowances and policies you have incorporated into your workers’ contracts. Never refuse leave without valid reason.

4.     Late to Work

It is not uncommon for workers to turn up late the next day following the annual Christmas party. But what is the employer’s position?

Employers have a right to make deductions from workers’ pay if they are late to work, providing there is a clause in the employment contract allowing them to make deductions from wages for unauthorised absence.

Action to take: make sure your employment contracts include such a clause, and that your disciplinary policy states that non-attendance following any form of staff event could lead to disciplinary action.

5.     Annual Leave Requirements

For some businesses, the Christmas and New Year period is the ideal time to shut down and many employers require workers to reserve annual leave to take at this time of year.

As long as it is stipulated in the contract of employment, employers are able to stipulate when leave should be taken.

Action to take: ensure your contracts of employment and holiday policy stipulate any particular requirements you have concerning the need for staff to reserve a certain amount of their annual leave to cover the Christmas and New Year shut down period.

If you are in any way concerned about dealing with staff issues over the festive period, why not talk to your bookkeepers in the first instance? They’ll be able to set you straight on the key rules and, if necessary, refer you on for legal advice.

Autumn Budget 2017 Key Announcements for Small Businesses

For the small business owner there was a fair amount to digest following Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Budget on 22 November. Here we provide an at-a-glance summary of the key points.

VAT Threshold

There were murmurings of a potential change to the VAT threshold, but this has remained at £85,000 for at least the next two years, most likely due to heavy opposition from small business organisations. The news has been welcomed by bodies such as the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which have been campaigning on the subject of VAT reform for some time, arguing that it has the potential to drain the resources of the smaller business. The stay could however be just a temporary measure, with a rumoured overhaul to the VAT system coming in 2020.

Business Rates

From April 2018 the Retail Price Index (RPI) will be replaced with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with the CPI being used to calculate business rates. This should in practice save businesses quite significantly, with collective savings reckoned to be in the region of £2.3 billion over three years.

Staircase tax was abolished with a promise to business owners affected by it since it was introduced that their original rates bills would be reinstated. There was also an announcement that following the next business rates revaluation in 2022, such revaluations will take place every three years rather than every five years.

Tax-Free Personal Allowance

The personal allowance has increased from £11,500 to £11,850 per year. This will result in an overall tax reduction in 2018/2019 of £1,075.

Research & Development Tax Relief

Small businesses that conduct research and development and claim the RDEC standalone tax credit will benefit from further tax relief measures. The rate will increase from 11 per cent to 12 per cent of a firm’s qualifying research and development expenditure.

British Business Bank Boost

The British Business Bank (BBB) has been given a funding boost of £2.5 billion. This comes as part of a larger £20 billion Patient Capital investment designed to assist fast-growing businesses in scaling-up. The funding has the objective of encouraging more long term investment in scale-up businesses carrying a greater risk. It’s the biggest government commitment to date to the BBB.

National Living Wage

 The National Living Wage (NLW) paid to workers aged 25 plus will increase to £7.83 from £7.50 per hour, resulting in a £600 per year increase.

Partnership Tax

Legislation has been updated to fall in line with commercial arrangements for allocating profit shares with the objective of avoiding additional administrative burdens for taxpayers. The changes will come into effect as of the tax year 2018-2019.

Marriage Allowance

The Marriage Allowance – the amount of unused personal tax allowance that can be transferred between spouses or civil partners - will increase to £1,185 as of April 2018. Marriage allowance claims are now allowable on behalf of deceased spouses and civil partners as of 29 November 2017.

If you have any queries or concerns about the changes brought in by the latest Budget, why not discuss them with your local bookkeepers?