Friday’s cloud cover meant we all missed out on the fullest and brightest moon this year and there wasn’t much weekend Christmas cheer given the wash out. So can I bring you any glad tidings? Well, yes I can…

There is some relatively good news for small businesses from the British Banking Association. Banks have recently signed up to a new lending charter to help customers and the banks tackle financial difficulties in a more positive and sympathetic way. Be aware the onus is based on the business seeking help at an early stage and being armed with a realistic business plan for your bank to sympathise. Contact Dawn O’Leary if you need help re-writing your business plan.

Here’s a chance to improve your balance sheet as well as your corporate social responsibility. From 1 April 2009 watch out for financial incentives and much reduced red tape for businesses who switch their company cars to lower emission vehicles. If you need any advice on deciding whether to lease or purchase please get in touch with me or Dawn.

For those of you with online personal tax returns don’t forget you need to submit them by 31 Jan 2009 if you don’t want to incur late penalties. Please call me on 01344 620495 if you have any questions or need any assistance with tax matters.

Wishing you a merry Christmas and happy New Year.

As predicted in my pre budget blog – more than 11,000 businesses have deferred their tax payments following the government’s decision to give companies some breathing space.  According to HMRC just over 40% were agreed on the spot with the remainder dealt with as general enquiries or referrals to debt specialists.

As the Construction sector continues to contract, are you struggling to keep your CIS gross payment status due to cash flow issues?  It seems that subcontractors with a history of late PAYE and CIS deductions gives the Taxman the right to cancel your gross payment status.  This leaves the onus on main contractors to deal with CIS deductions further exacerbating subcontractor cash flow problems.

Help is at hand for businesses struggling with the administrative accounting problems due to the VAT changes.  The normal 14 day time limit for raising VAT invoices for goods and services between 18 and 30 Nov has been temporarily extended to 30 days!  You can now invoice at 15% up to 30 days after the supply was made (providing the invoice is raised on or after 1 Dec 2008).

Don’t forget – financial support for small to medium sized businesses will be made available in the new year with a number of Small Business Finance packages.  Accessed via Business Link, these schemes are designed to help those companies struggling with short term working capital and trade and investment finance.

Stop press – new guidelines for company car fuel rates are now available for company car journeys from 1 Jan 2009.

If you’re struggling with CIS, VAT, cash flow or simply need a sounding board then contact me or Dawn O’Leary on 01344 620495.