MKS Accountants Limited

06/03/2023

On 1 April 2023, the government will increase the National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 23 years and over by 9.7% to £10.42. This 92 pence increase is the largest ever cash increase to the NLW.

17/02/2023

They are cracking down on Bounce Back Loan....

The director of a haulage company who fraudulently applied for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan and then applied to dissolve the company has been jailed for 12 months. Kulwinder Singh Sidhu, 58, from Stanwell, has been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, after pleading guilty to offences under the Co

03/08/2022

LEGISLATION UPDATE FOR CLIENTS
VAT PENALTY CHANGES

1. Who is affected?

The changes will affect everyone submitting VAT Returns for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2023.

Any nil or repayment VAT returns received late will also be subject to late submission penalty points and financial penalties.

2. What happens if you submit your VAT return late?

Late submission penalties will work on a points-based system.
For each VAT Return you submit late you will receive one late submission penalty point.

Once a penalty threshold is reached, you will receive a £200 penalty and a further £200 penalty for each subsequent late submission.

The late submission penalty points threshold will vary according to your submission frequency.

Most clients will be on quarterly submissions.

Annually 2 penalty points within 24m
Quarterly 4 penalty points within 12m
Monthly 5 penalty points within 6m

You will be able to reset your points back to zero if you:

i. Submit your returns on or before the due date for your period of compliance; this will be based on your submission frequency.

ii. Make sure all outstanding returns due for the previous 24 months have been received by HMRC.

3. What happens if you do not pay your VAT on time?

For late payment penalties, the sooner you pay the lower the penalty rate will be.

Up to 15 days overdue.
You will not be charged a penalty if you pay the VAT you owe in full or agree a payment plan on or between days 1 and 15.

Between 16 and 30 days overdue
You will receive a first penalty calculated at 2% on the VAT you owe at day 15 if you pay in full or agree a payment plan on or between days 16 and 30.

31 days or more overdue
You will receive a first penalty calculated at 2% on the VAT you owe at day 15 plus 2% on the VAT you owe at day 30.

You will receive a second penalty calculated at a daily rate of 4% per year for the duration of the outstanding balance. This is calculated when the outstanding balance is paid in full, or a payment plan is agreed.

4. When will these changes come into place?

To give you time to get used to the changes, HMRC will not be charging a first late payment penalty for the first year from 1 January 2023 until 31 December 2023, if you pay in full within 30 days of your payment due date.

5. How will the late payment interest be charges?

From 1 January 2023, HMRC will charge late payment interest from the day your payment is overdue to the day your payment is made in full.

Late payment interest is calculated as the Bank of England base rate plus 2.5%.

6. How will repayment interest work?

The repayment supplement will be withdrawn from 1 January 2023.

For accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2023, HMRC will pay you repayment interest on any VAT that you are owed.

This will be calculated from the day after the due date or the date of submission (whichever is later) and until the day HMRC pays you the repayment VAT amount due to you in full.

Repayment interest will be calculated as the Bank of England base rate minus 1%. The minimum rate of repayment interest will always be 0.5% even if the repayment interest calculation results in a lower percentage.

15/06/2022

03/06/2022

https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/pressreleases/new-powers-introduced-as-hmrc-targets-till-fraud-3185651

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers visited businesses across the country and arrested 3 people in a day of action after new powers were introduced in the...

21/04/2022

MKS is hiring; looking for a junior office administrator:

Job description

*Acting as a point of contact for clients or suppliers via email, over the phone or in person
*Welcoming visitors to the building and showing them to meetings
*Booking meeting and arranging meeting schedules
*Organising filing systems and updating office databases
*Responding to questions and requests for information
*Other general administration tasks

Successful candidate will need to have:
excellent communication skills; written & Verbal.
Very good computer skills and ability to pick up new software.

Job Types: Full-time or Mon-Fri 9am-3pm, Permanent

Please email CV's to [email protected]

24/03/2022

Key measures the Chancellor announced yesterday:

• an increase to the National Insurance Primary Threshold for Class 1 NICs and the Lower Profits Limit for Class 4 NICs from 6 July 2022, aligning it with the equivalent income tax personal allowance which is set at £12,570 per annum

• from April 2022, self-employed individuals with profits between the Small Profits Threshold (SPT) and the Lower Profit Limit will not pay Class 2 NICs, while allowing individuals to be able to continue to build National Insurance credits

• the Employment Allowance will be increased by £1,000 from 6 April 2022 to £5,000, which will benefit around 495,000 businesses

• an immediate reduction in duty on diesel and petrol from 6pm on 23 March 2022, by 5 pence per litre, for 12 months.

23/03/2022

Warning about scams - I have had a few clients call with this issue:

If someone contacts you saying they’re from HMRC and wants you to transfer money urgently or give personal information, never let yourself be rushed. There are many different types of scam. Some threaten you with immediate arrest for tax evasion, others offer a tax rebate. Do not panic. HMRC will never phone threatening you with arrest, only criminals do that.

Take your time and check 'HMRC’s advice about scams' on GOV.UK before you do anything. You can also phone them directly, but make sure you use the contact details on GOV.UK.

The National Cyber Security Centre has a helpful guide on how to stay secure online and protect yourself or your business against cyber crime, which you can find at cyberaware.gov.uk.

23/02/2022

You’ve probably heard the news—the PM has announced plans to end COVID laws in England.

Here’s what this means for you:

• From 24th February: There will be no legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive COVID test.

• From 24th February: Unvaccinated close contacts will also not be legally required to isolate.

• From 24th March: COVID SSP rules will return to standard Statutory Sick Pay rules.

• From 1st April: Free COVID testing will end for the general public. However, tests will remain available for the oldest age groups and those who are most vulnerable.

23/02/2022

Final claims for the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

The Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme will close on 17 March 2022. You have until 24 March 2022 to submit any new claims for absence periods up to 17 March 2022, or to amend claims you have already submitted.

You will no longer be able to claim back Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for your employees’ coronavirus-related absences or self-isolation that occur after 17 March 2022.

From 25 March, we will return to the normal SSP rules, which means you can revert to paying SSP from the fourth qualifying day your employee is off work regardless of the reason for their sickness absence.

18/01/2022

https://www-mirror-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.mirror.co.uk/money/hmrc-investigate-170000-child-benefit-25978929.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D =From%20%251%24s&aoh=16425308142289&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fmoney%2Fhmrc-investigate-170000-child-benefit-25978929

It’s part of a HICBC tax avoidance measure passed by MPs last week that will allow the government to claw back benefits where it believes the claimant was knowingly at fault

25/06/2021

Insolvency Service takes action against businesses abusing COVID-19 financial support

The Insolvency Service has disqualified a director for 12 years and wound-up five other companies after they fraudulently claimed COVID-19 business support.

Since February 2021, the Insolvency Service has successfully petitioned the Courts to wind up five limited companies that have been involved in abusing government loans, introduced to help businesses during the pandemic.

These include a furniture retailer in Manchester, and two Glasgow-based companies, for which no legitimate business activity was identified since at least January 2020.

Most recently, the owner of Ikandy Wholesale, Raashid Khan, was disqualified as director for a period of 12 years after he was found to have fraudulently claimed £50,000 through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) before transferring the full amount out of the company’s account to himself just days before his company went into administration.

"The Bounce Back Loan scheme was made available to help support businesses during the pandemic. It is outrageous that some directors have been trying to abuse this support, and the action we have taken shows we take this issue extremely seriously," said Dave Elliott, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service.

"I urge anyone who suspects a company has been involved in this kind of abuse, or has information about directors fraudulently obtaining Covid business support, to alert us immediately."

He revealed that the Insolvency Service will also soon have extra powers to investigate Bounce Back Loan fraud in cases where the company has been dissolved.

The Ratings (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill, currently before Parliament, if passed will give the Insolvency Service powers to investigate, and if appropriate take action to disqualify directors of companies which have fraudulently claimed Bounce Back Loans but which have since been dissolved. This power will be retrospective to allow conduct that took place before the law comes into force to be investigated.

If wrongdoing or malpractice is found, directors can face sanctions including a ban of up to 15 years, and potentially criminal prosecution.

From

The Insolvency Service has disqualified a director for 12 years and wound-up five other companies after they fraudulently claimed COVID-19 business support. Since February 2021, the Insolvency Service has successfully petitioned the Courts to wind up five limited companies that have been involved in