We all make New Year Resolutions, and whilst most are quickly broken a few good habits will remain. And so in the spirit of the new year and a new decade, we recommend that your business too makes New Year Resolutions that will help your business grow through better financial management.
Here are our recommended New Year Resolutions for you and your business.
Annual and management accounts
- At the year end make sure you:-
Complete a year end bank reconciliation.
Undertake a full stock take if required.
Create a list of debtors and creditors if your business has yet to move to an online accounting package. - Ensure your business is MTD (making tax digital) compliant.
- Regularly review your trade debtors listing for bad debts.
- Send your accountant your books and records as early as possible.
- Don’t back date transactions to the previous year when using MTD compliant software packages.
- Ensure there are sufficient reserves to take out dividends.
- Review your Profit and Loss account on a regular basis and ensure all items are allocated correctly and figures are as expected.
VAT
- Do not think a ‘no deal Brexit’ is off the table, so keep VAT records up to date.
- Keep an eye on turnover if you are not yet registered for VAT. Although your tax team will look at your turnover as part of your tax return, it is often too late for VAT registration if you go over the threshold.
- If your VAT returns are filed under MTD, don’t forget that you will need to have your digital links in place for the first full VAT return due after 1 April 2020.
- If you are signing up for MTD, do as early as possible.This is particularly important if your accountant files on your behalf.
- If you import or export goods, make sure you obtain and check all documents from your agents.
- And don’t leave filing your VAT return to the last minute.
Tax
- Do not put R&D relief on the back burner. Track R&D on a project by project by project basis to make claims easier, and don’t forget claims need to be made within two years of the end of the accounting period in which the expenditure was incurred.Keep in mind claims can be made for failed projects.
- Open the patent box.The Patent Box regime can see corporate tax on profits from patented products fall to just 10%, but don’t forget that all or part of the qualifying R&D needs to be undertaken in-house.Stream profits on a product by product basis to make claims easier.
- Don’t forget capital allowances.Keep in mind the Annual Investment Allowance will fall from £1m to £200k on 1 January 2021. If large qualifying capital expenditure is planned consider making it before 31 December 2020.
Hillier Hopkins team of specialist accountants and business advisers are on hand to help your business set and keep financial new year resolutions. If you are concerned about any of the topics covered please call or email one of our friendly experts.
Accounts – Kirsty Bowman on kirsty.bowman@hhllp.co.uk or +44(0)1923634431
VAT – Ruth Corkin on ruth.corkin@hhllp.co.uk or +44(0)1908713860
Tax – Ravi Juthani on ravi.juthani@hhllp.co.uk or +44(0)1923634255