Monthly Newsletter: 18/04/2024

We hope you are all well. Spring seems to have arrived and we have even started to see a bit of sunshine! Very much hoping that the rain will have finally come to an end and hosepipe bans are thing of the past!

In this newsletter we are updating on a couple of Smarter housekeeping issues to start with:

• Change in Opening Times – Just a reminder that from 1 April 2024 our offices now close on a Friday at 1pm
• Team Training Day Tuesday 23 April 2024 – Next Tuesday we will be closing at 11am for a team training day. The offices and the phones will be closed from 11am and reopen, as normal, on Wednesday 24 April

Happy New Tax Year!

We have now started a new tax year. From 6 April we are in the 2024/25 tax year. This means that the 2023/24 tax year has now finished and we can now start preparing those tax returns. At the time of writing, we have already filed 15 2023/24 tax returns, leaving us with just another 1,500 or so to go!

If you want to know what tax you have to pay, then get your information into us and we will get on with things as soon as we can.

Changes at Companies House

Companies House are going through a lot of changes in regulation. For years the powers of Companies House have been very limited, meaning quite often obvious errors have gone unchallenged as Companies House do not have the ability to do anything about them. This is changing though and will continue to change over the coming 12 months following new laws that have come into force in the last few months. In the main, most of the changes are a positive step forward, however they do bring with them some things that we will need to implement as a firm, amongst our clients, as part of dealing with Companies House. Some of the first changes implemented are in relation to the Confirmation Statement (used to be called Annual Return), and as a result from May we will be changing our process for this, for all of our Limited Company clients:

• Information now needs to be checked thoroughly. Prior to filing the Confirmation Statement, we will be sending out the details that we hold for your company and will request that you confirm everything is correct and up to date
• Companies House now require an email address for the Company and we will be asking you to confirm this as part of the above process
• A Director of the company must confirm that the company is operating for ‘lawful purposes’, again we will ask you to confirm that as part of the above
• The fee the Companies House charge for filing the Confirmation Statement was £13 but from May they are increasing this to £34 (other Companies House fees are also increasing)
• As there is a lot of additional work for us, we will be levying a fee for the above work at £30 plus VAT for each Confirmation Statement
• Historically we have had some difficulties reclaiming fees paid for filing Confirmation Statements. From May we will send out an invoice with the information for checking and will require payment before we will file the statement

Sorry for the above. We don’t like increasing fees but the regulation changes require a significant amount of Smarter time to manage the process.

Other changes to Companies House’s ways of working will be coming and we will provide updates as and when we know more.

SME Apprenticeships

The Department for Business and Trade recently held the first meeting of the newly established Small Business Council tasked with overseeing three key areas for small firms – access to finance, skills and support as well as removing barriers. The Help to Grow campaign website has been relaunched and refreshed, as a one-stop shop for SMEs to find the information they need to grow and scale up. This includes helping small firms to help to identify what funding they can access, helpful webinars as well as the basics of how to set up a business.  As part of the small business reform package, as of April 1st, the UK government is covering the costs for apprenticeships for those under 21 in small companies. Read the full press release here >

Smarter Recruiting Now!

We are always on the lookout for new members of staff for both offices, at all levels.  We are particularly looking for anyone with practice experience.

If you know anyone who may be interested, then please ask them to contact us!

We provide more regular updates via Facebook. Therefore, if you want the latest news, please like our Facebook page

Best wishes, take care