If anybody owes you money, then today, which is Tuesday 30 July 2019, would be a good day to send them a statement to remind them of the fact. This is just a statement which you are entitled to send: it is not a threat.
Archives for July 2019
Value Added Tax deadline on Wednesday 7 August 2019
Value Added Tax returns for the quarter ended 30 June 2019 should be submitted by Wednesday 7 August 2019, and any payment which is due should be made electronically by the same date.
Companies with a 31 October 2018 year end
Is Direct Mail too Expensive?
We advocate that every business does a little direct mailing, particularly in its slack period. The cost of a second class stamp is 61 pence, which may make direct mail look too expensive. It is possible to get cheaper rates using metered mail, but then the meter has an up-front cost and we did just say “a little”.
So we do our direct mailing using 61 pence stamps after all, which we buy online. Our choice of stamp is the English Country Definitive, the greyish stamp with the three lions, which doesn’t scream “second class” at the recipient. The Scottish second class Country Definitive is also a nice stamp.
What we can do is to mail or not mail whenever we want, and we can do test mailings and monitor the results. We feel that these advantages outweigh the high cost, so we don’t think it is too expensive for us. Every other business will need to make its own decision, but should do so carefully.
A possible additional benefit of direct mailing is that it drives prospective clients or customers to the website, which means in turn that the website climbs up the rankings in Google searches. We do notice this ourselves when we slacken off with the direct mailing and then resume. Google is somehow aware when a business has other means of promotion, and it responds to help them. Money spent on direct mail is like an insurance against unemployment. If we have plenty of work we slacken off and drop down the Google rankings as well, while if we have nothing to do then a blitz on direct mailing is called for, with the double benefit of heading to the top of Google.
Employer Payment Summary by Friday 19 July 2019
It can happen sometimes that when you are an employer, you have not actually made any wage or salary payments for a PAYE month such as the month from 6 June to 5 July 2019. In that case you must submit electronically an Employer Payment Summary as a NIL return by Friday 19 July. This bureaucratic requirement is too easy to overlook.
If you engage a local accountant and business adviser or a payroll bureau to do your wages, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of payrolls at about the same time each month. Our payroll files are bright yellow like the old P30BC booklet so we do not overlook them. We colour-code all the taxes so green is VAT, red is income tax, blue is corporation tax and yellow is PAYE.
If you no longer want to have a payroll scheme, then you need to close it down in a formal way. You cannot just assume that you can stop sending in monthly returns.
First Quarter PAYE and CIS Payments by Friday 19 July 2019
Employers must make First Quarter payments of PAYE and NICs by Friday 19 July 2019 if settled by cheque. If you pay electronically, then you have until Monday 22 July to make the payment. Tax retained under the Construction Industry Scheme must also be paid by the same date.
CIS Returns to Friday 5 July 2019
Construction Industry Scheme returns for the month from 6 June to 5 July 2019 should be submitted online by Friday 19 July. This includes NIL returns.
It is only too easy to get caught out by the need to submit a NIL return when no payments to subcontractors have been made. If you engage a local accountant to do your CIS returns, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of work at about the same time each month. We aim to be the accountants for small business that you will turn to for a range of advice and services. Our payroll files are bright yellow so they are hard to overlook, and CIS files also have a green line around them so they are easy to pick out.
The Official P11d deadline is on 6 July 2019
The official deadline for submitting P11ds is this Saturday 6 July 2019. You will need to submit one if you are an employer who has given any non-cash benefits or benefits in kind to your employees, or if you have reimbursed any of your employees’ expenses. The P11d form uses brown boxes for benefits in kind, and blue boxes for reimbursed expenses. It is a complicated form which may be best left to an accountant! There is every possibility of putting something in the wrong box and you need to look carefully at the result of what you are doing rather than dumbly working through whatever software you might be using!
Let’s say you are a bit late, and submit it on July 14th. Nothing will happen. You have until July 19th, a little bit of grace, to make the submission. If you submit it late after that, then you will be fined at the rate of £100 per month for every 50 employees or part thereof that you are late. However, the count of months is backdated to July 7th, so if you file on August 12th, you will be fined £200 per batch of employees.
It is just as well we say 6 July as the deadline, because when employers are late they tend to be very late. However, there is a bit of leeway if you are slightly late.
A Company which has missed the 30 June 2019 Deadline
If your company had a deadline of Sunday 30 June 2019 for the submission of its accounts to Companies House, and this deadline has been missed, then you still have something to play for, and you should contact Carlisle accountants such as David Porthouse and Co at once. You will incur a penalty of £150, but this penalty rises to £375 after Wednesday 31 July 2019 if you still haven’t submitted your accounts. These penalties are £300 and £750 if you miss the deadline two years’ running. We can readily prepare and submit your accounts within the month if you contact us straight away.
Just stating the obvious, if you miss a deadline and incur a penalty, you still have the obligation of preparing and submitting accounts. That doesn’t go away and your penalty is just extra money you will need to pay.