Budget 2014 19 March 2014

This is an edited version of the speech, to see the full speech go to https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-george-osbornes-budget-2014-speech

So in this Budget we make sure hardworking people keep more of what they earn – and more of what they save. Yesterday we set out our support for parents with tax free childcare. Today support for savers is at the centre of this Budget, as we take another step towards our central mission: economic security for the people of Britain.

OBR and economic forecasts

A year ago at the Budget the OBR forecast the economy to grow by just 0.6% in 2013. They now confirm that it grew by three times as much. At the Autumn Statement, they significantly revised up their expectations for future growth.

Today I can tell the House they are revising up their forecast again. A year ago, they predicted growth in 2014 would be 1.8%. At the Autumn Statement, 2.4%. Today the OBR forecast growth in 2014 of 2.7%. That’s the biggest upward revision to growth between Budgets for at least 30 years. Growth next year is also revised up to 2.3%. Then it’s 2.6% in 2016 and 2017. And with the output gap closed around a year earlier than previously predicted, growth returns to around its long term trend, at 2.5% in 2018. Taken together, these growth figures mean our economy will be £16 billion larger than was forecast just four months ago. Employment forecasts At home the biggest risk is clear: abandoning the economic plan that is working. And nowhere is the success of that plan more evident than in job creation. 1.3 million more people in work. The latest figures today show a staggering 24% fall in the claimant count in just one year, and the fastest fall in the youth claimant count since 1997. The OBR today forecast one and a half million more jobs over the next five years. Unemployment down from the 8% we inherited to just over 5%.

£1 coin

Of course, the prerequisite of sound money is a sound currency. And, Mr Deputy Speaker, the £1 coin has become increasingly vulnerable to forgery. Now among the oldest of coins in circulation; one in thirty pound coins are counterfeit – and that costs businesses and the taxpayer millions each year. So I can announce that we will move to a new, highly secure, £1 coin. It will take three years. We will consult with industry. Our new pound coin will blend the security features of the future with inspiration from our past. In honour of our Queen, the coin will take the shape of one of the first coins she appeared on – the threepenny bit. A more resilient pound for a more resilient economy.

Fiscal policy

We are taking further difficult decisions now so we can reduce the deficit and protect our NHS and schools and meet our obligations to the world’s poorest by contributing 0.7% of our national income to help them. On public service pensions, we implement the reforms proposed by John Hutton. We will ensure schemes are properly valued, saving the taxpayer over £1 billion a year. We are continuing with pay restraint in the public sector – an essential part of maintaining sound finances and economic stability. We will also insist on the prudent management of departmental finances. Thanks to the efforts of my colleagues in Cabinet, these now regularly come in under budget. In order to lock-in these underspends, I said in December that we would reduce spending by £1 billion in 2015-16. Today, I am making that overall billion pound reduction permanent. And I look forward to the work my excellent colleague the Chief Secretary is now doing, with the Cabinet Office, to find further efficiencies. Difficult decisions on public service pay and pensions. Further savings in departments. A cap on welfare bills. None of these decisions are easy, but they are the right thing to ensure Britain lives within her means.

Welfare

We set out today the details of that welfare cap – and we will seek the support of Parliament for it next week. From housing benefit to tax credits, the full list of benefits included in the cap is published in the Budget document today. Only the State Pension and the cyclical unemployment benefits are excluded. I am setting it at £119 billion in 2015-16. It will rise, but only in line with forecast inflation, to £127 billion in 2018-19. Britain should always be proud of having a welfare system that helps those most in need. But never again should we allow its costs to spiral out of control and its incentives to become so distorted that it pays not to work. In future, any government that wants to spend more on benefits will: have to be honest with the public about the costs, need the approval of Parliament, and will be held to account by this permanent cap on welfare.

Tax avoidance

Thanks to my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister’s leadership we have driven the international efforts to develop tough, new global tax rules that stop rich individuals hiding their tax and companies shifting their profits offshore. And the number of registered tax avoidance schemes has fallen by half. And while the vast majority of wealthy people pay their taxes, there is still a small minority who do not. We will now require those who have signed up to disclosed tax avoidance schemes to pay their taxes, like everyone else, up front. I am increasing HMRC’s budget to tackle non-compliance. We will block transfers of profits between companies within groups to avoid tax. We will increase tax credit debt recovery rates for those with sufficient earnings. We will give HMRC modern powers to collect debts from bank accounts of people who can afford to pay but have repeatedly refused to, like most other Western countries. We will increase compliance checks to catch migrants who claim benefits they aren’t entitled to, saving the taxpayer almost £100 million. We will take action to curb potential misuse of the EIS and VCT schemes. And we are expanding the new tax we introduced to stop people avoiding stamp duty by owning homes through a company. We will expand the tax on residential properties worth over £2 million to those worth more than £500,000. And from midnight tonight anyone purchasing residential property worth over half a million pounds through a corporate envelope will be required to pay 15% stamp duty. None of this applies to homes that are rented out. Many of these are empty properties held in corporate envelopes to avoid stamp duty.

So I will continue to direct the use of the LIBOR fines to our military charities and our emergency service charities too. Because the sums continue to grow, I can today extend that support to our search and rescue and lifeboat services – and provide £10 million of support to our scouts, guides, cadets and St John’s Ambulance. I am also today waiving inheritance tax for those in our emergency services who give their lives protecting us. I will also relieve the VAT on fuel for our Air Ambulances and Inshore Rescue boat services across Britain, and provide a new air ambulance for London – all in response to huge and heartfelt public demand and the campaigning of my Hon. Friends for Hexham, Brentford & Isleworth, and Argyll & Bute. Further, this summer, many services of remembrance will be held in our cathedrals to mark the Great War, so we are providing £20 million to support the repairs needed to these historic buildings.

Exports

Mr Deputy Speaker, We’re not going to have a secure economic future if Britain doesn’t earn its way in the world. We need our businesses to export more, build more, invest more and manufacture more. First, exports. Our exports have grown each year and the OBR today forecast rising export growth in the future. Our combined goods exports to Brazil, India and China have risen faster than those of our competitors. With Stephen Green, and now Ian Livingston, we’re expanding the reach and support UKTI offers British businesses. But for many firms the truth is you can only win the contract if you are backed by competitive export finance. Today we fundamentally change that. And we’re going to start with the finance we provide our exporters. We will double the amount of lending available to £3 billion. And I can announce that from today the interest rates we charge on that lending will be cut by a third. We will also reform Air Passenger Duty to end the crazy system where you pay less tax travelling to Hawaii than you do travelling to China or India. It hits exports, puts off tourists and creates a great sense of injustice among our Caribbean and South Asian communities here in Britain. From next year, all long haul flights will carry the same, lower, band B tax rate that you now pay to fly to the United States. Private jets were not taxed at all under the previous government. Today they are, and I’m increasing the charge so they pay more.

One key British export is the North Sea’s oil and gas. We will take forward all recommendations of the Wood report. And we will review the whole tax regime to make sure it is fit for the purpose of extracting every drop of oil we can. We will introduce now a new allowance for ultra high pressure, high temperature fields to support billions of pounds of investment, thousands of jobs and a significant proportion of our energy needs. Even with these measures, the North Sea is a mature basin – and the OBR have today revised down the forecast tax receipts by a further £3 billion over the period. Britain is better together.

Housing

Mr Deputy Speaker, our country needs to export more – and it also needs to build more. House building is up 23%. But that’s not enough. That’s why we’re making further reforms to our planning system and offering half a billion pounds of finance to small house building firms. And it’s why we’re giving people a new Right to Build their own homes and providing £150 million of finance today to support that. It’s why we’re funding regeneration of some of the urban housing estates that are in the worst condition, and we’re extending the current Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme to 2016. And it’s why we’ve got Help to Buy. We’re extending the Help to Buy equity loan scheme for the rest of the decade, so we get 120,000 new homes built. In the South East where the pressure is greatest we’re going to build new homes in Barking Riverside, regenerate Brent Cross, and build the first new Garden City in almost a hundred years at Ebbsfleet. We’re going to build 15,000 homes there, put in the infrastructure, set up the development corporation and make it happen. Taken all together, the housing policies I announce today will support over 200,000 new homes for families.

Investment

Today I have approved a £270 million guarantee for the Mersey Gateway Bridge thanks to the hard work of my Honourable Friend for Weaver Vale.

Tomorrow we introduce legislation to give new tax and borrowing powers to the Welsh Government to fund their infrastructure needs, and they can start now on work to improve the M4 in South Wales. Because of the exceptionally poor weather this winter, I am making an additional £140 million available, on top of that already provided, for immediate repairs and maintenance to damaged flood defences across Britain. Our roads too have taken a battering.

My Honourable Friend for Northampton North has been a persistent campaigner for resources to repair the pot-holes in his constituency and across the country. His persistence has paid off and I’m making £200 million available which local authorities can bid for. I trust Northampton will be making an application. Modern infrastructure is part of a successful economy. So too is a modern industrial strategy.

If Britain isn’t leading the world in science and technology and engineering, then we are condemning our country to fall behind. So we will establish new centres for doctoral training, for Cell Therapy and for Graphene – a great British discovery that we should break the habit of a lifetime with and commercially develop in Britain. To make sure we give young people the skills they need to get good jobs in this modern world, we’ve doubled the number of apprenticeships and I will extend the grants for smaller businesses to support over 100,000 more. And we’ll now develop new degree level apprenticeships too.

Business tax

Today we accept their recommendation to move the collection of Class 2 NICs into self-assessment, abolishing for 5 million people this wholly unnecessary bureaucracy. And we’ve cut business tax rates.

Corporation tax was 28% when we came to office. In just two weeks corporation tax will be down to 21%, high street stores will get £1,000 off their rates, and every business in the country will get the Employment Allowance – a £2,000 cash-back on jobs. Next year, corporation tax will reach 20% and we take under 21s out of the jobs tax altogether. Businesses keeping more of their money to create jobs and invest in the future. Today I want to go further. Many of the enterprise zones we created are now flourishing – so the business rates discounts and enhanced capital allowances will be extended for another three years.

And I can confirm that with the Northern Ireland Executive we’ll establish the first enterprise zone there near Coleraine. I’m raising the rate of the R&D tax credit for loss-making small businesses from 11% to 14.5%.

Two years ago, I launched the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to help finance start-ups. It’s been a great success and I’m making it permanent. We’re backing investment into social enterprises with a Social Investment Tax Relief at a rate of 30%. And we’re supporting our creative industries too.

The European Commission has today approved the extension of our film tax credit – and I will apply the same successful approach to theatre, especially regional theatre. From this September there will be a 20% tax relief for qualifying productions, and 25% for regional touring.

And we’re expanding by a third the size of the cultural gift scheme. But I want to do something today that helps all businesses invest.

In 2012 I increased the Annual Investment Allowance ten-fold to £250,000. This generous allowance was due to expire at the end of this year – and all the business groups have urged me to extend it. So we will. But we’ll do more. We’re going to double the Investment Allowance to £500,000, extend it to the end of 2015, and start it next month. 99.8% of businesses will get a 100% investment allowance.

Manufacturing Today, by tilting the playing field – extending the 2% increase in company car tax in 2017-18 and 2018-19 while increasing the discount for ultra low emission vehicles – and reducing the rate of fuel duty on methanol. But above all we are going to have a £7 billion package to cut energy bills for British manufacturers – with benefits for families and other businesses too. First, I am capping the Carbon Price Support rate at £18 per ton of CO2 from 2016-17 for the rest of the decade. This will save a mid-sized manufacturer almost £50,000 on their annual energy bill. Duties So we’re backing exports, backing manufacturing, backing a Britain that builds. And

Mr Deputy Speaker, we also want to help hardworking people keep more of what they earn and of what they save. That’s what we’ve done by freezing council tax, freezing fuel duty and raising the personal allowance to £10,000. And from next year tax free childcare – 20% off, for up to £10,000 of childcare costs for parents.

I can confirm that the fuel duty rise planned for September will not take place. Petrol will be 20 pence lower per litre than it would have been.

Let me turn now to tobacco and alcohol duties. Tobacco duty has been rising by 2% above inflation and will do so again today. Today, I am scrapping that escalator for all alcohol duties. They will rise with inflation, with these exceptions:

Scottish Whisky is a huge British success story. To support that industry, instead of raising duties on whisky and other spirits, I am today going to freeze them. And with some cider makers in the West Country hit hard by the recent weather, I am going to help them by freezing the duty on ordinary cider too. And then there’s beer. I know the industry, led so ably by my Honourable Friend for Burton, have been campaigning for a freeze. But beer duty next week will not be frozen. It will be cut again by 1 pence. Pubs saved. Jobs created. A penny off a pint for the second year running.

Personal allowance

 Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a central part of our long term economic plan that people keep more of the money they have earned. When we came to office, the personal tax allowance was just £6,500. In less than three weeks time, it will reach £10,000. That’s an income tax cut for 25 million people. Today, because we are working through our plan, we can afford to go further. Next year there will be no income tax at all on the first £10,500 of your salary.

I can also confirm today that the higher rate threshold will rise for the first time this Parliament, from £41,450 to £41,865 next month, and then by a further 1% to £42,285 next year.

And because I am also passing the full benefit of today’s personal And I am linking the rate of the transferable tax allowance for married couples to the personal allowance, so it will also rise to £1,050.

Savings And we are going to make the New ISA more generous by increasing the annual limit to £15,000. £15,000 of savings a year tax free – available from the first of July. And I’m raising the limits for Junior ISAs to £4,000 a year too.

So we will launch the new Pensioner Bond paying market leading rates. It will be issued by National Savings and Investments, open to everyone aged 65 or over, and available from January next year. The exact rates will be set in the autumn, to ensure the best possible offer - but our assumption is 2.8% for a one year bond and 4% on a three year bond. That’s much better than anything equivalent in the market today. Up to £10 billion of these bonds will be issued. A maximum of £10,000 can be saved in each bond.

And because 21 million people also invest in Premium Bonds I am lifting the cap for the first time in a decade from £30,000 to £40,000 this June, and to £50,000 next year – and I will double the number of million pound winners.

The tax rules around these pensions are a manifestation of a patronising view that pensioners can’t be trusted with their own pension pots. I reject that. People who have worked hard and saved hard all their lives, and done the right thing, should be trusted with their own finances. And that’s precisely what we will now do. Trust the people. Some changes will take effect from next week. We will:

• cut the income requirement for flexible drawdown from £20,000 to £12,000

• raise the capped drawdown limit from 120% to 150%

• increase the size of the lump sum small pot five-fold to £10,000

• and almost double the total pension savings you can take as a lump sum to £30,000 All of these changes will come into effect on 27 March.

Pensioners will have complete freedom to draw down as much or as little of their pension pot as they want, anytime they want. No caps. No drawdown limits. Let me be clear. No one will have to buy an annuity. But instead of the punitive 55% tax that exists now if you try to take the rest, anything else you take out of your pension will simply be taxed at normal marginal tax rates – as with any other income. So not a 55% tax but a 20% tax for most pensioners. But there is one final reform to support savings I would like to make. Mr Deputy Speaker, There is a 10 pence starting rate for income from savings. It is complex to levy and it penalises low income savers.

Today I am abolishing the 10 pence rate for savers altogether. No tax on those savings whatsoever. And we will almost double this zero-pence band to cover £5,000 of saving income.

This blog is intended for information purposes only and is only advice from past experience, you may have other suggestions of your own. It is not intended to be used to make all of your business decisions but as a guide only.

I have recently been on a seminar for auto enrolment the new pension scheme which is affecting large companies now, but is being rolled out to all employers and employees over the next couple of years.

The timeline which keeps changing is

Small companies particularly

30-49 employees August 2015 to October 2015

Less than 30 employees January 2016 to April 2017

For your own specific deadline dates, go into the following link And put in your PAYE reference number.

http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/tools/staging-date.aspx

I know these dates look so far away but they will be here before you know it, a letter will arrive on your doorstep one year before your staging date. You have a year to act, but as you can imagine just like Real Time Information if everybody applies for a pension scheme at the same time, which you and many thousands of companies will be doing. You could find yourself in the middle of a queuing system that could take you past the deadline date.

The financial advisors we use have told us that a pension scheme of this nature can take up to six months to be set up, so you really do have to be reactive and deal with it straight away.

This is not going to be like the stakeholder schemes there was no real policing of it and no real fine system. The government are very serious about this and will be issuing fines, one off fines of £400 and daily fines depending on your size of business of more than £50 per day rising to £10,000 per day for the larger companies.

We have a pension black hole which has been put off for many years, now is the time to fill the gap, this system is compulsory and to opt out is going to be very difficult. There some very serious rules that go with it. One of which is to not discourage members of staff to stay opted in. Heavy fines and prison sentences have been communicated more than £1,000 fixed penalty up to £5,000 for the larger companies not complying.

Each and every employer be it large or small, unlimited or limited companies will have to set up their own pension scheme that is compliant with the governments rulings. You can set it up yourself but it is advisable to use a financial advisor. Costs of which do vary.

You are able to set up these schemes ready for the deadline date now, and not have it go live until the deadline timings, worth knowing if you want to plan ahead.

There are some people who are exempt which are self employed with no staff, directors and some low paid earners, but you need to check the criteria nearer the time as this could change by the time 2017 comes along.

There are currently staged percentages for schemes already in place, rising to 5% for employees and 3% for employers by October 2018.

There will need to be changes to contracts of employment for every employee to take into account these new changes too.

I am sure it is not the best news to be hearing when times are still tough for a lot of people, but forewarned is better than not knowing at all.

Be prepared and plan for it in your budgets, you need to be thinking about how you will pay for it, be it pay freeze, increasing prices, or absorbing it into your normal overheads.

The full details are on page

http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/planning-for-automatic-enrolment.aspx

This blog is intended for information purposes only and is only advice from past experience, you may have other suggestions of your own. It is not intended to be used to make all of your business decisions but as a guide only.

You might think this is an odd article for an accountant to put together. But in fact its very relevant as without marketing your business there are either no or limited sales in your business, which will have a financial impact on your future.

As part of our development of our own company I have been spending time with marketing experts, and reading up on marketing techniques to build up knowledge of this very tricky area of business.

Im sure that an expert on marketing will also have more to say about the subject than I am covering, but thought I would share some of the marketing tips that have helped us develop.

Point 1

The Mission Statement

This is basically your reason for being in business in the first place. This is about goal setting. If you want to be the biggest social enterprise in the country, then put it in your mission.

Ours is ‘Supporting Your Business Growth’

We not only prepare financial accounts, we also work with a number of businesses in developing their companies into businesses that sustain active growth.

What is your mission?

Point 2

What Business Am I In?

If you don’t know what you do, it’s going to be difficult to tell anybody else about your amazing idea.

Think about this very carefully put together a 30 second spoken script to point out the benefits of someone buying from you.

Unique Selling Point, why are you different, why should I buy from you?

You are now a walking talking advert for your business everything you do from now on with have an impact on it.

Point 3

Who Is My Target Market?

Whenever a business first starts up, there is always the impression that the services or product will suit everybody. Unfortunately quite often that is not the case. You need to tailor your marketing to that chosen market, to enable you to sell better to them. You will need to do market research, feedback forms can help with this. By asking your customers questions about what you’re doing you can develop this further.

Point 4

What Is Marketing Budget?

The majority of businesses have a very limited budget for marketing and have to do a lot of leg work themselves, and choose as much free marketing as possible.

Examples of marketing possibilities

Door to door

Leaflets

Brochures

Networking

Website

Sign writing a vehicle

Paid advertising online (pay per click)

Magazines

Newspapers

Referral Schemes

Social Media

Whatever your chosen marketing strategy, there is not one thing that will be enough to market your business you will need to spend a great deal of time doing a variety of any of the above. There is no quick answer to this as everything takes time to develop, marketing is no exception.

Point 5

Self Sacrifice

With anything you want to develop and grow there is a point when you need to nurture. Certainly if you have a limited marketing budget, there is a real possibility that in order to grow your business you will need to sacrifice salary to increase your marketing budget, and allow your business to develop into something much bigger than if you had left things as they were. This may need to be done from time to time too, every business runs in stages, and when you reach your limits to that stage, you have to feed it again with investment.

Point 6

How Do I Manage Working And Marketing?

You’ve now got your customer base but it’s not quite enough to make a living, or you’re looking to grow the business, but time is of limited availability now. As a business owner you need to be putting in a minimum of 30% of your time to marketing and looking for the next prospect. The risk of not doing so means that when you have done the work directly in front of you, and you will then see gaps in your diary, or cashflow, which then with limited time needs to be filled quickly, or you’re on stop.

If you have employees, then you need to be delegating their time to working and you need to concentrate as much as possible to marketing your business. I am never without my business cards, as conversations can happen in the oddest circumstances. Pass your cards to friends and family who’s to say they can’t do a little promoting on your behalf too. Consider outsourcing. We use a company for our marketing strategy and our website, they have proved to be imperative to our business development and have also freed up my time immensely.

Point 7

Tracking Leads And Conversions

As soon as you start marketing your business you need to know where every lead is coming from, and to also track your percentage sales conversions from those initial leads. Your marketing budget is very precious so don’t waste it by not tracking, and making sure that your money is spent on advertising that works.

Point 8

Have Fun

Marketing is not a chore have fun with it, let your customers see your personality.

As the saying goes ‘People Buy From People’. So let them see who you really are, it might surprise you and take you to where you want to be.

Happy Marketing!!

This blog is intended for information purposes only and is only advice from past experience, you may have other suggestions of your own. It is not intended to be used to make all of your business decisions but as a guide only.

Below is a summary of the budget released 20 March 2013

 For the complete statement see

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2013_statement.htm

The link for more detail about the new schemes mentioned in the speech, are as below:-

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2013.htm

Budget 2013 statement Budget 2013 Statement to the House of Commons by the Rt Hon George Osborne, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer

We’ve now cut the deficit not by a quarter, but by a third.

We’ve helped business create not a million new jobs, but one and a quarter million new jobs.

Today, I’m going to level with people about the difficult economic circumstances we still face and the hard decisions required to deal with them.

Our nation is in a global race – competing alongside new centres of enterprise around the world for investment and jobs that can move anywhere.

Building a modern reformed state we can afford. Bringing businesses to our shores with competitive taxes.

Fixing the banks. Improving our schools, our skills, our infrastructure, and our industry.

This is a Budget for those who aspire to own their own home; who aspire to get their first job; or start their own business;

A Budget for those who want to save for their retirement and provide for their children.

I can confirm that people sent to Cyprus to serve our country, in our military or government, will be protected in full from any tax on their deposits.

40 per cent of all we export, we export to the eurozone.

There is a huge effort across this government to grow Britain’s trade with the fast growing parts of the world – and exports to Brazil, India and China are up almost two thirds.

UK firms now export more goods to non-EU countries than to EU countries: the first time this has happened in over two decades.

GDP for last year has turned out to be a little higher than the OBR forecast in December, but this year, their output forecast is reduced to 0.6 per cent growth.

While less than we would like, our growth this year and next year is forecast by the IMF to be higher than France and Germany.

The OBR then expect the recovery to pick up to 1.8 per cent in 2014, 2.3 per cent in 2015, 2.7 per cent in 2016 and 2.8 per cent in 2017.

Crucially, jobs are being created.

Mr Deputy Speaker, when we started the unavoidable task of reducing the size of the public sector workforce, some in this House expressed doubts that the private sector would be able to make up the difference. I’m glad to report to the House, that their lack of confidence in British businesses has proved misplaced.

It is a tribute to the energy and enterprise of British companies that for every one job lost in the public sector in the last year, six jobs have been created in the private sector. Compared to this time last year, the OBR now expect 600,000 more jobs in 2013 – and there will be 60,000 fewer people claiming unemployment benefit.

The deficit has fallen from 11.2 per cent of GDP in 2009-10, to a forecast of 7.4 per cent this year. That is a fall of a third. It then falls further to 6.8 per cent next year, 5.9 per cent in 2014-15.

Our judgement has since been supported by the IMF, the OECD and the Governor of the Bank of England. I don’t propose to change that judgement three months later. Mr Deputy Speaker,

I’ve also had representations at this Budget for measures that would add £33 billion a year extra to borrowing on top of the figures I’ve announced. Recovering from the financial crisis has exposed the shortcomings of conventional monetary tools.

We in Britain have had to innovate and develop new tools.

We are now actively considering with the Bank of England whether there are potential extensions to the successful Funding for Lending Scheme that will boost lending still further. And we are also setting out our plans for lending from our new Business Bank.

We also need supply side reform – to throw the full weight of our efforts behind the entrepreneurial forces in our society. Our fundamental overhaul of the planning laws are now helping homes to be built and businesses to expand. Our reform of schools, universities and apprenticeships is probably the single most important long-term economic policy we’re pursuing.

Our support for European free trade agreements with India, Japan and the US is a priority of our foreign policy.

So I accept Michael Heseltine’s excellent idea of a single competitive pot of funding for local enterprise.

I also fully endorse the report of Doug Richard to make the most our apprenticeships.

We have the second largest aerospace industry in the world. For the first time in forty years we manufacture for export more cars than we import.

We’re backing international successes like these with £1.6 billion of long-term funding for the industrial strategy the Business Secretary launched this week. And today we build on our new tax reliefs coming in this year for the creative industries like high-end television and animation with new support for our world-class visual effects sector.

To help small firms, we’ll increase by fivefold the value of government procurement budgets spent through the Small Business Research Initiative. We will fund the proposal to make growth vouchers available to small firms seeking advice on how to expand.

We’ll support the manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles in Britain with new tax incentives. The HM for Stoke on Trent Central has argued passionately and in a non-partisan way about the damage energy costs are doing to his city’s famous ceramics industry – and he’s persuaded me. So we will exempt from next year the industrial processes for that industry and some others from the Climate Change Levy.

But I also want Britain to tap into new sources of low cost energy like shale gas. So I am introducing a generous new tax regime, including a shale gas field allowance, to promote early investment. Shale gas is part of the future.

Mr Deputy Speaker, we can help companies grow and succeed by building infrastructure, backing local enterprise and supporting successful sectors. Our Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme offers generous incentives to investors in start ups.

They have asked me to extend the CGT holiday – and I will.

Employee ownership helps create an enterprise culture. So we’re making our new employee shareholder status more generous, with NICs and income tax relief. And we’re introducing capital gains tax relief for sales of businesses to their employees. Companies that look after their employees, and help them return to work after periods of sickness, will get new help through the tax system too. And we’re going to double to £10,000 the size of the loans that employers can offer tax free to pay for items such as season tickets for commuters.

My HR for Enfield North and others have put forward proposals to help investment in social enterprises. I have listened and we will introduce a new tax relief to encourage private investment in these social enterprises.

Research and development is absolutely central to Britain’s economic future. So today I’m increasing the rate of the above the line R & D credit to 10 per cent. Along with our new 10 per cent corporation tax rate on profits from patents coming in next month, this will help make us one of the most internationally attractive places to innovate.

Here in Britain we’ve cut corporation tax from the 28 per cent we inherited to 21 per cent next year. So in April 2015 we will reduce the main rate of corporation tax by another 1 per cent.

Britain will have a 20 per cent rate of corporation tax – the lowest business tax of any major economy in the world. By merging the small company and main rates at 20p, we will abolish the complex marginal relief calculations between them, and give Britain a single rate of corporation tax for the first time since 1973. Today,

I am unveiling one of the largest ever packages of tax avoidance and evasion measures presented at a Budget. They include agreements with the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey to bring in over a billion pounds of unpaid taxes.

So to the working parents struggling with the costs of childcare, and the mother wondering whether it makes financial sense to get a job, we offer this: Tax free childcare. New tax-free childcare vouchers for working families: 20 per cent off the first £6,000 of your childcare costs for each child. And increased childcare support for those low income working families on universal credit.

A simple, flat rate pension accessible to everyone and worth £144 a week. Any one pound you save, will be a pound you can keep. For employers that means paying the same employer national insurance as those without defined benefit schemes.

Private sector employers can adjust their pension benefits to accommodate the extra cost; Helping with aspiration also means helping those who want to keep their homes instead of having to sell it to pay for the costs of social care. It’ll also come in in 2016. It will be set to protect savings above £72,000, and we’ll raise the threshold for the means test on residential care from just over £23,000 to £118,000 that year too.

For decades politicians have talked of doing something for savers and those who have to sell their homes to pay for care; and yet nothing has been done. And what symbolises that more than the desire to own your own home. Today I can announce Help to Buy. Help to Buy has two components. First, we’re going to commit £3.5 billion of capital spending over the next three years to shared equity loans. From the beginning of next month, we will offer an equity loan worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new build home – to anyone looking to move up the housing ladder. You put down a five per cent deposit from your savings, and the government will loan you a further 20 per cent. The loan is interest free for the first five years. It is repaid when the home is sold. Previous help was only available to those who were first time buyers, and who had family incomes below £60,000. Now help is available to all buyers of newly built homes on all incomes. The only constraint will be that the home can’t be worth more than £600,000 – but this covers well over 90 per cent of all homes.

The second part of Help to Buy is even bolder – and has not been seen before in this country. We’re going to help families who want a mortgage for any home they’re buying, old or new, but who cannot begin to afford the kind of deposits being demanded today. We will offer a new Mortgage Guarantee. This will be available to lenders to help them provide more mortgages to people who can’t afford a big deposit. These guaranteed mortgages will be available to all homeowners, subject to the usual checks on responsible lending. Using the government’s balance sheet to back these higher loan to value mortgages will dramatically increase their availability. We’ve worked with some of the biggest mortgage lenders to get this right. And we’re offering guarantees sufficient to support £130 billion of mortgages. It will be available from start of 2014 – and run for three years.

Today, I am cancelling this September’s fuel duty increase altogether. Petrol will now be 13 pence per litre cheaper than if we had not acted over these last two years to freeze fuel duty.

We’re taking a penny off a pint.

In two weeks time, the allowance will reach £9,440 with the single largest cash increase in its history. 24 million taxpayers will see their income tax bill cut by an extra £200. Over 2 million of the lowest paid will be taken out of tax altogether.

The cost of employing people is a burden on small firms. And it is a real barrier to taking an extra person on. To help create jobs and back small businesses in this country I am today creating the Employment Allowance. The Employment Allowance will work by taking the first two thousand pounds off the employer National Insurance bill of every company. It’s worth up to £2,000 to every business in the country. It will become available in April next year once the legislation is passed.

This blog is intended for information purposes only.  It is not intended to be used to make all of your business decisions but as a guide only.

The Art Of Cashflow Management

Point 1

Always be aware of what you have in the bank Account

Point 2

Put together a short term cashflow 3 months and a longer term one 12 months

To put together the cashflow statement

Sales Income Put all you known sales turnover from your diary into the forecast Unknown your new sales turnover, use last years figures to guide you, in the absence of last year, use a realistic sales turnover.
Don’t forget VAT and keep it separate, as this money belong to the Inland Revenue
Other Income ie bank interest, dividend, insurance refunds.

Costs Cost of Sales this can be based on your average margin percentage

Overhead costs

Fixed and variable

Ie rent, heating, salaries, office costs
Bank loans and capital
The VAT return and Paye

Point 3

Update this daily or weekly, with actual figures, this will allow you to see in advance how your cash is being spent, and also if you need to fund the business. Or used for Capital expenditure and taking on staff. It’s a great predictor for being able to do operation things.

Point 4

If you see a dip in funds, make sure you know in plenty of time, as a six week window may not be able to be filled, whereas a 3 to 6 month window you can plan ahead, and build up cash funds to cover you over the slower time.

Point 5

Use other sources to save on cashflow Gain credit with suppliers Get your capital expenditure leased, or obtain a bank loan. This will also improve your credit score. You score goes up, when you are able to get credit.

Point 6

Keep this on track at all times, even when you are in a cash rich, situation. You might be wasting your money on low interest schemes. Look at saving in other areas.

Let it be used against bringing your tax bill down, investments in EIS schemes, Pension contributions.
Further investment that will give a better return. Capital expenditure. Website development.