Summers out and its back to business

Summers out and schools are back in. Those 6 long weeks of entertaining the children are over and it’s truly back to business. As summer comes to an end and we prepare for darker evenings, the new season is the best time to plan for your business.

The lead up to Christmas is best to note down and plan for the next couple of months. Its best to hand in your paperwork for self-assessment and year end to your accountant so that you can fully concentrate on the build up to Christmas and New Year. There will be no stress on your behalf to meet HMRC’s deadline, leaving you to focus on what matters most, your business.

Since everyone is back from holiday, it is a good opportunity to go out networking. This will build connections and get your business name out there. Meeting new people and old familiar faces will keep your business from being forgotten.

Get your cashflow and budget up to date, this will help you plan for the seasonal events to come. Having an idea of your businesses ins and outs can shape your business for the busy Christmas and New Year period. There will be a lot of people spending during this period, so make sure your business is always on its ‘A’ game.

As mentioned earlier, note your plans down, as it is better to have something written down and in front of you than in your memory. This will help you achieve your goals and remember planning is key!

Methods of Finance

In our latest blog, we talk about the best methods of finance for your business. Sometimes it’s great to have that extra push to take your business to the next level. To attract the best funding for your business, you will need a business plan. We are experts in the field of preparing a cashflow and a business plan and can assist you in achieving the best method of finance for your business.

Finance Wales

Finance Wales are set up to aid in funding. They offer bespoke debt and equity investment packages designed to boost your business and accelerate growth. They offer three types of packages, micro loans under £10,000 have an easy two-day process. Have a look at their website, 

http://financewales.co.uk/business-finance-/growing-a-business/micro-loans-under-%C2%A35,000.aspx 

for more information.

Bank Loans

Bank loans are probably the most common types of finance for you and I. These types of finance are an amount of money borrowed for a set period with an agreed repayment schedule. The repayment amount will depend upon the size and duration of the loan and rate of interest. The terms and price will vary between bank providers. There isn’t just one type of loan, there are many different types, which I will look in to and describe the differences.

·         Working Capital Loan – This type of loan is usually required at short notice or emergency situations. This will usually incur the highest percentage of interest.

·         Fixed Asset Loan – For buying assets, where the asset itself is used as a security for repayment.

·         Factoring Loans – This type of loan is based on money owed to your business by customers or clients.

·         Hire Purchase Loans – For long term purchase of assets such as vehicles or machinery.

It’s best to talk to your bank or bank manager, as they will let you know the exact amount you can get for finance. The bank managers love an excellent business plan and cashflow, so make sure yours is current and polished to get in the good books of your bank manager!

Overdraft

This method of finance is a sum of money extended to you as credit by your bank, set at a pre-arranged limit when your account balance drops below zero. Usually charged interest on any amount of overdraft you use. The terms and price, like the loans, vary between providers. This is a good source to manage cashflow, but it is probably not suitable if you’re looking for long term financing.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding, also known as crowd financing or crowd sourced capital is usually carried out online. This allows several investors to individually invest smaller amounts of money in to a business. The individual investments are then combined to help a business reach its funding target. Crowdfunding is an excellent option for businesses that struggle to raise finance through loans or the conventional funding methods. Since crowdfunding is conducted online, you should make sure your idea is protected. In return of the funding, investors usually get a percentage of share of the business.

You can find more information by visiting http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help/what-is-crowdfunding

Government Offers

Governments usually offer support to businesses in all different shapes and sizes. https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support here you can find from funding and finance, to grants and to mentoring for your business.

Caerphilly council are offering a business development grant. This grant can provide up to 45% of eligible expenditure to a maximum of £2,000. Business must be based in Caerphilly and be in the manufacturing or service to the manufacturing sector, or have a minimum of 60% business to business. For businesses in the Caerphilly area, please look at this link http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/Business/Business-grants-and-funding/Business-development-grant to get more information.

Remember the key to accelerating your business in the positive forward thinking way to get that extra push is to have a business plan and cashflow in place. We offer a one hour no obligation consultation, where we can sit down with a cup of coffee and discuss your business. 

Visit our website on www.crossaccountingservice.co.uk or call us on 029 20 653 995 to see how we can assist you.

Its a couple of weeks to get everything done and ready for the when the New Year starts up again

6 April 2017

The government have made a number of changes to taxation during the year so its good to have a plan to make sure you maximised your tax free allowances.

Check you have used up all of your tax code,   because once its gone its gone for good and starts  fresh again in April.   The tax code is currently £11,000 for the year for individuals.

Husband and wife you can transfer £1,000 from either partner to the higher earner, this is good for part time or if a partner doesn’t work.

Have you bought your equipment ready for the new year to start.  Think of new equipment as not a ill put that off until later but an opportunity be more efficient, speed up your work or even make it easier for you.

Capital Gains Tax allowances timing of when you sell an asset is key as theres £11,100 tax free allowance for each year this is additional to your normal income tax code.

Flat Rate Scheme is changing from April 2017 are you ready, it will be 16.5% payment over if you are a business that is mainly labour orientated.

Are you one of the many higher tax rate earners who is having to deal with the mortgage tax relief restriction.   Wear and tear allowance has now gone,  keep all of your receipts if you are replacing furniture or equipment in your rental house, you cannot claim without your documents.  It is replacement only, first year purchases are excluded now.

Again Child Benefit is restricted or even taken away if you are a higher earner over £50,000

Child Care Vouchers ceases at the end of April 2018, have you signed up to them its £55 per week tax free allowance which saves you tax and national insurance for income of less than £43,000 per annum.

Have you used your £15,240 ISA allowance it all starts again in April.

Don’t forget the dividend tax rules have changed dividends now attract 7.5% to basic rate if your dividends are over £5,000.   32.5% for anything over £43,000 make sure youre saving your tax money.

So get planning,  check these items if you missed any of these out of your routine this could be saving you money.

Flat Rate Scheme

The Flat Rate Scheme is designed to simplify your records of sales and purchases. The process is to apply a fixed flat-rate percentage to your turnover to arrive at the VAT due. Fixed-rate percentage do vary depending on the type of business. You can find a list for percentage on this link https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-flat-rate-scheme/frs7300

From April 2017, there will be a new rule to start regarding the flat-rate scheme, this is because the government is concerned that some businesses are using the Flat Rate Scheme to pay less VAT than is appropriate. This will mainly affect businesses that spend very little on goods, such as businesses that provide service.

 So, what is changing? The new change will only affect businesses which have a very low cost base. These businesses will now be called “limited cost traders”. A business will be a “limited cost trader” if it spends less than 2% of its sales on goods or less than £1,000 a year, even if this is more than 2% of the businesses turnover on goods.

VAT returns can be a pain and take up time and not allow you to do what you do best, running your business! Visit www.crossaccountingservice.co.uk to discuss your VAT issues with us.

Restricting finance cost relief for landlords

From April 2017, there will gradually be an introduction of a basic rate reduction restricting the relief for finance cost. Finance cost includes mortgage interests, interest on loans to buy furnishings and fees incurred when taking out or repaying mortgages or loans.

Landlords will no longer be able to deduct all their finance costs from their property income to arrive at their property profits. Instead, landlords will receive the introductory basic rate reduction from their income tax liability for their finance costs.

The governments gradual change will be as follows:

·         2017 – 2018 the deduction from property income as it currently is will be restricted to 75% of finance costs with the remaining 25% being available as a basic rate tax reduction.

·         2018 – 2019 the deduction from property income as it currently is will be restricted to 50% of finance costs with the remaining 50% being available as a basic rate tax reduction.

·         2019 – 2020, 25% finance costs deduction and 75% given as a basic rate tax reduction.

·         2020 – 2021, all financing costs incurred by a landlord will be given as a basic rate tax reduction.

This change is being implemented to make the tax system fairer. The government want to ensure that landlords with higher incomes no longer receive the most generous tax treatment.

For landlords in Wales, there is also a new law that has come in for self-managing landlords to obtain a licence or have an agent to deal with their properties. This is compulsory and to find out if you need to apply visit www.rentsmart.gov.wales

We have a lot of clients with a portfolio of properties and help them when it comes to their

self-assessment. If you’re a landlord and don’t understand the rules, you can contact us on 02920653995 or send through an email on nicola@crossaccountingservice.co.uk

I see alot of business owners going into owning a business and under selling themselves.  

We all have different reasons for going into business.   You might be looking to be in charge of your own destiny.  You have a great idea that youve always wanted to pursue.  You lost your job and want to create your own or have a redundancy package that you want to re-invest.

Whatever your reason use these tips below as at the end of day,  if youre not making a profit your dreams and aspirations fall by the way side.

Protect Your Margin

Your margin should be enough that it not only covers the direct cost of your product or service materials and labour, but allows you to make a profit to cover overheads and leave a profit/ or income for yourself to grow and develop the company.

There is a market price for every kind of product or service, ie what your customers will pay for your product or service.  Stay ahead of the competition, know what they are doing, offer something different to stand yourself apart.

The margin itself

Costing your product or service is a vital project in itself. 

Be aware of the percentages your industry can attain.  If your in the food industry aim for a minimum of 3 x your costs, manufacturing products maybe lower between 60 and 100% depending on your product or market.

If you are making a product, Costs include
Materials, Labour, Energy

Keep this exercise in mind at regular intervals, at least every six months.  Energy and cost of materials do fluctuate, you need to be on top of that.

For the labour cost, time yourself making the product, as you get busier, look at ways of saving time.

Ie a machine might do the job faster than you, you might be able to buy in part of the process.

Manufacturing sites, keep a close eye on this with the use of computerised stock systems, using either FIFO or Standard Costing methods.  They see first hand any fluctuations, look into any big fluctuations, up or down.

You can also replicate this using a manual method .

Service Provider
Your service is likely to be mainly labour cost.

Experience and judgement always help when costing up a particular job.  But always keep an eye on the actual time it has taken to complete the exercise.  Keep timesheets at all times and for everything connected with that client.  You will be building up a record in order to raise the sales invoice, plus you will be staying up to date and applying realistic costs when quoting for work.

Cost savings

Save yourself cost of sale by buying direct from the Wholesaler, negotiating the prices.  More volume should equal better discounts.

Try and buy local where you can, your carriage costs could be saved.

Saving labour time, by knowing  your time elements to the job, using machinery where possible.  Time management.

Don’t price yourself too cheap.  Remember you need to be selling at a profit.

Offer added value and up sale marketing, to make higher margins.

Split your products up by margin, ie get the selling mix right, volume on lower margin, less of the higher margin.   

What constraints do you have
Do you have only limited capacity of manufacturing space, limited number of appointments available put day.  Put this into your budget, not just numbers.

If you can improve your margin to a realistic target, you will see the positive result on your bottom line, and hopefully in your pocket too.

Set yourself goals, you can always do better.  Keep that mind set, it’s a great planning tool.

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.

For anyone who is looking at taking on a an employee in the next 12 months, then this article is just for you.

There is a good budget at the moment with assistance with wages for both apprenticeships and graduate schemes.

ACT Training is providing training and assistance to young people aged 16 - 24 years.  Take a look at their website on /www.acttraining.org.uk/apprenticeships-2

Paying £100 towards wages on a full time placement for the first six months, followed by £50 per week for the next six months.  There is also funding for training available.  Take a look at this website its got some useful information the helpline is good too.

Jobs Growth Wales again is offering placements for six months, paying the national minimum wages for the first six months.

website is wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/skillsandtraining/jobsgrowthwales/?lang=en

Lastly the graduate scheme at Go Wales.  I recently attended their 10 year anniversary event, this organisation is actively seeking employment for students.  There are two schemes in place the placement scheme where the student stays with you for a six month placement and Go Wales supports the wages bill.  

Or you can have the taster sessions where the student get a small taster of your business which is great for if you have a project in mind to be finished, or are unsure whether you can employ a person.   The taster sessions are normally free of payment.

www.gowales.co.uk/en/employer

Think of this article as taking a look into the future and growing your business, you are also giving a young person the opportunity that you once had.  So go on what are you waiting for?

Thanks Nicola

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.

Imagine your company bank account is actually your own personal money.

Would you check what’s in it?

Would you be interested to know your mortgage, food bill for the month, your electricity, the gas bill. And knowing that what’s left in the bank at the end of the month, is potentially yours to spend as you wish (your disposable income.) Then the key is to not treat your business bank account any different.

You will have fixed bills in your business just like you would personally. It’s a little different in that the Directors income is only guaranteed, once all payments have been made and accounted for. Please remember to keep money back in the account to cover VAT, PAYE, Corporation Tax and Self Assessment. The last thing you need is sudden surprises at the end of the year.

At the very least you need to be keeping a manual ledger book, even if you don’t go down the route of using Accounts software. Keep this updated a minimum of once a month. To not do so will leave you not knowing whether you are making a profit or a loss. To keep this updated regularly will allow you also make instant decisions that change the course of the way you do business.

We are still seeing far too many companies coming through the doors, not thinking this area is of important concern.

You are working in the dark, with the lights off. Be careful not to hit the wall, or the door. (an analogy I know but think about it)

If paperwork is not your strong point, after all your services or products are why you are in business in the first place. Use someone to help you, whether it be a friend, member of staff or outsource this altogether.

Talk to companies who have this already in place and ask them how they feel it has changed the way they work. If you know you are making a profit, things can only look up.

Remember the main reason for companies going out of business in their first two years is because they didn’t know they were running out of cash, until it was too late. The bank balance gives you a false sense of security, it will never tell you, you are running out of cash, until its gone.

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.