News and Commentary

(Posted 20th August 2010)

HM Revenue and Customs are hosting a free advice open day for businesses that fall under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR).

It will be held at the Airspace Conference Centre, Duxford War Museum from 9.30 - 5.30 on Thursday 23 September.

It is designed for small and medium sized businesses and will bring together a large number of government agencies, departments and public sector organisations so you can find out about your legal obligations, learn about recent developments and obtain help and advice.

If you are not sure if MLR applies to you, this is the ideal opportunity to find out.

There is more detailed information at the Business Advice Open Days website.

Treat the recession as an opportunity

(Posted 12th August 2010)

For those clients running locally-based businesses, times have been hard recently. You have probably had to make personal financial sacrifices to fill the gaps in your income but you are still getting work from local customers. Those customers will be there when times get a bit better, as well as lots more who you haven't seen recently simply because they are postponing expenditure.

We will, eventually, come out of recession. At Tim Phillips & Co, we have no silver bullets to ensure you survive it - no-one has - but from our own experience, we know this:

If you look after your customers in the dark days, they will be loyal to you when the sun shines again - and they will tell their colleagues, business contacts, friends and neighbours how you didn't take advantage of them and how your work was as good, if not better, than ever. You even thought of ways to save them money whilst still giving them what they needed.

What better illustration of why our fee structure is the fairest way of charging for our services? Many clients over the last couple of years had less paperwork to process because they did less business; so we had less to do to get the bookkeeping and accounts done and we charged them less accordingly.

You don't get the chance to pay less at accountants who charge fixed fees.

Yes, we have felt the pinch, but we helped our clients through the hard times and we really can see things improving now - just imagine how much information about the health of the local economy we hold by doing accounts for such a wide variety of small businesses.

So, be consistent and look after your customers, because when they need your services in better times, they will come back to you again and again.

Beat the VAT-man!

(Posted August 2010)

For those of you who are not registered for VAT (and/or where we do work for you on aspects where the VAT cannot be reclaimed), our fees will increase in January when the VAT rate rises to 20%. There is nothing we can do about this although I can reassure you our own rates are not being increased.

The timing of this change is particularly relevant for self assessment clients (unless we have already done your work this year). The rules are that we have to charge the VAT rate prevailing when we do the work, not necessarily on the date of the invoice. That means all the work we do up to 3rd January (effectively, up to Christmas) will be charged at the lower VAT rate.

However, if everybody leaves it until December there is no way we will be able to complete all the work by the end of the year; and we will of course operate a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

The message is therefore quite simple: the earlier you get your books to us, the better your chances of beating the VAT increase – and of course the more notice you will get of your January tax bill; it might even be a nice surprise!

Staff changes

(Posted 2nd August 2010)

Valerie Foreman has left us to join another practice in a different area. She has made a very valuable and professional contribution to the practice and will excel wherever she goes. I am proud of the work she has done for us and I sincerely wish her well.

In her place, we welcome Tracey Cracknell, who brings with her several years of relevant experience. She will be full time from the week commencing 6th September but will be doing some days before then.