Allotts - Chartered Accountants based in Doncaster and Rotherham

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Allotts Business Update October 2021

Supply chains are struggling to run smoothly for several major industries, making these anxious times for many business owners and their staff. Meanwhile the furlough scheme and the stamp duty holiday have now come to an end, although other measures, such as the Covid insurance guarantee for events companies continue. As we move towards the second winter under the shadow of the pandemic most businesses must now manage without government support.

The feature in the October edition of our newsletter looks at the changing expectations of employees returning to the workplace and how employers might need to adapt. As well as being clear about Covid protocols, and expectations around vaccination and testing, concerns about other health and welfare issues in the workplace, both old and new, may need to be addressed.

We also lay out key details of the new late payment penalty scheme, and the schedule for different sectors, which starts for VAT in April 2022.

Our other stories include:

New tax rises and the end of the triple lock – Following the extraordinary strain on the health service in the pandemic, the Chancellor will channel the 1.25% NIC rise straight to the NHS in 2022/23, before it becomes the Health and Social Care Levy. Pensioners may have thought they would benefit from the rapid rise in pay seen earlier this year, but the triple lock has been suspended, constraining their payment increase.

Extended loss relief explained – Temporary rules allowing business losses to be set against profits up to three years before the accounting period run until the end of March 2022. Our article explains the rules for both companies and unincorporated businesses.

Making tax digital shifts again – Next April marks the next phase of the making tax digital project, when all VAT-registered businesses will need to complete their tax returns using MTD-compatible software. The deadline for MTD for income tax self- assessment has been postponed until April 2024, but when it comes is likely to be a huge upheaval for many self-employed workers, of whom nearly 20% still use paper for their finance records.

We will keep you informed of developments in our next newsletter in January, when we will be looking ahead to all the changes forthcoming in April 2022. Meanwhile please do get in touch if we can continue to help or provide you with more information on any of the topics covered here.

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Covid - 19

The health and wellbeing of our staff, clients and business contacts is of paramount importance and therefore in line with the Government's announcement on Monday 4th January that we are moving back into a lockdown scenario we will, for the duration of this period, only have the very minimum number of essential staff working in the office at any one time. From Wednesday 6th January our phone lines will be operational from 9am to 5pm on a daily basis with a facility to leave messages outside these hours. The team here at Allotts will continue to work from home providing important continued assistance to our clients and each member of our staff can be contacted by calling the office telephone number or via the normal email you use to contact them . Unfortunately the latest Government guidance means that both our Rotherham and Doncaster offices will remain closed to clients for meetings during this period although pre-arranged visits to drop off or collect documents will be possible.

The above will be reviewed in line with updated Government advice as that is published to ensure the continued safety of our employees and clients.

Many thanks for your cooperation.

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