John’s Spring Blog 2024
Hi Everyone
As I write this, spring has arrived, and summer is not far away! A welcome relief after a wet and depressing damp winter.
Spring brings new beginnings – new life – in our office, Jacob and his wife Hannah have welcomed a lovely daughter Rosalie Eunice – Hannah’s sister Lydia is also expecting. You may recall that Lydia used to work for our firm.
Our country faces possible new beginnings with a General Election announced. The only continuity we see is Larry the Cat, still a resident on the Downing Street steps, will he have a 6th Prime Minister on his watch!
The firm is certainly very busy with significant new clients and our problem is finding suitable experience and qualified staff, particularly in the field of auditing and charity accounting. Thankfully we have just employed Sophie who will be a help to Jacob and myself.
I was listening to a message from a church in Cambridge the other weekend, where the minister spoke about not being a chameleon in the world and to be yourself. We at Caladine seek to be a firm demonstrating integrity, quality and care for our clients and to reflect the love of Christ.
Jason one of our trainees has just passed his first examination as he embarks on a long road to qualification. Dominic our senior auditing staff member, continues to progress through his examinations and is a great help to Jacob our audit manager.
Not sure if I have ever previously mentioned the two Emmas! Emma P is a hard-working secretary supporting myself and the office, along with Emma T who supports our Practice Director Vanessa. You may see various emails from Emma T on various practice and company secretarial matters, confirmation statement, chasing tax returns etc. Last week we had a young girl from the local school for Work Experience – this is something we try to do from time to time and she is being looked after by Emma T and Anastassia our senior accountant who is from Estonia, Alina our payroll assistant from Poland, Antonina our Tax Manager is from Bulgaria – so we have a wide variety of staff from different nationalities.
On the technical front:
- Companies House filing fees have increased from £13 to £34 so that will be something we will be dealing with in due course.
- On the tax front, the Spring budget did not bring any major significant changes other than some reductions in National Insurance and Capital Gains tax thresholds. Feel free to contact myself, Colin, Gemma or Antonina if you have any particular concerns. What remains of the Finance Bill with parliament being dissolved remains to be seen! We will have to see what new tax changes lay ahead!
- The subject of Making Tax Digital has gone quiet for some time, but a recent announcement by the Government and included in the Finance Bill 2024 confirm that MTD will be brought in and made mandatory for some businesses from 6th April 2026. In the first years it is going to affect purely sole traders or landlords with a business turnover greater than £50,000 in the year 2025-26. Therefore, you will need to start keeping digital records from 6th April 2026 that are compliant with MTD ITSA regulations. The first MTD ITSA report will be for the quarter ended 5th July or 30th June 2026, depending on whether you choose 1st April or 6th April to start your digital record keeping. However, if you are a sole trader or landlord and your business turnover is between £30,000 and £50,000 MTD will be mandatory from 6th April 2027. If you are client with turnover in excess of £50,000 from your business and you are not already using digital software like QuickBooks or Xero then we should be having a conversation and getting this implemented and set up. At least trying perhaps from April 2025 to give you a year using the software.
Please note that for clients who park in our car park there is now an external company monitoring it so please ensure you park on the left hand side as you enter, in one of the designated Caladine client spaces otherwise you may receive a fine.
I wish you all an enjoyable summer.
John