Tag: finance
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MTD Is a Pain — But It Might Fix the Habit That’s Actually Hurting You
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has been live since April 2026 for sole traders and landlords earning over £50,000, and from April 2027 that threshold drops to £30,000, pulling in roughly 970,000 more people. Most of the commentary on this has been about compliance burden and software costs, and fair enough — it is…
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Don’t Wait for the Budget to Sort Your Cash Flow
The Autumn Budget is confirmed for 28 October, and the speculation machine is already in full swing — capital gains, property taxes, frozen thresholds, business rates. It’s tempting to put cash flow decisions on hold “until we know what’s actually in it.” That’s the wrong call. Most cash flow problems in small businesses aren’t caused…
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The Sunday Rundown: 30 August 2026
Borrowing is getting more expensive just as the Budget clock starts ticking, your energy bill forecast is now official, half the country’s sole traders missed their first tax deadline, and youth unemployment is closing in on a million. Here’s what mattered this week — and what to do about it. 1. Borrowing just got pricier,…
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Tax Relief on Hire Purchase Interest Isn’t a Reason to Stop Shopping the Rate
Some business owners treat the interest rate on a hire purchase agreement as almost an afterthought, because the interest is tax-deductible. The logic goes: “the taxman’s paying part of it anyway, so why haggle.” That logic is wrong, and it’s an expensive mistake to make on kit that can run to tens of thousands of…
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Stop Watching the Bank of England. Start Watching Your Debtor List.
Every time the Bank of England meets, small business owners hold their breath for a rate cut that might ease the pressure. It’s understandable, but it’s misplaced. Interest rates are a fraction of a percentage point you can’t influence. Late payment is a much bigger problem sitting inside your own sales ledger — and unlike…
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What tax compliance really costs your business — and where the time and money goes
If tax admin feels like it’s eating more of your week than it used to, you’re not imagining it. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the average UK small business now spends £4,500 and 44 hours a year just staying compliant with the tax system — up around 10% since 2021. Multiplied across…
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Half of Sole Traders Missed the First MTD Deadline. That’s Not a Taxpayer Problem.
Nearly half of the taxpayers required to file under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax missed their first deadline. Azets found that of 864,000 people eligible, only 436,000 filed on time. When a new system trips up that many people at the first hurdle, the fault sits with the system, not the sole traders and…