Small Business Matters

Don’t forget: VAT is moving online from April 2012 – register now

Did you know that VAT is moving online for all VAT-registered businesses from April 2012? Time to get registered as paper VAT returns will soon be a thing of the past.

What’s changing?

Currently, only newly registered businesses and those with turnovers of more than £100,000 have to submit their VAT online, as well as pay electronically. Anyone else can send HMRC a paper VAT return, if they wish.

That is changing from April, when all 1.9 million VAT-registered businesses in the UK will have to submit their VAT returns online, and pay electronically, for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2012.

You may be charged a penalty if you submit your VAT Return on paper instead of online once the new rules kick in.

Why?

According to HMRC, online filing has a number of benefits, compared to paper filing. These include:

Q&As with the Prime Minister - Part one: Tax and big business, credit easing, young entrepreneurs and more

As you may know, Prime Minister David Cameron recently visited the Intuit UK offices for a PM Direct event.  It was a great day and very informative.

For the benefit of those that didn't attend, we’re going to publish all the Q&As in a short video series. Here’s the first part.

HMRC and tax for small and large businesses

Business and finance as part of the school curriculum

Credit easing

SMEs winning government contracts

Investment funding for young entrepreneurs

What do you think of David Cameron’s comments? What would you like to have asked him?

 

February tip: Get professional advice

As part of our monthly calendar tips, our tip for February is:

If you don’t already have one, get an accountant and talk to them about financial management.

To find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor in your area, visit quickbooks.co.uk/february

Here’s why:

You’ll save time and stress

Successful business owners know it's best to focus on what they’re good at, rather than struggling on with something they could pay an expert to do better in half the time. Time spent tearing your hair out over tax forms is time away from doing what you do best – running your business and generating income.

Even if you’re comfortable filling in all the relevant paperwork yourself, with an accountant you’ll have the peace of mind that you’ve filled in everything you need to and that you’ve filled it in right. If you make a mistake you’ll certainly be asked by HMRC to correct it, taking more of your time. However, in the worst case scenario, a tax inspector may want to look over all your financial records

A peep into freelancing [Infographic]

Are you considering freelancing? You're probably wondering what it's really like and what's involved. PolicyBee has done some useful research which should give you a bit more of an insight into freelance life. 

The research was carried out at the end of last year amongst 2,000 freelancers. 

Infographic by PolicyBee Insurance

Are you thinking of becoming a freelancer? What kind of things would you like to know more about?

QuickBooks tips and tricks: Make QuickBooks even quicker with shortcuts

By pressing different combinations of keys on your keyboard, you can quickly perform common tasks within QuickBooks.

Here are just a few of the things that you can do.

Open windows - E.g. To open the Write Cheques window, press Ctrl + W

Edit pre-filled data - E.g. To increase or decrease a date by one day, press -(minus key) or + (plus key)

Move around a window - E.g. To move to the next field in a window, press Tab.To move to the previous field, press Shift + Tab.

QuickBooks shortcuts

Here are more shortcuts to make QuickBooks even quicker.

General

General action	Shortcut
Start QuickBooks without a company file	Ctrl + double-click
Suppress the desktop windows (at Open Company window)	Alt (while opening)
Display information about QuickBooks	F2
Cancel	Esc
Record (when black border is around OK, Next, or Previous button)	Enter
Record (always)	Ctrl + Enter

Dates