ESC B46 Ending

Small business owners and the self employed are being encouraged to seek specialist advise with regard to their accounting following HM revenue and customes annoucments that as of 31st March 2011 the Extra Statutory Concession (ESC) B46 will no longer apply.

ESC B46 was introduced in 1995 and under the terms of this businesses and self employed contractors could avoid penalties for late filling of their tax returns providing HMRC recieved the returns by the last working days with 7 days of the deadline. Factors such as the end of paper filling has meant that delays due to postal issues is now no longer valid.

HMRC has however said they will still continue to consider each case for delay on it’s own merits providing the reasons are of a reasonable nature.

Businesses Look To Invoice Finance

By Simon Maddocks, Small BusinessLink

Cashflow concerns for businesses of any size has never been more important. Over recent months it has been possible for perfectly solvent companies to become unsustainable and to remain in business, short-term financial obligations, such as paying staff or suppliers can put a put a perfectly sound business through troubled times.

Many companies are looking more than ever towards cashflow solutions such as invoice financing and factoring often only as an interim aid during the economic downturn, many others are apprieciating the long term stability these solutions can bring and are continuing to grow through reducing exposure and risk and spending less time focusing on the bank balance and more time focusing on the order books.

How Much will It cost Me?

It’s important when considering cashflow solutions to choose carefully, charges do vary along with the minimum term, we at Small Business Link have partnered with Simply Business to bring what we feel is a great product, for a no obligation quotation simply complete our invoice finance questionaire with some basic information about your business and needs.

Buy-To-Let stable but outlook remains uncertain

By Geoff Slaughter, Small BusinessLink

Landlords are enjoying a period of relative prosperity, according to new research from SimplyBusiness.co.uk published today.   While the collar-loosening seems to have abaited for now, the mid-term prospects for the buy-to-let market look to be less secure and are predicted to be very difficult.

The study of 189 landlords reveals that strong yields exists in the sector, supported by lower interest rates and tougher entry criteria for first time buyers.  Indeed the tightening of mortage lending that has lead to stagnation in the housing market is widely believed to be of significant value to the rental sector.

Uncertain times ahead

Every silver lining must have it’s own cloud; and it looks to be the General Election.  With politcial posturing on helping first-time buyers and widely expected increases in interest rates on the horizon, the longer term prospects for the industry are far less certain.

Julian Watson, Landlord Product Manager at SimplyBusiness.co.uk remains cautious on the market’s outlook:

“With high prices and low interest rates, landlords tell us they able to reap healthy margins at the moment. However, in our study, many expressed grave concern for the longer-term prospects of the market.

“They are realistic that interest rates can’t stay this low indefinitely, and are nervous of initiatives the next Government will introduce to assist first-time-buyers. Indeed, 86% of respondents felt the announcements made in the recent Budget would not help landlords.

“New build has also slowed in the recession, driving up rental demand for the existing housing stock, but as our landlords identify, a resurgence in this sector will increase competition for lettings.”

Throughout the last 14 months of the global credit crisis, only a quarter (26%) of landlords have purchased a new property to let.  Similarly few landlords (28%) expect to buy another property in the next year.

Julian Watson concludes: “The recession appears to have dissuaded casual buy-to-letters from reinvesting, whilst the more professional investors continue to speculate.”

However, for those that are investing in new property, mortgages remain scarce, as Chantelle Bleasdale, Managing Director of mortgage advisors ClickCover explains:

“We have seen a rise in the number of buy-to-let investors re-mortgaging their existing residential property to access cheaper finance than is currently available through straight buy-to-let mortgages.”

About the study

The study is based on research conducted by SimplyBusiness.co.uk among it’s landlord customers, there were 189 UK landlord responses.

About SimplyBusiness.co.uk

SimplyBusiness.co.uk is the UK’s leading online business insurance and landlord insurance broker.  Small BusinessLink has a commercial partnership with SimplyBusiness, and earns commissions from validated insurance sales and other products.

Get more information on SimplyBusiness Landlord Insurance products.

Full details of the study can be found here.

RMT Strike halted by courts

UK businesses have been offered a break today as the High Court applied the gavel to the RMT union’s planned rail strike. Network Rail made the legal challenge in a bid to stop disruption to rail services; a tactic likened to that adopted of the BA bosses in tackling their own union’s strike plans.

The injunction was granted after National Rail alleged discrepancies in the union’s ballot for industrial action. As with the BA injunction, this will likely be viewed as a temporary setback by the RMT but it does give Gordon Brown some breathing room on the announcement of the General Election (widely specualted to coincide with the first of the planned strike days).

The RMT maintains that proposed job cuts and changes to their member’s maintenance schedules would affect rail safety.

FSA fine Barclays £2.45m

FSA fines Barclays £2.45m for failures in transaction reporting

The Financial Services Authority has fined Barclays Capital Securities Ltd and Barclays Bank PLC £2.45m for failing to provide accurate transaction reports to the FSA and for serious weaknesses in systems and controls in relation to transaction reporting.

Firms are required to submit data for reportable transactions by close of business the day after a trade is executed.  The FSA uses this data to detect and investigate suspected market abuse: insider trading and market manipulation.
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Dell unwraps it’s latest SME offer

There was no sign of happy-go-lucky “Lollipop” crew today as Dell announed it’s latest offering for small biz, but much trumpeting of “simplifying operations, reducing downtime, enhancing information security and reducing operating cost.”

In the new portfolio are four 11th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers; Lifecycle Controller 1.2 embedded systems management; the PowerVault NX300 network attached storage (NAS) device; Dell Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and Dell ProConsult services to help growing businesses achieve greater IT efficiency. The new solutions and services are available through Dell or any of the company’s more than 50,000 Global PartnerDirect Channel Partners.
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