Intrastat – Changes From 1 January 2009

Community legislation requires the UK to collect information on intra-EU trade in goods for statistical purposes and sets minimum requirements for the quantity of trade covered. Currently EU Member States are required to collect data on a minimum of 97 per cent of the value of their EU trade in goods within the Intrastat system. These requirements determine the level at which the exemption threshold is set in the UK. The same threshold is applied independently to arrivals (intra-EU imports) and dispatches (intra-EU exports).

Those traders with an annual intra-EU trade in goods above the specified exemption threshold are required to provide monthly statistical returns (Intrastat Supplementary declarations).

Community legislation also requires the UK to collect information to enable the accurate calculation of statistical value. This requirement determines the level at which the delivery terms threshold is set in the UK.

Traders with an annual EU trade above the delivery terms threshold are required to supply additional information relating to delivery terms on their Intrastat statistical returns.

The revised thresholds are implemented by Statutory Instrument 2008/2847 and are as follows:

• The exemption threshold is increased from £260,000 to £270,000
• The delivery terms threshold is increased from £14,500,000 to £16,000,000

If you require assistance with any Intrastat or VAT matter, contact us now to see how Davenports can help.

Davenports join Simply Business Partnership

Davenports, one of the areas leading providers of small business solutions has joined the Simply Business partnership to offer Business Insurance and Invoice Finance to small and medium sized businesses.

Jason Davenport, managing director says “as a firm, Davenports are always striving to save our business and personal clients money; due to the current economic climate we believe that the ability to compare business insurance and invoice finance products is a great asset to small and medium sized business.”

For more information about this and other Davenports products or services click on the headings below. 

Accountancy

• Accounts
• Business insurance
• Company formations
• Company services
• Credit control
• Enterprise management incentives EMI
• Intrastat
• Invoice finance
• Payroll
• Startups
• Taxation
• Tax investigations
• Un-muddling and fire-fighting!

Print & Design

• Branding, logos & graphic design
• Copywriting/copyediting
• Online CV design
• Stationery

Web

• Branding, logos and graphic design
• Analytics
• Design and development
• Domain names
• Email
• Hosting
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Training
• Website translation

Davenports – Helping You Through The Economic Crisis

As the economic crisis starts to bite, often the first to feel it are the small businesses. However, there are many steps that can be taken in order to reduce the effects and to ensure that you come out the other end stronger and ready to take advantage of recovery. Davenports have a range of offerings that are designed to re-enforce all of the accepted advice on business survival. Here are our top tips and how we will address them for you.

Control expenditure

Every business has scope for reducing costs. You should be carrying out an audit of all of your expenditure and a good place to start is with your true costs of paper processing. Using Davenports all processing is electronic ensuring that postage and printing costs are reduced whilst also reducing your carbon footprint at the same time.

Collect debts with enthusiasm

Many small businesses find that payments to them are late and that valuable management time is taken up with chasing debts. Davenports can manage all of your debt problems leaving you free to develop new markets and position yourself for recovery.

Focus marketing

Too many businesses cut their marketing costs when times are hard. The surviving companies continue to market but focus their work so as to get the maximum return on their marketing investment. Disappearing from the radar is a sure fire way of people thinking you have gone. Davenports can assist you in keeping a strong presence in the marketplace through their web design services.

Maintain and improve quality

In difficult times the customer has to feel valued. You need to ensure that you are offering a level of service that reflects this. Paying your bills on time and processing in a professional manner all helps to convince people that you are a reputable business. Davenports accountancy services linked to debt management can ensure that you provide a quality service whilst also ensuring that you do not run into cashflow problems.

Don’t be complacent

You may feel that you have everything under control and that you have all the suppliers that you need. However, if you are finding things tight so may many of your suppliers. By choosing Davenports you not only have a supplier with a long track record of quality service delivery, you also minimise your dependence on suppliers by using one supplier for a number of services. Sensible businesses always have an alternative in these difficult times.

Be honest about your business

Burying your head in the sand about the true state of your business will do you no good and will probably lead to things getting worse. Davenports understand that it is difficult in today’s business world to be perfect at everything. We are realistic enough to accept the shortcomings of our clients and we are happy to work with them to resolve them. One of our favourite phrases with our clients is that we offer to ‘unmuddle things for them. So let us help you to face up to the challenges within your business.

Position yourself for recovery

In order to be best placed for recovery you need time to innovate and develop new markets. This is impossible to do if you spend all of your waking day fire-fighting and trying to survive to the next dawn. Davenports service offerings are designed to leave you free to be the innovator that you started out as before the economic situation started to bite.

We are not someone that wants to tell you what to do. We are an organisation that exists to work in partnership with you, releasing your potential to return to being a business owner, not a business slave. All of our offerings are designed to tackle the real problems facing you and businesses like you. They aim to ensure that we will be working together in the good times as well as the present ones.

Take responsibility for your own destiny

In difficult times it is easy to do nothing and blame everything from the Government to the problems with mortgages on the other side of the Atlantic. The trouble with that approach is that failure becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. Those businesses that use this time to strengthen the way they do business, position themselves for new markets and see the present situation as an opportunity for the future will be the ones to benefit. Davenports exists to help those that want to look for a way forward rather than those that want to adopt a blame philosophy.

Remember:

There are three types of people in this world –

• Those that make things happen
• Those that watch things happen
• Those that say ‘what the hell happened’.

If you want to be someone that makes things happen, please contact us.

Christmas Danger from Fake Games Consoles

Fake games consoles and adaptors are potentially putting Christmas consumers’ lives in danger, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) warned today.

Hundreds of imported counterfeit games consoles seized at UK freight depots were found to have been supplied with potentially dangerous power adaptors. The goods had been purchased from a range of websites, mainly based in Asia, which claimed the items were “genuine Nintendo products.” Many of the consoles, which are fake versions of the popular Nintendo DS and DS Lite had been bought for around £40, instead of the usual retail price of £100.

Nintendo confirmed that the Nintendo DS and DS Lite consoles were counterfeit, and the power adaptors being supplied with the product were not Nintendo manufactured and were, in fact, potentially dangerous, since they had not been electronically tested and do not meet strict UK safety standards.

HMRC’s Head of Intellectual Property rights Pamela Rogers said:

“UK consumers must be vigilant when purchasing goods online. Buy from a reputable or regulated site and, if purchasing from outside the UK or a new website, research the site - check all the facts before you buy.

“At best, these consoles would have led to disappointment on Christmas morning; at worst, they could have caused serious harm or injury.

“Counterfeit goods also cause considerable damage to the UK economy by undermining genuine UK retailers and small businesses who are honest and abide by the rules.”

Mike Rawlinson, managing director for the trade body of the UK game’s industry ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), comments: “For the games industry, the issue of child safety and our ongoing commitment to ensure the best protection for children is always at the forefront of our minds. We are asking all concerned parents to be diligent - often when a bargain seems too good to be true it actually is. We would also like to thank HMRC for their role in swiftly alerting all UK ports to be on their guard for similar counterfeit goods coming into the country. As a responsible industry we are also extremely committed to ending the damaging counterfeit games market, which not only defrauds UK tax payers with inferior products but in some cases actually puts children’s lives at risk too.. This is an issue that affects all retail businesses, particularly at Christmas, and more needs to be done to work together to mitigate the risks posed by fake goods. We are also continuing to work very closely with Trading Standards Officers on this important safety issue and we also want to thank them for their diligence.

Internet Shopping

Buying goods on the Internet is an increasingly popular way of shopping.

We hope the following will provide you with basic information about various charges, such as Customs duty, that may apply to goods you buy.

Before buying goods on the Internet, you need to be aware that whilst you may think you have found a real bargain and have paid fully for the goods:

• Some websites may not make it clear that in addition to the total price you pay, you may also have to pay Customs duty, Excise duty and/or import VAT.
• Other websites may advertise that they will misrepresent or undervalue your goods so you avoid paying any extra Customs charges. However, by law you are the importer of the goods and are legally responsible for the information on the Customs declaration made by the sender and for any charges due. If you buy goods and the declaration is found to be incorrect, you may be liable to financial penalties or prosecution. In addition, the goods may be seized. It is in your interest to ensure the sender completes the Customs declaration accurately.
• Royal Mail, Parcelforce Worldwide and Fast Parcel Operators may charge you for processing your package through Customs. These charges are normally collected together with any duty/taxes on delivery but they are not Customs duties. If you need to know the exact cost of these extra charges in advance, you should contact the seller and ask which carrier they will be using to send your goods. You can then contact the carrier and ask what their charges will be.

For more information why not take a look at our basic guide to Shopping on the Internet, or get in touch to see if Davenport can help.

Double Duty-Free Allowance for Travellers Returning to the UK

Travellers can now bring back more than double the amount of gifts and souvenirs from outside the EU without paying UK duty. From 1st December, the tax and duty-free allowance increased from £145 to £300, with a further increase to £340 in January to take account of recent changes in the sterling/euro exchange rate.

Following a proposal from the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to the European Commission in 2004, the Government is today announcing an increase to the allowance for what are known as ‘other goods’, which includes souvenirs, clothing, electrical goods and perfume.

Travellers and holiday makers will also be able to bring back more alcohol, with a new allowance for beer of 16 litres and a doubling in the allowance of still wine, from two to four litres.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms, said today:
“This new rate for all EU member states will be a welcome boost to holiday makers and all others travelling outside the EU. The changes stem from an initiative by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and demonstrate the benefits of the UK working at the heart of Europe. “

Bank of England Reduces Bank Rate

It is clear that the economic downturn is deepening and that financial markets remain in turmoil, so the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to reduce the official Bank Rate paid on commerical bank reserves by 1.0 percentage point to 2.0% - the lowest rate since 1951.

Good news for home owners with mortgages and small businesses with variable loans, assuming the commercial banks pass on the reduction.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has already said that it will pass the rate cut on in full to it’s small business customers.

The BBC has learnt that Lloyds TSB/Cheltenham & Gloucester said they would be passing on the rate cut to small business and mortgage customers, while HSBC and Skipton said they would be cutting their standard variable mortgage rates.

Calculating VAT on Leases From 1 December 2008

Changes to VAT announced in the Pre Budget Report 2008 affects the calculation of the net present value (NPV) where VAT is charged on the rent.

When calculating VAT, the tax point for rental payments is the date on which a VAT invoice is issued or a payment is received, whichever is the earlier. The rate that is in force at the tax point will be the rate that applies.

Effective date of lease on or after 1 December 2008

If the effective date of the grant of a lease is on or after 1 December 2008 you should estimate the NPV using the following VAT rates:

• 15 per cent to 31 December 2009
• 17.5 per cent from 1 January 2010

Effective date of lease on or after 1 January 2010

Where the effective date of the lease is on or after 1 January 2010 the VAT rate of 17.5 per cent will apply.

VAT changes result in a variable or uncertain rent

As a result of the VAT changes at Pre Budget Report 2008 rents which include VAT in the NPV calculation will be viewed, for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) purposes, as rents which are variable or uncertain.

When the amount of rent payable for the first five years of the term of the lease becomes certain the purchaser can review the NPV payable on the rent and submit a return to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). At that point if NPV calculation was based on the VAT rate of 17.5 per cent and resulted in an overpayment a claim for repayment can be made.

When the VAT rate returns to 17.5 per cent again on 1 January 2010 HMRC will treat this type of rent as certain. A new return is not required if the SDLT estimated in the earlier return was correct. Finance Act 2003 Sch17A Para 8 (1)(b) deals with cases where rents cease to be uncertain

Repayments of overpayments

It is likely that claims for SDLT repayment will be small for example we estimate that on an annual rent of one million pounds the repayment would be less than £250. We do not intend to make any repayments before January 2010 except where the lease ends before 31 December 2009.

If the fifth year of the lease ends before 31 December 2009, any claim for repayment of overpaid tax should be made within thirty days of the date when the rents for the first five years of the term become certain. Interest will be paid on repayments on the usual basis.

Making a claim for repayment

To make a claim you should write to: The Compliance Team, Birmingham Stamp Office, 9th Floor, City Centre House, 30 Unioin Street, Birmingham, B2 4AR. Letters should be headed ‘VAT on leases- overpayment claim’.

For more help with VAT why not get in touch and see how Davenports can help you.

New Product Launch - Ideal Christmas Present

Davenports Vouchers

What ever the function davenports can cater for your business needs across the accountancy, web and print spectrums. These gift cards can be used as thoughtful yet functional gifts throughout the year.

Postage and Packaging only costs £1.00 - All gift cards are sent by 1st class royal mail

Visit our new microsite,  click on link below

Davenport Vouchers

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

From the team at Davenports.

Partnership and Self Employed Registrations

Davenports can now register you as self-employed, a sole trader or a partnership direct through their website.

Registration normally only take a matter of days, for more information on these services, please click on the links below:

• Self-employed registration
• Sole trader registration
• Partnership registration

To see how Davenports can benefit your business, contact us for a no obligation chat.

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