Mar 21 2022 Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Enquiry Categories: COVID-19Property & Construction The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), launched in April 2020, was developed to offer support to employees who would otherwise have been laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the guidance was initially unclear and has led to widespread errors in claims, resulting in a surge of HMRC enquiries into CJRS claims. We recently supported more
Mar 17 2022 National Living Wage to rise from 1 April 2022 Categories: EQ AccountingPayroll From 1 April 2022, the National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by more than 50p an hour to £9.50 for all those aged 23 and over. The National Minimum Wage (NMW), which applies to workers above school leaving age but under 23, and the apprentice rate will also increase. The NLW and NMW rates will increase as more
Mar 16 2022 The benefit of Gift Aid to the taxpayer Categories: CharitiesTaxation Much is made of the benefit of Gift Aid donations to charities, but many taxpayers are missing out on the benefits to them from making these donations. For example, for every 80p donated to charity under the Gift Aid scheme, the Government give 20p tax to the charity – the equivalent of basic rate tax more
Mar 14 2022 Retaining key staff in the leisure sector Categories: Leisure For many years, it has been difficult to recruit and retain key staff in the leisure sector and the impact of Brexit has simply exacerbated the problem. Having high staff turnover can be costly and it is now more important than ever for leisure businesses to elevate their efforts to recruit and retain the best more
Mar 9 2022 The Childcare Sector Omicron Impacts Fund is open for applications Categories: COVID-19Healthcare The Scottish Government’s Childcare Sector Omicron Impacts Fund is now open for applications. The £9.8 million fund will offer one-off grants to childcare sector providers in Scotland who were operating during the Omicron wave. Eligible childcare services will receive a one-off payment of £950 to £4,500, depending on the registered size of each service, with providers with more
Mar 4 2022 Sustainable and regenerative farming – next steps Categories: Agriculture In a recent statement, the Scottish Government has laid out its plans to support farming and food production in Scotland to become “a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture”. The statement outlines a new framework which will underpin Scotland’s future agriculture support regime from 2025 onwards, including positive steps towards supporting a nature-friendly farming and “enhanced conditionality more
Mar 2 2022 Construction businesses looking ahead in 2022 Categories: Property & Construction With the Scottish Government announcing relaxations to COVID regulations from the 21 March 2022, there is a lot of optimism surrounding a return to ‘normal’. Construction businesses have been facing a new normal for some months and we are currently seeing an extremely busy start to 2022 for a number of our clients due to more
Feb 23 2022 Are you ready for Making Tax Digital? Categories: Taxation With just over a month until Making Tax Digital (MTD) becomes mandatory for all VAT registered businesses, are you MTD ready? The days of logging into the HMRC website and typing in the nine numbers are almost gone. MTD means you have to keep digital records and file your VAT returns electronically using compatible software. more