Monthly Archives: janvier 2022

Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant

Arun District Council and Adur and Worthing District Councils are bringing their application deadlines for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grants forward

If you are hoping to apply for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG), it is important that you keep an eye on your local council websites. Application deadlines have been brought forward by some local authorities to give them time to process and determine grants before the 28 February 2022.

Having checked the websites of councils local to ourselves, we can confirm that application deadlines have been set at 28 February 2022. Other local authorities have similar deadlines.

Below you will find links to the council OHLG pages and the deadlines currently published there. We suggest making regular checks on the websites and submitting your application at the earliest opportunity.
 

As a reminder businesses eligible for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant can apply for grants of up to £6,000 depending on their rateable value. 

Eligible recipients will receive the following:

• Rateable Value between £0 and £15,000, £2,700
• Rateable Value between £15,000 and £51,000, £4,000
• Rateable Value in excess of £51,000, £6,000

VAT reclaimable on mileage

HMRC have revised the rates to be used for reclaiming the appropriate fraction of 1/6 of input VAT on mileage claims with effect from 1^st December 2021 as follows:

It is interesting that the rate changes for VAT purposes but not the overall mileage rate of 45p a mile which has been the same where the petrol cost £50 per litre or £1 per litre!

Exam Success

The Martlet Partnership is delighted to announce that three members of our accounts and taxation team have registered exam success following the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants exam sitting in December.

Our Sri Sivalingam has passed his final exam, Advanced Taxation and is now a fully qualified accountant.

Our Jarrad Gilbertson scored a very impressive 74% in his Strategic Business Leader exam and now has one paper to complete before also being fully qualified.

Finally, our Phil Bazley was successful in his Performance Management exam. Phil also successfully completed his First Aid course this week so we now have three qualified first aiders at our office.

Congratulations to them all on these achievements!

Three points to report

1. Tax return deadline extended.

As was the case in 2021, HMRC have taken account of the current coronavirus situation and its impact on individuals and businesses and have announced that no penalties will be issued for tax returns which are filed before 28^th February 2022.

The normal deadline is of course 31 January.

However, the deadline for payment of any tax arising remains 31 January and we wish to ensure that all our clients’ tax return are in fact filed by 31 January and not take advantage of this amnesty, on the simple basis that if tax is paid late, interest will be charged.

2. VAT Penalty Regime.

HMRC were due to bring in a new penalty system with effect from 1 April 2022 but HMRC have announced that this has been delayed by nine months until January 2023. We will not therefore give details of the changes now but will do so nearer the time.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Fraser said “HMRC is committed to becoming one of the most digitally advanced tax authorities in the world. The extra time allows HMRC to ensure the IT changes necessary.”

Editorial comment – it is nice to know that HMRC have these ambitions. For practitioners such as us, we would rather they concentrated their efforts on actually responding to correspondence quickly instead of the nine to twelve months it now takes to do anything. It seems to us that HMRC are approaching a top down policy to their management of the tax system whereas a “bottom up” approach to sort out the very many inefficiencies that taxpayers are encountering on a daily basis, would be a more fruitful priority.

3. We warmly congratulate our Henry Van Perlstein and Nick Seaw for having successfully completed their First Aid course.

We would remind all businesses that there is a legal requirement to make sure that they provide adequate and appropriate First Aid equipment, facilities and personnel in the workplace. What this actually entails is not defined in legislation but the Health and Safety Executive recommends that if work activities are low level hazard (EG Office or shop), and there are less than 25 employees, only one appointed person as a minimum may be suitable.

All businesses should undertake an assessment to determine their requirements.

The 4 Key Things Businesses should do in January

It’s the start of a new year and with the new year comes opportunity as well as challenges. Two years on from the onset of the pandemic, we still find ourselves dealing with some restrictions. Arguably we are getting used to the different measures that have been and continue to be introduced and not having all our usual ‘freedoms’.

But as business owners and managers it can be overwhelming to keep on top of the key things that we need to be doing.

This is why we have produced a handy and practical checklist of The 4 Key things that Businesses should do in January, which you can find below.

These continue to be challenging times. We want you to know that we are here, ready and able to help.