News

From 1st October 2010 there has been an increase in National Minimum Wage Rates as follows

• From £5.80 to £5.93 for those workers aged 21 and over
• From £4.83 to £4.92 for workers who are aged 18 to 20 years old and,
• From £3.57 to £3.64 for workers aged 16 or 17 years old

these rates represent an increase of approximately 2% in each category

Change of VAT rate on 1 January 2010 A change in the VAT rate from 15% to 17.5% took place on 1 January 2010. This change affects any VAT registered business that sells or purchases goods or services that are subject to the standard rate of VAT.

For most business's it is a straight forward change, any invoices raised on or after 1.1.10 will need to apply the new vat rate of 17.5 %. For business's that offer services that span over the two vat rates there are special rules that can be used. This will be useful if you supply to non vat registered business's or charities, it is essential to help your customers by invoicing at the appropriate rate when the goods were supplied or the service took place, this will enable them to benefit from the 15% rate for as long as possible. If your sale spans the change in the vat rate you can invoice for the part of the service or goods supplied up to 31.12.09 at 15% and then service or goods supplied after 1.1.10 at 17.5%. It is important though to keep accurate records and back up evidence of the supply date. For services this may be diary dates when the work took place. Time sheets showing what was done and when. For goods this could be signed delivery notes, orders etc.

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates are increased from today

There are different levels of NMW, depending on the employees age. The rates from 1st October 2009 are:

Today sees some 550 sections of the companies act 2006 becoming law. There are now only a few sections remaining to become law from the act which has been introduced piecemeal over the last few years to allow businesses the neccessary time to prepare for the changes.

Those sections of the act being enacted today cover areas such as the formations and registrations of companies, re-registration of companies as a method of altering their status, directors addresses being protected from disclosure, reules governing shares and share capital and company names and business names

Fuel prices have gone up again, partly due to the rising price of oil, and partly due to the reintroduction of the fuel escalator which increased the duty on all road fuels from 1 April 2009. New advisory fuel rates have been announced to take effect from 1 July 2009, but employers can use the new rates immediately if they wish to do so.

The rate for petrol vehicles for engine sizes of 2000cc or more has increased from 17p per mile to 18p, but rates for smaller petrol engines have remained the same. All rates for diesel engines have decreased by 1m per mile. Rates for LPG vehicles are held the same except for the middle band of engine size from 1400cc to 2000cc, which has decreased by 1p per mile. So you may be better off using the old advisory fuel rates until 1 July 2009.

Employers are to be banned from using tips and service charges to "top up" staff pay to meet the minimum wage from October, the government says.

The change will benefit those working in industries such as restaurants, where tipping is commonplace.