The latest Clay Shaw Butler Money Matters column from the Carmarthenshire Herald


The latest Clay Shaw Butler Money Matters column from the Carmarthenshire Herald.
By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants.

HMRC have made available a telephone helpline (0800 904 7900) for anyone affected by severe weather or floods.
The helpline allows anyone affected to get practical help and advice on a wide range of tax problems they may be facing.
These could be financial issues regarding making payment, issues regarding lost or damaged records and may include cancelling penalties where deadlines are missed due to severe weather and flooding.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will also:
  • agree instalment arrangements where taxpayers are unable to pay as a result of severe weather or flooding 
  • agree a practical approach when individuals and businesses have lost vital records as a result of severe weather or flooding 
  • suspend debt collection proceedings for those affected by severe weather or flooding 
  • cancel penalties when the taxpayer has missed statutory deadlines 
The helpline is in addition to other HMRC telephone contact numbers.
Opening hours for the helpline are Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 8.00 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, excluding bank holidays.
You can find more information on this Government service on the following website link -
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tax-helpline-to-support-people-affected-by-severe-weather-and-flooding
Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed the thresholds for pensions automatic enrolment for 2017/18.
The main qualifying threshold or 'trigger' for employees to be automatically enrolled will be maintained at £10,000 per annum.
The lower limit of the qualifying earning band and will be £5,876 and the upper limit £45,000.
The written statement also says:
‘Automatic enrolment has been a great success to date with almost seven million people enrolled by more than 293,000 employers.
‘It will give around 11 million people the opportunity to save into a workplace pension and we expect this to lead to around 10 million people newly saving or saving more by 2018, generating around £17 billion a year more in workplace pension saving by 2019/20.’
With more than a million micro (1 - 4 employees) and small (5 - 49 employees) employers reaching their staging date for auto enrolment in the last quarter of 2016/17 and throughout 2017/18 it is important to ensure employers comply with their obligations.
Richard Harrington, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions, said: “Analysis cited in DWP’s annual automatic enrolment evaluation report shows that nearly £82bn was saved into workplace pensions last year by employees who were eligible for automatic enrolment.
“It is important to continue to build on this success, and I am keen to ensure that there is joint consensus from across industry as we move to the next stage of this policy.”
Please contact the team at Clay Shaw Butler if you would like help with auto enrolment compliance or to determine whether or not your business is exempt from auto enrolment.

You can find out more about money matters on the Clay Shaw Butler website (under our news for business section) -
http://www.clayshawbutler.com/news/latest-news-for-business
We have a strong and experienced team with great local knowledge all geared-up to helping you get the very best from your finances – whether that is as an individual or as a business.
We stay ahead of the game by putting great store by continual professional development for our staff.
With Investors In People status at Clay Shaw Butler, we care passionately about making sure our staff have all the tools they need to serve you, our customers.

Weblink - http://www.clayshawbutler.com
The team at Clay Shaw Butler can be contacted on 01267 228500.
The team at Clay Shaw Butler are on Twitter. Look for @clayshawbutler. 

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