Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. Website -   www.philevans.co.uk ................................. HOW TO REACT TO A NON-REACTOR… People are funny. I’m not talking ‘funny’ as in ‘they make me laugh’ funny. I’m referring to people’s quirks when they inter-act (or very often don’t) with other people in a normal everyday conversation. As tolerant as you are, I bet you’ve been annoyed by people whose behaviour made you promise to never spend another moment in their company. A friend of mine recently asked me if I knew what a ‘Non-Reactor’ was. I didn’t, but as soon as he explained what he meant, I knew exactly what he was talking about.  A veteran writer and long-time observer of human behaviour, he explained a ‘Non-Reactor’ is someone so wrapped up in themselves they’re incapable of reacting to anything you tell them with a polite “That’s very interesting” or “How awful for you!” “Tell me more!” is, naturally, not in ...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ Soup kitchens! What image pops into your head when you hear those words? A raggle-taggle group of whey-faced, shoeless Victorian children, holding out wooden bowls? Or the Great Depression of the 1930s when long lines of undernourished men and women in threadbare clothes, waited in the freezing cold for a free hot meal? Soup kitchens are consigned to history, along with rickets, scurvy and Betamax videos. Right? Wrong! In poor, inner-city areas they’ve never gone away. Due to recent events, including the financial crisis of 2007/8, they’ve spread . . . even to Llanelli. Every Sunday evening, the Sosban Soup Kitchen in Old Castle Road supplies poor, hungry people with a free hot meal. Run by Gary Glenister and his team of volunteers, it relies on soup and bread generously don...

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. In last week’s Money Matters, we stressed the importance of sticking to deadlines – particularly when it comes to tax matters. Keeping a regular, updated calendar of key taxation dates is very important on a business and a personal level when it comes of money management At Clay Shaw Butler, we have an online calendar of upcoming key taxation dates on our website. But, in case you don’t have access to that, here are a few helpful dates for the rest of the year . . . October 2017 Thursday October 19 PAYE quarterly payments are due for small employers for the pay periods 6th July 2017 to 5th October 2017. This deadline is relevant to small employers only. As a small employer with income tax, national insurance and student loan deductions of less than £1,500 a month you are required to make payment ...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ A false impression: When I was a lad, my gran warned me that watching too much television would harm my eyes. As young boys tend to, I ignored her and absorbed as much of the three channels our 17-inch telly offered. We were content with BBC One and Two and ITV, as there always seemed to be something ‘great’ to watch – especially on a Saturday night. The deterioration of TV programme quality since a mind-boggling selection of channels was thrust upon us – I don’t remember asking for them, do you? - will be the subject of a future article, I am sure . . . I had no idea my gran was a fortune teller able to look into the future as far as 2017. Because it’s only this year that TV started to harm my eyes - to such an extent, when I hear the theme music to certain shows I take th...

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. Deadlines are so important in the world of business – particularly when it comes to tax matters. At Clay Shaw Butler, we recognise how important deadlines are by helping our customers with a regularly-updated calendar of upcoming key taxation dates. Here is what’s coming up during the rest of this year . . . August 2017 Saturday August 19 PAYE, Student loan and CIS deductions are due for the month to 5th August 2017. This deadline is relevant to employers who have made PAYE deductions from their employees' salaries and to contractors who have paid subcontractors under the CIS. Employers are required to make payment to HMRC of the income tax, national insurance and student loan deductions. Contractors are required to make payment to HMRC of the tax deductions made from subcontractors under th...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ A shock to the system:  It’s been announced that rail electrification between London and South Wales will stop at Cardiff Central – although no-one is prepared to predict at the precise time it’ll come to a halt. Having taken the train to Paddington and back on more occasions I can remember, there’s every chance it’ll be delayed because of a signal failure between Reading and Didcot Parkway, a cow on the line outside Swindon and the possibility of a nervous little train refusing to move out of the safety of the Severn Tunnel and on into Newport in case it has its wheels stolen while waiting in the station for two minutes. It’s okay. I have friends in Newport. They can take a joke. Well, you’d be exactly the same if you lived there. As soon it was announced rail electrif...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ WAS A £600 FINE HIGHWAY ROBBERY? I never understood what people meant when they said, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions” until a week or so ago when I read about a Llanelli man who last July painted “Happy Birthday“ (plus his girlfriend’s name) in the middle of his street. The message came from the heart and the paint came straight from B & Q. Other paint suppliers are available, by the way. He must have done it when there was no traffic around, otherwise a passing lorry might have squashed his plans . . . and everything else. The man gave away his identity by signing it, “Love Dai”, followed by a drawing of a heart and a large ‘X’. Either he didn’t realise that painting words two-foot long on a stretch of tarmac is just as anti-social as writing them two-...

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 ...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ Feeling low? The state of the world getting you down? Then let me try and cheer you up . . . What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A drummer! That’s a favourite joke among musicians - though not with those who hit a percussion instrument for a living. Musicians have a jokey definition of ‘Perfect Pitch’ - which is ‘throwing an accordion into a skip without touching the sides’. From the laugh-out-loud reaction that joke always receives, I was convinced that there’s little love around for the accordion these days. So, I was very surprised to read a report in this newspaper about a man with possible links to Port Talbot who the police want to interview about the theft of accordions with a total value of £150,000 from a music shop in Berkshire. The fact that...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ What can we do with the selfie-obsessed? When I recently visited London for the first time in almost a year I couldn’t believe how tourist behaviour had changed. Instead of taking photographs of their family/friends in front of famous landmarks, most visitors were taking ‘selfies’ using ‘selfie sticks’. It doesn’t just occur in London. This ever-growing madness of taking selfies goes on everywhere . . . maybe in your neighbourhood. So be vigilant! Because selfie-takers are narcissists who don’t consider that taking pointless selfie-after-selfie of themselves in the same position is annoying to people around them. I know you like me to give you an example . . . A friend of mine went to see the “Peter Pan” pantomime at Cardiff’s New Theatre during the last week of the run. T...

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 released more unusual excuses from taxpayers who failed to complete their self assessment tax return on time. These include: 'My tax return was on my yacht…which caught fire'  'A wasp in my car caused me to have an accident and my tax return, which was inside, was destroyed'  'My wife helps me with my tax return, but she had a headache for ten days'  'My dog ate my tax return…and all of the reminders'  'I couldn't complete my tax return, because my husband left me and took our accountant with him. I am currently trying to find a new accountant'  'My child scribbled all over the tax return, so I wasn't able to send it back'  'I work for myself, but a colleague borrowed my tax return to photocopy it and lost it'  ...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ Sad but strange: When two well-known people die on the same day, the person who gets more coverage in the newspapers and the TV and Radio news is often the one who deserves it the least . . . in my humble opinion, I hasten to add. On February the 8th, an elderly man and a much younger woman, who were high profile in entirely different fields, both died. He was 87-year old Alan Simpson, one half of the legendary comedy-writing team of Galton and Simpson who not only created the first British television sitcom “Hancock’s Half Hour” in the 1950s but then went on to even greater heights in the 1960s with “Steptoe And Son” which regularly attracted 18 million viewers. American TV made their own version called “Sanford and Son”. The prolific Galton and Simpson also wrote films inc...

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. The Government has revealed 10 of the most bizarre excuses used by unscrupulous business owners who have been found to have underpaid workers the NMW (the national minimum wage). These employers used excuses such as ‘only wanting to pay staff when there are customers to serve and believing it was acceptable to underpay workers until they had ‘proved’ themselves’. The Government has launched an awareness campaign to encourage workers to check their pay to ensure they are receiving at least the statutory minimum ahead of the NMW and NLW (national living wage) increases on 1 April 2017. Employers need to ensure they are paying their employees at least the NMW and NLW. This will be the second increase in six months for the NMW rates. Going forward the NMW and NLW rates will both be reviewed annuall...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk ................................ WHAT’S ALL THE WHO-HA? Since Peter Capaldi announced that, after four years he’s leaving the role of Doctor Who once he’s filmed the 2017 Christmas special, there’s been much speculation about who should succeed him as the Time Lord. The fervour and excitement surrounding this story has been so great, questions have even been raised in the House. Not the House of Commons. The house of my mate Terry – a ‘Whovian’. No, he’s not half-man, half-vacuum cleaner. A Whovian is a dedicated Doctor Who fan(atic). They’re sometimes called other things - but this is a family newspaper. The questions raised by Terry – and the media - were the same ones asked when the previous two Doctors (David Tennant and err . . . cough . . . umm . . . wotsisname) admitted they’d had enough of being c...

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. Those of you who have just completed your self-assessment returns will appreciate how important it is to keep a calendar of key tax events. At Clay Shaw Butler, we have produced a helpful calendar of tax events from now through to 2018. Here are a few notable dates – February 2017 Sunday 19 PAYE, Student loan and CIS deductions are due for the month to 5th February 2017. This deadline is relevant to employers who have made PAYE deductions from their employees' salaries and to contractors who have paid subcontractors under the CIS. Employers are required to make payment to HMRC of the income tax, national insurance and student loan deductions. Contractors are required to make payment to HMRC of the tax deductions made from subcontractors under the CIS. Where the payment is made electronically ...

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. This week, we are continuing our review of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first (and last) Autumn Statement. We’ve covered personal taxation changes and some business taxation matters. As usual with Budgets and Autumn Statements, there is a lot of detail to cover. This week, we continue on business matters from the Autumn Statement. Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR): From 6 April 2017, the amount of investment that social enterprises aged up to seven years old can raise through SITR will increase to £1.5 million. Investment in nursing homes and residential care homes will be excluded initially, however the government intends to introduce an accreditation system to allow such investment to qualify for SITR in the future. The limit on full-time equivalent employees for a qualifying social enterpri...

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. Our review of Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first (and last) Autumn Statement moves from personal taxation changes to business taxation matters this week. Here are some of the key areas relevant to business - Corporation tax rates: Corporation tax rates have already been enacted for periods up to 31 March 2021. The main rate of corporation tax is currently 20%. The rate will then be reduced as follows: 19% for the Financial Years beginning on 1 April 2017, 1 April 2018 and 1 April 2019  17% for the Financial Year beginning on 1 April 2020.  Corporate tax loss relief: Currently, a company is restricted in the type of profit which can be relieved by a loss if the loss is brought forward from an earlier accounting period. For example, a trading loss carried forward can only relieve future...