Insights

Larking Gowen is delighted to welcome personal tax specialist, Sally Farrow, as head of its Personal Tax team in Norwich. Sally, who is a Chartered Tax Advisor and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, originally trained with Larking Gowen, and now returns as Senior Tax Manager, after a number of years with a national accountancy firm.

Larking Gowen are pleased to welcome 17 new trainees for 2018. For over 100 years Larking Gowen have welcomed new trainees to their professional training programmes. With the exception of the War years when the country’s young were recruited for the war effort the firm has consistently trained groups of A Level and University graduates who have gone on to have long and fulfilling careers in the profession.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have taken to highlighting their recent success rate in court actions and litigation in warning letters to taxpayers, deterring them from letting the case reach court. This has led to more and more taxpayers settling up with HMRC to avoid lengthy and expensive court cases.

Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, the official tourism brand for Bury St Edmunds and surrounding area, are inviting tourism and business professionals to come along to meet their members which include accommodation providers, visitor attractions, food and drink providers, plus partners they are working with to promote the area.

Communication in the workplace has changed and video conferencing, skype, laptops and mobile phones have made flexible working the new normal. It isn’t at all unusual for employees to work from home using their existing personal phone and internet connections for business. So, is it possible for employers to reimburse them for any extra costs?

Not managing risk effectively can have dramatic consequences for an organisation. Tragedies such as Grenfell Towers demonstrate the severity of not having a robust process that can react to the concerns of beneficiaries.

The Larking Gowen City of Norwich Half Marathon has selected East Anglian Air Ambulance as its new charity partner ahead of the next year’s race on April 7th. Now in its 34th year, Norfolk’s biggest road race attracts a field of 3,000

In June, Michael Gove announced that the 2018 Agriculture Bill was likely to be presented in July. However, as we now know, this has been delayed until September, presumably with a view to clearing the decks in one area of Brexit as soon as possible

Eleven runners from Larking Gowen are entering the final phase of training for the Great East Half Marathon, which takes place in Ipswich on 16th September this year, raising money for St Elizabeth Hospice. 

Have you noticed that a number of legal firms are changing or talking about changing their structure and have you wondered why? From the conversations we’ve had with legal firms, there seem to be several reasons.

Britain’s farmers are generally feeling more optimistic about the future than they did in 2017, according to a survey conducted by MHA, the UK-wide group of accountancy and business advisory firms.

HMRC have been targeting restaurant and takeaway businesses as they believe they are more likely than most to under-declare income. 

The Insolvency Service have released the latest data on company and individual insolvency numbers in England & Wales. The statistics cover the period from April to June 2018 (Q2 2018).

East Anglian accountants and business advisors, Larking Gowen, has been shortlisted in the Best Rural Professional Services category of the Rural Business Awards for the eastern region.

HMRC have issued Brief 7 (2018) confirming the VAT position when contributions are made by motor dealers towards the price of a customer’s car.

Following the conclusion of the “Health and Harmony” consultation the Government will, amongst other minor issues on its agenda, “introduce an Agriculture Bill that breaks from the CAP, providing the United Kingdom with the ability to set out a domestic policy that will stand the test of time.”

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) Executive Chairman Edward Troup has warned taxpayers that HMRC will not compromise when taking legal action against them.

The Experian Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) report for the first 6 months of 2018 ranked Larking Gowen’s Corporate Transactions team joint first in the region.

If you’re compulsorily VAT registered, from 1 April 2019, your business must comply with new Making Tax Digital for VAT rules or potentially face fines of up to 15% of your annual VAT bill under the default surcharge regime.

Read on to find out what you should be doing now to prepare for the transition.

From April 2017, there were significant changes to the tax relief you can get for mortgage interest on property lettings.

What are the changes and how will they affect landlords? Read our blog to find out.

There are some charities that have always embraced campaigning as an important aspect of their work. Others have just started such activities more recently. At a time of funding austerity, campaigning can be a highly effective way for a charity to achieve its charitable aims and protect the rights of their beneficiaries.

The 23^rd Lord Mayor’s 5K City Centre Classic Road Race took place in Norwich this weekend, with a record-breaking number of participants. Sponsored for the first time by chartered accountants, Larking Gowen, the race was set up in 1996, and has a reputation as one of the toughest on the UK race circuit, attracting top athletes from the county, and around the UK.

In our recent blog we looked at some of the ways farmers could diversify, such as property rental, tourism activities or contract or organic farming.

This blog will explain some of the possible tax implications of these common diversification methods.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Government’s plans for Making Tax Digital (MTD) but do you know the implications for you? I suspect that many small businesses are painfully unaware of how MTD might impact on their business administration in the foreseeable future.

One of Larking Gowen’s core values, ‘Passion for our people’, is the driving force behind the Larking Gowen Leadership Development Programme, which saw participants graduate on Wednesday 20 June. 

The Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA), the national network of accountancy firms specialising in the healthcare sector, has appointed Jim Duggan and Lizzy Lloyd to its executive board.

Figures released by DEFRA at the beginning of May showed that Total Income from Farming (TIFF) in the UK is estimated at £5.7 billion. TIFF represents the return to the farmer after paying all expenses and charging depreciation, but without any deduction for proprietors’ wages or any notional rent on owned land. It’s closely akin to the figures shown in the typical set of farm accounts and, since it is based on a calendar year, broadly captures the results of harvest 2017.

HMRC are introducing a new legal ‘requirement to correct’ undeclared UK tax liabilities on offshore matters or transfers by 30 September 2018.  If you have something to declare to HMRC then don’t wait.  Act on it now by either getting in contact with us, or getting in contact with HMRC directly. 

Charities are associated with giving, but most also actively trade. Charities have no general exemption from tax and pay some taxes at the same rate as businesses. However, there are specific measures that reduce the burden, especially for tax on profits (corporation tax).

How can charities make sure that the right structures are in place to achieve efficient tax compliance?

Capital gains tax (CGT) gets reported on your self-assessment tax return for the year. The filing deadline and due date for payment is 31 January following the end of the tax year. So, with the deadline following standard self-assessment procedures, why are so many non-residents being hit with late filing penalties?