The Recent release of the Chancellor’s budget for 2016 has us thinking about the impact on small businesses for the coming year. With features such as Business rates, Corporation tax, Capital Gains Tax, Fuel Duty, and Stamp Duty, this no doubt is going to interest and engage the future of small business.
The change to business rates will increase the threshold for claiming small business relief from £6,000 to £15,000 from April 2017. This would indicate that an estimated 600,000 small firms would not have to pay business rate, and then that a further 25,000 will only need to pay reduced rates as of April 2017. Along with the main rate of Corporation tax being reduced to 17% from the current 20% as of 1 April 2020, this is surely good news for SMEs.
Finance News
Last week saw the annual Finance & Leasing Association’s Dinner hosted at Grosvenor House, and hosted by guests John Hymphrys and Gabby Logan.
The annual dinner is always a favourite of the finance and leasing industries, and gathers together members and non-members to celebrate the industry’s progress and successes from the year. There were over 100 companies represented, and guest speakers Robert Peston and Adam Hills kept the group informed and entertained!
Without a doubt, the catering equipment market is booming. With an expected turnover of £1.1 billion this year, the upsurge in new equipment has fuelled growth in both suppliers and manufacturers alike, and the marketplace shows no sign of slowing. However despite this growth, businesses are facing ever-increasing challenges to meet the financial demands of buying new equipment, with many failing to afford to do so. Despite the advantages that new equipment can bring – such as higher quality food, lower waiting times, increased capacity, and ultimately a higher return – it’s often difficult to afford such a huge outlay when the average kitchen can range from £1,000 up to £250,000.
Educating businesses and SMEs in alternative ways of financing can be difficult. For many people, the mindset of getting finance is either a negative one – inevitably it will lead them into debt which they cannot afford – or that bank lending is the only option. Neither of these are true, and equipment financing is often a much better alternative to bank lending for its flexibility, amounts available, and repayment schedule.
On the 8th July, Chancellor George Osborne gave his 7th budget, and his first as part of the majority Conservative government.
In this budget we saw a large number of shakeups, not least in the economy and business portions, as well as in personal tax & pay, and the ongoing battle with our national deficit.
Leasurope, the European Federation of Leasing Company Associations, is an association in the leasing and finance sector with 45 members across 33 countries. Each quarter of each year they produce their Leaseurope Index report, which surveys 17 volunteer members to analyse and track the leasing industry.
Recently they released their survey results for the first quarter (Q1) of 2015, and the results are very positive, with some figures being the highest ever recorded! All figures show substantial improvement on Q1 of 2014.
A business will always have overheads such as rent, staff, and rates. Making sure these bills don’t get the best of you and keeping your cash flow under control can sometimes be difficult. Here at Johnson Reed we want you to succeed so we have come up with some simple steps of how you can keep control.
The future of your business depends on preparation. This is a key factor for your business to grow. Planning a business expansion or preparing to face stiff competition in your sector means investment. It can be easy to lose control of your cash flow when you don’t plan ahead.
For over 15 years Johnson Reed have been helping our suppliers to grow and do more business. We are not content with just simply processing finance; we want to actively help them secure their orders.
Through our “Just Lease It” business plan we support our suppliers with dedicated account managers for each sector. We also offer a single point of contact from the initial enquiry to final payout, which increases the speed of acceptance and provides a smooth, easy transaction.
In what is becoming a continued trend, fresh results from multiple sources are showing a continued cooling of SME relationships with traditional and high-street banks.
According to a Forum of Private Business (FPB) report, more than a third of small business owners describe their current banking services as “average”, with 16% concerned about getting finance from there.
The report also shows that 14% would like greater access to finance, with 12% wanting banks to take a greater proportion of risk associated with lending. The survey also shows a wider problem of a quarter of small businesses reluctant to seek alternative forms of lending.
The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) have released figures this month showing that new asset finance business for FLA members is on the rise in January 2014. The figures show that the increase is 9% to almost £1.7 billion, versus January 2013.
A lot of the important sectors to asset finance showed excellent double-digit increases (Jan 14 vs. Jan 13), such as…
This year’s Budget came with it’s own slogan: If you’re a maker, a doer or a saver: this Budget is for you.
The Chancellor’s budget speech on Wednesday was an interesting one, with a few surprises (for pensions) and some big bonuses for UK businesses.
The changes benefitting SMEs will include:
The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) is going to be increased to £500,000 until the end of December 2015, meaning businesses which purchase plant and machinery (but not cars) equipment will be able to take advantage of a 100% deduction of the cost up to that limit.