The building society said that the rise was due in part to the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme (FLS), which allows lenders to borrow money at very advantageous rates, as long as they pass the savings on to businesses and individual borrowers.
The figures mean that house prices in the second quarter of the year are so far up by 0.4 per cent on the quarter before and up 1.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2012.
Properties in London saw the highest price hikes, up 5.2 per cent in the second quarter on a year-on-year basis, taking the average price of a house in the capital 5 per cent higher than their 2007 peak of £318,214.
Meanwhile, a survey by property website Zoopla has revealed that the number of UK homes valued at more than £1m has soared by nearly a third over the past 12 months, up 80 per cent in the past four years.
The survey also showed that the number of "million-pound streets" in the UK, where the average property value is more than £1m, has jumped by nearly a quarter over the past year.
There are now 8,230 such streets, including nearly 3,000 in London, with another 930 in the capital's wealthiest satellite towns, such as Kingston upon Thames, Richmond and Harpenden.
According to the survey, the Surrey village of Virginia Water, with only 3,000 residents, is the first place in the UK outside London where house values average more than £1m. Kensington Palace Gardens, in west London, was once again the most expensive street, with an average value of £36m, a staggering 156 times the cost of the average home in the UK.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 598 )At Glazers Chartered Accountants in London we are reminding small businesses of the need to prepare for changes in reporting PAYE, despite the Government extending the small business exemption.
Introduced in April 2013, Real Time Information (RTI) has been described as one of the most fundamental changes to payroll reporting requirements in the past five decades.
RTI requires all employers to start providing employee PAYE, National Insurance and Student Loan information to HMRC at point of payment every month and not just at year end as currently.
The Government recently announced that small employers will have an additional six months to prepare for RTI.
Businesses with 50 employees or less will not have to report salary and other payment made to their employees in ‘real time’ until the end of the tax year.
Until April 2014, these businesses will continue to be able to provide this information to HMRC on a monthly basis through the new scheme.
At Glazers Chartered Accountants, London, we understand that many small businesses may not be aware about the changes in reporting PAYE and how it will affect their businesses, despite the Government extending the deadline.
The introduction of RTI will mean employers will need to take more time to submit employee information to HMRC.
If you're an employer, each time you pay an employee you will need to submit deductions, such as Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) and starter and leaver dates if applicable.
You will need to include the details of all employees you pay, including those who earn below the NICs Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), while an employer will no longer submit an end of year return (forms P35 and P14) and the starter and leaver process is simplified.
As an employer, you will continue to give your employee a form P45 when they leave but you no longer send forms P45 or P46 to HMRC - instead you must submit all starter and leaver information as part of the Full Payment Submission (FPS).
There will also be an automatic penalty regime for those employers who fail to comply.
As a well established and experienced firm of accountants in London, Glazers can assist in preparing a small business to meet the demands of RTI.
However for many small businesses it may be preferential to outsource their payroll functions to an experienced accountant in London, such as Glazers.
Payroll bureaus have the flexibility to deal with changes in payroll regulations, offering cost-conscious, affordable results, with services customised to meet clients’ specific needs.
At Glazers Chartered Accountants, London, we have a dedicated team of specialists in our payroll department geared up to providing a timely, accurate and flexible service, tailored to suit your needs.
Glazers Chartered Accounting in London can relieve you of the administrative burden of Real Time Information (RTI), allowing you to concentrate on your own business, while reducing overheads.
Alternatively, Glazers Chartered Accountants in London can also provide RTI training if you prefer to do it yourself, and a helpline in case you run into any difficulty.
To find out how we can help you prepare for RTI, contact Glazers Chartered Accountants, London, on:
Telephone: 020 8458 7427
Email: quality@glazers.co.uk
Web: www.glazers.co.uk
Summary:
Glazers Chartered Accountants, London is an independent firm of accountants, auditors, business consultants and financial and tax advisers, experienced in RTI, payroll, PAYE and National Insurance Contributions.
This accountant in London specialises in working with SME and owner-managed businesses and with personal clients. At this accountant, London, you’ll get expert advice and responsive, efficient, client-focused support that add real value to businesses and to personal finances, through services including payroll and PAYE, as well as personal tax planning and compliance, audit and accountancy, bookkeeping, business consultancy, financial services, and VAT consultancy.
"For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 536 )Although the Spending Review announced yesterday (June 26) by Chancellor George Osborne provoked anger from public sector workers and other critics, business leaders and groups generally welcomed the plans but said they would have liked to have seen further cuts to public spending and a greater emphasis on infrastructure investment.
Amongst measures announced in the Review, which will cut £11.5bn from Whitehall departments, the Chancellor revealed he will apply a ‘temperature test’ to ex-pat pensioners, depriving many of their winter fuel allowance, and has reduced the local government department budget by 60 per cent.
However, Mr Osborne also announced £100bn of spending on the UK’s energy and transport infrastructure between 2015 and 2020, seeing it as the most effective engine for economic growth, which was welcomed by business leaders.
Director General of the CBI, John Cridland said that the Chancellor has “carefully walked a tightrope of protecting growth, while making sizeable savings to pay down the debt.”
Details of the infrastructure boost will be announced later today by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, but the focus is expected to be on energy, although there will almost certainly be plans to build schools and affordable housing and more will be spent on scientific research.
Meanwhile, although the budget for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has been cut by 5 per cent, the department has been instructed to raise an extra £1bn in revenue by targeting tax avoidance and evasion, fraud and debt.
HMRC’s target for extra tax revenue has increased from £23.5bn in 2014-15 to £24.5bn in 2015-16. According to Treasury estimates, the department should be able to deliver £130m of efficiency savings by 2015-16 through "improved productivity and further digital transformation, reducing inefficient manual processing and dealing with error".
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 590 )Several newspapers and magazines have picked up on the fact that the European Commission has delayed, if not entirely shelved, the implementation of its proposed financial transaction tax (FTT) until the middle of 2014.
Rather than make an announcement, the commission’s admission was merely included in an update to its web pages last week and the notice was slightly ambiguous, leaving commentators to wonder whether this is just a delay or a quiet axing of the controversial measure.
The wording on the site says: ‘Once agreed upon at European level, participating member states will have to transpose the directive into national legislation. If agreement is found before the end of 2013, and there is a speedy transposition into national law by the participating member states, this common framework for an FTT could still enter into force towards the middle of 2014.’
However, such has been the reaction to the proposed tax, which has been dubbed a ‘Robin Hood tax’, from the member states in recent months that it is unlikely for anything to be ‘speedy’ and EC tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta has had to deny reports that the tax would be scaled back for the original start date of January 2014.
There had been rumblings that the member states were unhappy with some of the proposals as far back as the end of May, when sources suggested that the tax on trading bonds and shares would drop from 01 per cent to 0.01 per cent and that only shares would be affected from the proposed start date.
Mr Semeta said that it is “premature” at the moment to say what the final outcome will be, as talks are still taking place, albeit in “a constructive mood”.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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( 3 / 586 )A recent survey has found that the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have no key worker protection in place, despite the death of a business owner being cited as the most disruptive threat a business can face.
In the survey of 500 businesses, it was found that the death of a business owner came in as the top most disruptive scenario, at 43 per cent, as opposed to 23 per cent who specified fire damage and 14 per cent who cited critical illness.
In fact, the consequence of the death of the owners would be so serious that 12 per cent of those surveyed predicted that their business would cease trading immediately as a result of the death or critical illness of a key worker or business owner.
While a further 42 per cent thought that their business would cease trading in this situation but over a longer period of time. Of this cohort, a quarter felt that the business would cease trading within the first year of the deal, 6 per cent within the second years and 11 per cent after two years.
Given the results of the survey, it is surprising that small business owners either do not have key worker insurance in place or a continuance strategy in place that is communicated to the workforce.
Even firms with a number of workers need to think about planning for an unfortunate eventuality, particularly when chronic illness can wreak almost as much havoc as a sudden death, as grief can be equally disruptive, so professional help should be sought for guidance on what to do should the worst happen.
For more information, please contact Glazers, Chartered Accountants London or visit www.glazers.co.uk
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