accounting

Small Businesses Admit They’ve Wasted £12.6bn On Bad Consultants

Shane Donnelly April 21, 2017 News

UK small businesses have admitted they’ve wasted £12.6bn on consultants that didn’t improve the performance of their business. According to a report by Zeqr, UK enterprises spent £60bn on external experts last year – though an estimated one million small firms didn’t get value for money. Accounting was the most sought after area for advice, with businesses forking out £9.1bn for help with their numbers. This was closely followed by insurance (£5.3bn), IT (£4.1bn), payroll and pensions (£3.3bn), and website building (£3.1bn). Despite the high costs, its suggested that 49% of small businesses avoid hiring external consultants because of over inflated costs, with 36% citing scepticism about their level of expertise as a barrier. Dr David Fraser, business expert and author, said: “Smaller orga... »

Tax Relief for Research and Development

September 10, 2008 Tax

Relief is available on Research and Development expenditure, which means that a company can claim enhanced relief on qualifying costs against its profits. To qualify as Research and Development (R&D), an activity must be treated as R&D under generally accepted accounting practice, and fall within any guidelines issued by the Treasury. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued guidelines on what it considers is treated as R&D for accounting purposes. What reliefs are available? Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) may claim: R&D tax relief – which increases the deduction to 175% of the qualifying expenditure (150% prior to 1 August 2008), or payable R&D tax credit – which allows companies who are not in profit to take the relief up front in t... »