Twenty years on…
The
firm that is now Marshall Roche started life in 1983, when Tony Marshall set up
an office at his home in Fareham. We
quickly moved into offices in the High Street, then to Fareham Heights in the
early nineties. Further expansion and
the introduction of Self Assessment brought the
‘Tax Stop’ concept, which continues to operate well, providing a broad range of
services, whilst keeping us close to our clients.
Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to the next 20 years
serving you.
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and
a
Happy
& Prosperous New Year
from everyone at
This year we
have donated our Christmas card fund to
Cancer Research.
Thank you
Some VAT myths
·
“VAT
only applies to people who sell things – I’m ‘labour-only’, so it’s not a
real business and doesn’t count.” Even if you supply labour-only, (unless you are an employee) if your turnover exceeds the threshold (currently £55,000pa.) you must register. ·
“I
can wait until my accounts are done, then worry about registering if they
show the turnover is more than £55k.” This could generate a hefty penalty - you must monitor your sales on a monthly basis, so that you know when any consecutive 12 month period has exceeded the threshold. You then have to register by the end of the next month. ·
“There
are two of us in the business, so we can do twice as much turnover before
registering.” The threshold applies to the business – if it’s a partnership then it must be VAT registered if the partnership turnover exceeds the limit of £55k. ·
“Travel
expenses reclaimed are not subject to VAT so can be ignored.” If your customer reimburses your expenses, this is part of your turnover. Therefore, these count when working out whether you need to register and, if registered, you must charge VAT on them, even if they are (eg) rail tickets which carried no VAT when you paid for them. Investment
strategy Who makes most profit, the investor who ‘tracks’ the markets or the one who does the opposite of everyone else – the so called ‘contrary’ investor? In the late nineties, when markets had been rising for some years, investors were flocking to invest more, but now after a few years of markets going down, the very same investors are staying away. Once bitten, twice shy, you may say, but if they had invested during the last slump and sold out (instead of investing) at the top, they would have been laughing all the way to the bank. Of course, it’s easy to be wise with hindsight, but the patterns do seem to repeat themselves. Is the same happening with house prices? Has the stock market fall pushed investors into real estate, just the same as it did after the 1987 crash? Will the house price boom end as it did before, producing renewed interest in unit trusts etc? There are, of course, more factors at play on the world stage, but the ebb and flow of investor interest works in all markets. If you can catch the roller-coaster at the bottom and ride it all the way up then profits will be far greater than joining it half way up or, worse, near the top. A J
Marshall, Marshall Roche, Authorised by the Financial Services Authority for
investment business |
Self Assessment tax returns – Final reminder Tax returns for the year to 5 April 2002 must be
with the Inland Revenue by 31 January 2003 in order to avoid a penalty. If you have not let us have the information yet,
please do so without delay. If you have tax to pay on Late payment attracts interest and any tax for
2001/02 not paid by the end of February also gets a 5% surcharge. Yet another scam… Beware of the latest scam that is catching out small businesses. Most people have heard of The Data Protection Act
and may be aware that they may have to register when they start to keep
records on computer. There are people who send out a very formal
looking ‘FINAL NOTICE’ to small
businesses, hoping to catch them out.
The letter looks official and appears to be threatening penalties for
failure to pay up. However, they are NOT the official registrars. The truth is that you may have to register if you
keep customer or other personal data
on computer, but the way to do this (or check if you have to register) is via
the official web-site on www.dpr.gov.uk The annul fee is £35, payable to the Registrar -
if you receive a demand for more than this – |