This week the autumn statement was delivered with some changes announced that will likely have an impact on you, your business and your employees. Read on to find out how.
Minimum wage rise
This year the minimum wage rose to £7.20 and the autumn statement announced that it will rise once again to £7.50 per hour for those aged over 25.
Now is a great time to plan how this will impact your bottom line and whether you will need to adjust your pricing accordingly.
Salary sacrifice
Many businesses offer perks to employees available through salary sacrifice schemes including gym subscriptions, cycle to work schemes and child care vouchers – many of the most popular salary sacrifice schemes will be unaffected.
If you offer gym subscriptions, health screening and computers under salary sacrifice these will be now subject to taxation from April 2017.
Insurance premium tax rises
The statement announced that in June 2017 insurance premium tax will rise from 10% to 12%. This will effectively be the theirs consecutive rise in this tax over an 18 month period.
As result expect increases on your business insurance next year.
Tax relief for small scale sellers
If on the side you make a bit of extra cash by selling online or at Car Boot sales for profit then a new tax relief has been announced. The tax relief will come into play from April 2017 and the first £1,000 of income will not be taxable.
This does not apply if you are selling items you currently own (ie not for profit) as you are not taxed on this income.
Tennant fees banned
If you are a letting agent you will soon be banned from charging upfront fees to tenants.
At present there is not currently a defined date when this ban will come into play, however the chancellor says this will come into force as soon as possible.