We’re moving!

accountants in hale

We are excited to reveal that our new office premises from March 26th will be in…Hale!

Our old office, near Manchester Airport, has served us well since we launched the practice back in 2012.

Since then, we have grown our client base, staff numbers and our services.

We’ve also developed as a business and we see our new home as a physical embodiment of where we are now and where we are heading as a practice.

Our new, professional surroundings are perfectly in tune with our culture and better suited to our clients and staff.

Not only is the location convenient and easy to access it’s also a stone’s throw from amenities in Hale village and Altrincham town centre for our staff. It’s less than 300 yards from Hale railway station where, if you look carefully, you ‘ll soon see our fantastic new advertising campaign.

We are having great fun getting to know our new neighbours which include Handelsbanken, Gillespies and Strategic North.

We will be only too pleased to see you at our new office and you are very welcome to come and see us at any time.

Look out for our ‘launch cocktail’ event very soon…

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Say hello to…Daniel

We are pleased to have appointed Daniel McKeown as an accounts senior here at Alexander Knight & Co.

Joining Alexander Knight & Co is a natural progression for Dan who has spent his entire career advising successful entrepreneurs in the SME market.

Like many of our clients, we are on a positive growth curve and since the start of the year we have picked up a range of new audit clients as well as specialist tax work from international firms trading in the UK.

In addition, we’re also moving into new, bigger and better office space in the heart of Hale village to accommodate future growth plans.

We are delighted to have appointed Dan to our growing team and we’re confident that our clients, who range from fast-growth businesses to seasoned entrepreneurs will be well served by his skills.

Dan McKeown, accounts senior at Alexander Knight & Co, says

I have a passion for advising entrepreneurs and I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues and the fantastic array of clients we have here at Alexander Knight & Co.

 

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EVENT: R&D tax credits seminar

In the first of a number of events we are hosting in 2018 we are sharing a platform with Hale-based solicitors Blackstone.

R&D tax credits is the subject under discussion and we’ll be sharing our experience with a range of business owners about how to make a successful claim and how valuable it can be.

We will be updating you with details of exactly when this will happen – and if you are on our mailing list, you’ll receive an invitation soon.

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Football’s coming home

It’s live. It’s loud. It’s (almost) here.

We have teamed up with our friends at Gresham Wealth Management to host an exclusive screening of the England v Belgium World Cup game on Thursday 28th June (7pm kick off).

If you are a football fan & would like to watch the likes of Henderson, Lallana, Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexander-Arnold & maybe Mignolet (hmmm… anyone spot a theme here?) in action at a private venue in Altrincham with a complimentary bar and snacks, then please e-mail alison@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk to register your interest (quoting England/Belgium).

Official invitations & further information will then be e-mailed. Please be sure to RSVP to Alison as soon as you get it because places are strictly limited and it’s sure to be a popular fixture!

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Let us help you PR your business

manchester pr company logo

We have teamed up with our Manchester based PR agency, Sugar PR, to offer exclusive media profiles of your business in key media titles. We are always keen to add more value to our services and we think we’re the only accountants in Manchester who extend the skills of our public relations team as well as our tax, audit and management accountant services.

Recently, we helped our client Aquavision raise its profile by placing this brilliant article in the Manchester Evening News. We even made this cool video which helps them to tell their success story. Another client of ours launched a new, innovative product and we were only too pleased to lend a hand in getting it ‘out there’ to create some media buzz.

We’re proud of your success stories and we want to help you shout about it.

If you want to be featured in our next client profile and get some supportive PR and media profile – please let Murray know and we’ll take care of the rest.

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Another tax break for investors

Investors’ Relief (‘IR’) is a relatively new tax relief available to investors who sell shares in unlisted trading companies.

This tax relief shares many similarities with Entrepreneurs’ Relief (‘ER’) – under both reliefs there is a 10% capital gains tax rate available (as opposed to 20% for higher rate taxpayers) & both have a lifetime limit of up to £10 million.

On the basis of the above then there doesn’t appear to be a need for IR!

However, we have recently advised on a number of transactions where the shareholder group included a number of investors who held less than 5% of the company  – making them ineligible for ER. This is where IR comes in.

Investors’ relief doesn’t require a minimum shareholding, & therefore a 10% capital gains tax relief is still possible, with the appropriate planning & advice.

IR applies to new ordinary shares issued on or after 17 March 2016. The relief requires that shares are held continuously for three years – in other words the first IR claim will be made in the 2019/20 tax year…..so now is the time to plan for this, given that it’s only a few months away.

There are a few other simple rules to follow on IR – the most notable one being that the investor should not be a paid employee of the investing company, although they can act as a director of the company.

IR may also provide a ‘next best alternative’ to the other excellent tax reliefs available: Enterprise Investment Scheme (‘EIS’) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (‘SEIS’).

Whilst EIS/SEIS may offer more tax benefits, there are several conditions which must be met in order to qualify, & as a result these options may be too cumbersome for some investors.

IR can also be treated as a top-up to ER i.e. having 2 x £10 million of gains by utilising both tax reliefs.

The team at Alexander Knight & Co is hugely experienced in advising on capital gains tax cases.

If you’d like a second opinion, or just some idea of which options could work for you then contact Murray Patt.

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Time for a treat?

Gift cards tax break for directors

Want to be nominated for loveliest employer of the year? With the Trivial Benefits in Kind Exemption (we know…hardly a smooth trip off the tongue phrase) that emerged from the Finance Bill 2016, you can now treat your employees without them facing any tax hassles. So what kind of treats apply?

  • Gift vouchers (up to the value per head – see “small print” below)
  • Taking a group of employees out for a celebratory birthday meal
  • Flowers on the birth of a new baby
  • A summer garden party for employees

And it gets better……you can also treat yourself!

If you are the director of a Limited Company, then you, too can receive up to £300 per tax year -which will not be subject to tax or NI – in the form of gift vouchers from your favourite retail or on-line store. A director of multiple companies can take advantage of this opportunity for each company! But be quick, as great tax breaks like this often disappear just as quickly as they appear!

You can get £300 of gift cards (in £50 tranches) on or before the 5th April – and then another £300 (in £50 tranches) on or after the 6th April 2019 – giving you £600. 

There are obviously a number of conditions that a trivial benefit for an employee has to satisfy in order for it to qualify for the new exemption & these are outlined below in some detail. However, the basic lowdown is that it has to be a freely given gift related to employee welfare & goodwill, not employment service or performance.

The small print…

  • No more than £50 per benefit (or average of £50 if the benefit is provided to a group of employees, & it is not possible to work out the exact cost for each individual). The £50 limit (fortunately) does not apply to company directors.
  • If the employee exceeds this amount then the whole lot becomes a benefit in kind & therefore the normal tax rules apply.
  • Cash or a cash voucher are not eligible but gift vouchers eg for a shop, are acceptable
  • There must be no entitlement to the benefit as part of the employee’s contract (including salary sacrifice schemes).
  • The benefit is not provided in recognition of a work related service or employment duty.

For additional information, tailored to your company, please contact a member of the Alexander Knight & Co team.

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