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£ 5.1m skills training pot for Swindon & Wiltshire firms
Small and medium sized enterprises in Swindon and Wiltshire are urged to take advantage of a £ 5.1m skills training pot for their workforce, as a result of a contract extension.
The training is delivered as part of a programme called Skills Support for the Workforce, which Serco’ s Employment, Skills & Enterprise business is managing in our area. Since the programme launched in September 2016, 2,376 learners from 454 businesses across Swindon and Wiltshire have taken advantage of the funded training available. Serco has just been awarded a contract extension to continue delivering the programme until March 2019.
Serco provides a range of courses to the following sectors, which have been identified as key priority sectors:
• Advanced Engineering and High Value Manufacturing
• Health and Life Science
• Financial and Professional Services
• Digital and Information and Communications Technology
• Construction
• Land Based Industries
• Visitor Economy
• Adult Health and Social Care
• Low Carbon Economy.
Businesses operating in these sectors can access funding for training courses such as IT, leadership and management, as well as vocationally-relevant training( depending on the sector).
To deliver the programme, which is cofunded by the European Social Fund and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, Serco has partnered with expert training organisations to offer local businesses recognised accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses aiming to enhance employees’ skills and increase the competitiveness of the businesses.
Businesses can contact Serco on skillssupport @ serco. com or visit www. serco-ssw. com for more details and to find out if they are eligible for funded training through Skills Support for the Workforce.
ENTREPRENEURS’ RELIEF, WHAT IS IT? AND HAS IT CHANGED RECENTLY?
Entrepreneurs’ Relief is a reduced rate of Capital Gains Tax that applies when ones sells certain business assets; or all / part of a business; or more than 5 % of shares in a small company in which you work or hold office. It does not apply to non-business assets such as disposal of an investment property.
If you qualify for( and claim) Entrepreneurs’ Relief, you pay Capital Gains Tax at 10 %- instead of the normal rate for such assets. Since 6th April 2017, the normal Capital Gains Tax rates for the disposal of business assets have reduced to 10 % and 20 %( depending on your total taxable income and capital gains). So, although Entrepreneurs’ Relief is still useful, it is less valuable than it used to be.
One of the most common times that small businesses claimed Entrepreneurs’ Relief was when incorporating a soletrader business( or partnership) – because Entrepreneur’ s Relief could be claimed on the value of any goodwill transferred. With effect from December 2014, the right to claim Entrepreneurs’ Relief when transferring one’ s business to one’ s own company was removed.
Another area where Entrepreneurs’ Relief was commonly claimed was when winding up a company and making a capital distribution to the shareholders. It was the case that if one ceased trading and wound up one’ s company, any cash distributed to the director / shareholders could be treated as capital rather than income and Entrepreneurs’ Relief could be claimed. Now this law has been tightened and if the taxpayer concerned returns to that trade within two years of winding up the original company, then the cash distributed will be taxed as dividends and subject to income tax / dividend tax rather than Capital Gains Tax. This could mean HMRC going back and taxing the cash at 32.5 % rather than the 10 % Entrepreneurs’ Relief rate!
01793 818400
Peter Bromiley ACA Partner
AMS Accountancy Ltd, Swindon SN5 7XF www. ask-ams. co. uk
AMS Accountancy Limited
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Matt Chapman
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Our service:
If you are new to Freelancing we’ ll help and advise you with setting up and won’ t start charging you until you receive income from your contract. If you’ re already Freelancing and using a Cloud based system, no problem, we can work with that too. And, when you have periods without contracting income, we’ ll reduce our fees by 50 %.
We’ ll calculate your taxes and in your bespoke monthly report we’ ll advise you on what to set aside to avoid the shock of large tax bills. We’ ll also calculate and submit your VAT returns.
We have a small dedicated team who are ready with free advice on your Contract / Expenses / Tax / IR35 and contracting issues.
See Matt Chapman on YouTube‘ AMS Accountancy services for freelancers’ plus more videos for Freelancers- or call him for a chat!
@ AMSAccountancy
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12 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018