The Essential Guide Magazine Culcheth May - June 2014 | Page 58

Essential Feature

year.

Taxing Times

Minimum wage rises to £6.50 an hour
The national minimum wage (NMW) for
adults will rise by 19p an hour to £6.50
on 1 October 2014, the Business Secretary
Vince Cable has announced.

Recent Changes regarding Tax and
Related Matters
Tax and accountancy is an ever changing
world. Here at Hunter Healey we peruse
the financial press, monitor government
& HMRC announcements & attend
frequent training courses to ensure we
keep abreast of what’s new to best advise
our clients.
Recent Announcements for 2014/15
The Employment Allowance
From 6th April 2014, Employers can
reduce the amount of National Insurance
contributions (NICs) they pay for their
employees by up to £2,000. This is called
the ‘Employment Allowance’.
You won’t have to pay any employer
National Insurance contributions at all
if you usually pay less than £2,000 a
year. You will however still have to pay to
HMRC the Employee NIC and PAYE tax
deducted from your staffs wages.
Up to 1.25 million businesses and
charities will benefit from Employment
Allowance. Around 450,000 businesses
and charities won’t have to pay
any employer National Insurance
contributions at all.
Employment Allowance is for nearly
all employers that pay Class 1 National
Insurance contributions on their
employees’ and directors’ earnings. The
allowance is given against the first £2000
of liability to employers class 1 NIC
rather than being spread throughout the

LIVE LOCAL? BUY LOCAL!

The Government has agreed to follow the
three per cent rise proposed by the Low
Pay Commission last month. This will be
the first time in six years that the NMW
has increased above the rate of inflation.
Other NMW rates will increase by two
per cent from 1 October 2014:
• the rate for 18 to 20-year-olds will rise
by 10p to £5.13 an hour
• the rate for 16 and 17-year-olds will
increase by 7p to £3.79 an hour
• the rate for apprentices will increase by
5p to £2.73 an hour.
One in four not ready to retire
One in four people planning to retire this
year don’t feel ready to stop working, a
recent survey has found.
The study tracked the aspirations of
people who plan to retire and found a
changing attitude towards retirement:
• 13 per cent of people scheduled to
retire in 2014 have postponed their plans
• 54 per cent would consider working
past the state pension age to make their
retirement more financially comfortable
• 23 per cent would consider working
full-time and 31 per cent part-time.
If you wish to work past state retirement
age, either on a full or part time basis ,
then you may wish to consider deferring
your state pension.
Deferring your state pension
Choosing to put off claiming your state
continued on page 60

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Eight issues in Culcheth • Lymm • Great Sankey & Penketh • Chapelford
Stockton Heath & Appleton • Thelwall, Latchford & Grappenhall • Birchwood • Lowton & Golborne.

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