WhittlerThea roundup of Firm’s news and client issues from Whittle & Co JANUARY 2014

www.whittles.co.uk

Ark the Harwich Angels

In this issue: Page 2 Pensions Auto-Enrolment page 3 Happy Birthday VAT! page 4 Team News

Every financial year Whittle & Co nominate a localcharity to benefit from and to provide a focus for,our fundraising activity throughout the year.The 2013/14 charity is The Ark Centre in Harwich.

When Race Mark OLM (W) at the WestMersea Yacht Club became available forsponsorship, we decided to put ourname to it. As the WMYC’s Auditors, thefirm is always happy to support the Cluband when this includes a bright yellowrace buoy with a “Whittle” “W” on it, howcould we let anyone else be its sponsor?

Hot, Hot, Hot

The Ark Centre provides a range ofsupport services including pre-school play and learning for the

children and families of Harwich anddistrict, and has done so since 1953.

Rachel Skells, Whittle & Co partnerexplains the choice of charity: “There areso many good causes in the communitiesin which we all live and work and they alldeserve our support. However, The Arkhas particularly impressed us by just howmuch they achieve with so little. Thecharity has been going for sixty years;quietly making a difference to the

Harwich families who need their support. Whittle & Co is very proud to be supporting The Ark in this milestone year.”

A keystone of Whittles’ support of the charity was the developmentof the charity’s first websitewww.thearkcentregroup.co.ukThe Centre’s manager Sally Johns Greenacknowledged the benefit of this practicalsupport: “A website is absolutely vital intoday’s fast-moving world, not just forcommunicating with the Centre’s familiesbut also in encouraging online donations

and supporting grant applications.We value support in any form but reallyappreciated the Whittle team rolling uptheir sleeves and making this websiteactually happen.”

For the third year running, the teamfrom Whittle & Co put up theirstand in the Poultry Tent

encouraging visitors to take part in theannual Whittle Eggsamination and toguess the name of its cuddly rooster. Thetrue identity of Feathers McGraw proved astumbling block for many entrants in theeggsamination and 174 names wereselected for our furry, feathery friend,whose name was “Ray”.

Buoy oh buoyLast year it rained and rained at the Tendring Show; this year in spite of the firm’s chosen charity being The Ark, conditionswere dry… and very hot.

2

For businesses, your responsibilitiesinclude informing employees ofwhat auto-enrolment is, abouttheir right to opt out, or, to those

who are not required to be auto enrolled,about their right to opt in. Employersmust ensure that the right information is passed on to the right individual at the right time. Similarly, it states thatemployers must not encourage workers to opt out of the scheme. Failure tocomply could result in a statutory notice,penalties and even court action.

With this in mind, it's important as abusiness to stay on top of what ishappening and begin preparing for yourresponsibilities. This could be byidentifying when your staging date is,deciding on a qualifying pension scheme,preparing information to let employees

In order to claim, employers will need to complete the yes/noindicator that HMRC is adding to the Real Time InformationEmployer Payment Summary (EPS). Payroll software providerswill add the same facility, and HMRC will amend its basic

PAYE tools to have an EPS facility for employers who do notalready have this facility on their software.

Correspondence/Telephone call from HMRCIn some instances, HMRC have decided that they will now contact you directly without letting us know. If in doubt,please let us know that they have been in touch with you.

Pensions auto-enrolmentthe facts explainedIn a bid to encourage more people to save for their 'golden years', businesses will now berequired by law to automatically enrol all eligible workers into a qualifying work-place pensionscheme, and for most employees, their contributions will be topped up by the employer andthe Government. It hopes that the attraction of additional top-ups and the active decision toopt out will mean more will choose to remain contributing. It has come into effect for thelargest employees and smaller firms will gradually following suit over the next few years,starting from 1 June 2015 for all employers with less than 30 workers.

know what is happening or considering asuitable payroll process. Just like savingfor a retirement, its best to get startedwith these changes as soon as possible.

We can help your business comply withauto-enrolment.

KEY POINTS:

• Automatic enrolment affects allemployers with staff in the UK.

• You must enrol certain staff into apension scheme.

• You must start doing this from yourstaging date, though there is an optionto postpone automatic enrolment forup to three months.

• You must write to all your staff to tellthem how they’ve been affected.

You must automatically enrol all staffwho are:

• aged 22 to state pension age

• working in the UK

• earning over £9,440 a year.

Some staff who don’t meet the criteriaabove are able to opt in to the pensionscheme you’re using for automaticenrolment. You must put them in if they ask.

You’ll have to pay a minimum employercontribution for all staff you put intothis scheme. This starts at 1% of grosssalary and rises to 3% with the employeecontributions rising from 0.8% to 4% byOctober 2018.

PAYE attention – Employment AllowanceThe Employment Allowance will be introduced from April 2014, delivered through standardpayroll software and HMRC’s Real Time Information system. To ensure maximum take-up, itwill be simple to administer: employers will only need to confirm their eligibility through theirregular payroll processes. This confirmation will ensure that up to £2,000 will be deductedfrom their employer NICs liability over the course of the year’s PAYE payments.

Once the employer has opted in, the employer will then offsetthe allowance against each monthly Class 1 secondary NICpayment that is due to be made to HMRC until the allowance isfully claimed or the tax year ends. The following tax year, theallowance will be available as an offset against a Class 1secondary NIC liability as it arises during the tax year.

3

Many happy returns to VAT. Of course if you were registeredfor VAT right at the start in 1973 that would make 160 quarterlyreturns to be precise.

For furtherinformation onthese or any otherissues, contact:Paul Whittlepjw@whittles.co.uk

Rachel Skellsrachel@whittles.co.uk

Tim Moriartytmm@whittles.co.uk

Paul WhittleWishes happy 40th birthday to VAT

When introduced, VAT was said to be a simple tax butover the years it has proved to be anything but. It hasbeen called an absurd tax and a complex paralleluniverse amongst other derogatory names. For somereason, a larger proportion than might seem likely,have involved food in some shape or form. We havehad the Jaffa cake case, over many years, is it a cake oris it a biscuit. More recently we have had what hasbeen dubbed the pasty tax.

But my favourite case has to be to do with pet food. Inparticular, ferret food. I have to confess a personalinvolvement, not as a ferret owner, but as the unlikely andless than erudite protagonist against HMRC in the First TierTribunal on behalf of my client. The amounts of VAT atstake did not justify employing a QC, let alone a younginexperienced barrister, so my client insisted I take it on.We were arguing as to whether food for ferrets should bezero rated as animal feed or as pet food. My assertion wasthat ferrets are vicious beasts, only too happy to savage arabbit or, as I hoped to demonstrate, the tribunal clerk’sfinger, and that they were certainly not cuddly pets. Mycunning plan to call as a witness, a rabbit hunting ferretowner, started well. The train to London allowed thecaged ferret and it’s owner on board, we talked our way

past the security guard in Bedford Square, the tribunalclerk when she came to investigate was persuaded not toput her fingers through the bars of the cage. I had leftinstructions beforehand that the male hob (fully intacto)should not be fed in the hope he might react“positively”to the presence of the Judge. But it was not tobe, the Tribunal chamber was too warm, the ferret ownerwhen asked for his evidence forgot to rattle his ferret’scage as it sat in front of him, and the ferret demonstratedwhat all ferrets are good at, by snoring, rather thanspraying. My plan to clear the room and therebydemonstrate that a ferret is indisputably not a pet, failedabysmally. Indeed the Judge held that all ferrets are pets,including those which are kept to control rabbits. Mind youif one of those was to be stuffed down the Judge’s trousershe might change his mind.

The moral of the tale is never go to law unless the moniesat stake are over £1 million, your client is up for the fightand can afford to employ the best barrister money canbuy. Fortunately we have got another client where allthose requirements have been met, and thanks to a verygood QC and junior counsel, we won a recent dog foodcase at First Tier Tribunal. HMRC are appealing so we shallsee what transpires next Spring.

4TEAM NEWS

Fore!In October, Tim Moriartywas elected Captain forColchester Golf Club.Founded in 1907,Colchester is a non-profitmaking members clubowned and run by themembers for the benefit ofthe members and the localcommunity.

Letters CountAndrew Warner is celebrating recent exam success and hisnew ACA (Institute of Chartered Accountants England andWales) qualification. Andrew joined Whittle & Co inColchester in January 2008 after graduating with first classhonours in “History and Ancient History” from theUniversity of Reading. Also adding letters to his name isOliver White who joined Whittles in February this year. Hecompleted his AAT qualification in August at the ColchesterInstitute. Oliver now goes on to study for the ACAqualification along with colleague Dan Insley.

Baby TwosCongratulations to Sally Gifford and Carly Brundle whoboth became mums this year. Sally had a baby girl in Juneand Carly a baby girl in November. Both are enjoying theirmaternity leave and are planning to return to work in 2014.

Back to SchoolRachel Skells has beenappointed chair of theFinance and General Purposescommittee at New HallSchool in Chelmsford. Inaddition she is on thegoverning board for the Trustthat now oversees MessingAcademy which is MessingPrimary School in partnershipwith New Hall School.

SERVICESBusiness Services • Audit• Bookkeeping & accounting• Business planning• Business start-up• Company secretarial• Corporate finance• Corporate recovery• Corporate tax planning• Mergers & acquisitions• Payroll• VAT

OUR OFFICES

NO

RTH STA

TION

ROA

DN

ORTH

HILL

HEA

D S

TREE

T

HIGH STREET

BALK

ERN

E H

ILL

WESTW

AY

WESTWAY

COLNE BANK AVE COWDRAY AVECOWDRAY AVE

COLCHESTER BYPASS

COLCHESTERINSTITUTE

CASTLE PARK

QUE

EN S

TREE

T

CULVERSQUARE

LIONWALK

COLCHESTER & ESSEXCRICKET CLUB

WILLIAMS& GRIFFIN

ROAD

A12 CHELMSFORD

A12 IPSWICH

HIG

H S

T N

ORT

H

HIG

H S

T

YORICK RD

YO

RIC

KMELROSE RD

COAST RD

ST P

ETER

’S R

D

BEAC

H RD

FIRS RD

WHITTAKER WAY

FIRS RD

FIRS CHASEMERSEA AVE

UPLAND ROAD

KIN

GSL

AN

D R

D

BRO

OM

HIL

LS R

D

QU

EEN A

NN

E RD

EAST RD

VICTORY RD

ROSEBA

NK

RD

BARFIELD RD

MILL RD

AV

E

B1026

P

COLC

HESTER RD

COLCHESTER

Specialist Services • Charities• Computer advice

& support• Financial services industry

Personal Services • Estate planning• Personal tax planning• Retirement strategies• Self assessment• Trusts

WHITTLE & CO, 15 High Street,West Mersea CO5 8QA.

Telephone: 01206 385049.

E-mail: louisa@whittles.co.uk

WHITTLE & CO, Century House South, North Station Road, Colchester CO1 1RE.

Telephone: 01206 762200.

E-mail: mail@whittles.co.uk