There are number of businesses taking advantages of their tax breaks in this tax year. On the other hand, there are some small and medium sized business owners who aren’t aware about such tax breaks that they are entitled to. Being a business owner, not only such reliefs can help to run your daily business operations efficiently but also helps in growing your business.
Look at the list to below to ensure you are not missing out anything.
Research & Development
Over the years, the Research and Development (R&D) tax credits have been increased significantly for the small business owners. And, even with the increase of R&D allowance from 225 percent to 230 percent, the figure for the SMEs claiming such credits still remains low.
A survey done by KPMG Enterprise has shown that only 5 percent SMEs have used the tax relief. This means only few of SMEs are actually benefitting from such reliefs. Lack of knowledge about these credits can be main reason behind such low number of claims. So, if you have a firm engaged in innovation, do not miss the R & D tax breaks. Things like staff costs, employing freelancers, materials and utility expenses are where you can claim your tax breaks on.
Employment and National Insurance
More good news for SMEs: The Government has promised to cut down National Insurance costs with companies eligible for a £2,000 Employment Allowance for reducing their NI bill. About 1.25 million firms are set to be benefitted from this deal. Moreover, the small companies with less than 50 employees can be granted with a £1,500 grant for employing an apprentice under the apprenticeship grant for employers. Such companies are allowed to hire 16-24 year olds. If you have SMEs, make sure you take advantage of this relief.
Business Premises Perks
If you are a small or medium sized businesses and plan on to use a building that has been vacant for at least a year, you can get 100 percent business premises renovation allowance on building works and expenses. Meanwhile, the qualifying properties lie in deprived area as the break is open till 2017 only. Moreover, if your enterprise uses plants and machinery, capital allowances will be available for you.
Annual investment allowance of £500,000 on plant and machinery can be claimed by the firms. Thus, you can take advantage of it before it drops to £25,000.
Small Business Rates Relief Scheme
The Small Business Rates Relief Scheme allows 100 percent relief for SMEs with a single property having a chargeable value up to £6,000. A tapering relief is available for those with a chargeable value between £6,000 and £12,000. Likewise, a discount up to £1,500 is also available for business rates for restaurants and shops with a chargeable value up to £50,000. As a business owner, you need to look for the grants available in your local area along with such tax reliefs and take all the help you can.
Tax relief on business investment
If you do not like the idea of getting a bank loan, then you can always seek out an external investor to raise the funds for your SMEs. To help business owners like you, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) was launched in 2012 to encourage investment in SMEs. This scheme proves to be alternative source of revenue which gives investor tax breaks of up to 50 percent on the investments.
Enterprise Investment Scheme
Just like the Seed Enterprise scheme, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) was launched to encourage investment in higher risk SMEs.
These tax breaks can mean a great deal to your business. So, you need to spend a little time on searching for such reliefs which will only help to run your business.
