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The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), part of MI5, and the National Cyber Security Agency (NCSC) have launched a new awareness campaign to encourage the UK’s emerging tech sector to protect and secure their innovations. The campaign consists of an updated suite of Secure Innovation guidance that offers best practice advice on keeping ideas safe.

This is a question many business owners want answering. The truth is, it depends on a range of factors and any valuation is only useful as a guide for planning forward. The ultimate value of a business is the price a willing buyer is prepared to pay for it. The prevailing economic climate and state of the business’ sector can affect company valuation for better or worse, as can your reasons for selling.

There are less than 90 days to go until the deadline for filing your Self-Assessment return online. You need to file your return by 31‌‌‌‌ January 2024. Filing your return early is an option and means you can find out how much you owe and help you budget and plan for your payment. If you are due a refund, you can claim it back sooner. If you’ve already sent HMRC your return and paid, you don’t need to do anything else.

Working capital finance solutions offer businesses the opportunity to improve cash flow. The world of commercial finance and asset-based lending (ABL) is complex and expansive with products, terminology and contractual interpretation varying from lender-to-lender.

Currently, where an individual pension holder dies before age 75, drawdown pensions paid to a successor can generally be received free from income tax. Where the pension holder dies over the age of 75, then the amounts drawn by the successor are taxed at their marginal income tax rate. Note also that the current tax rules provide that the value of the fund passes free of inheritance tax to the successor and thus forms an important part of estate planning.

The government have issued draft legislation for consultation on the proposal to merge the two forms of corporation tax relief for expenditure on research and development (R&D) For expenditure incurred on or after 1 April 2024, it is proposed that the two schemes providing for R&D relief – R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) and Credit Relief for SMEs, will be merged and replaced with a single unified scheme.

Draft legislation released for consultation on 18 July indicates that business and individual taxpayers will be required to provide more information to HMRC in the next few years. It is proposed that from 2025/26, employers will be required to provide more detailed information on employee hours worked via real time information (RTI) PAYE reporting. The information to be reported will be set out in separate regulations.

Tableau Desktop software is a powerful and widely used data visualisation and business intelligence tool that helps users to transform raw data into meaningful insights. With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Tableau simplifies the process of creating interactive and visually appealing dashboards, reports, and charts. Tableau’s strengths predominantly lie in its adaptability and user-friendly design.

Exit interviews can provide a platform for departing employees to openly share feedback about their experiences within the company. This information can highlight areas of concern, such as management issues, workload challenges, or a lack of growth opportunities. By actively listening to this feedback, businesses can identify systemic problems and implement corrective measures.

Then ask us for a copy of our guide called “57 Ways to Grow Your Business”! Our publication is packed full of bright Ideas for the Serious Entrepreneur and starts with the four basics of growth. All the ideas in this guide ultimately revolve around four basic insights about growing a business. You can: 1. Increase the number of customers; 2. Increase the number of times each one does business with you; 3. Increase the average value of each transaction; and 4.