by James Mason
2 May 2012
The latest news from the world of business, accounting and tax I am in a reflective mood, I keep hearing the words of my late father. “It is always easier to find a way of saving a pound than it is to find a way of earning one”. Unarguably good advice if ever I heard it and staying on the theme of reflection I also keep hearing the words from the opening title sequence of the American 80’s television show Soap… “Confused? Not yet; yo...
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by James Mason
7 April 2012
Investing in property has always been popular and here’s why… The age-old saying goes that “no one ever lost money in bricks and mortar” and whilst this may not be an absolute truth there is undoubtedly some long term security in property. According to Phil and Kirsty it’s all about where it is, and whilst this is of course largely true when it comes to residential property, for other areas of property investment there are other issue...
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by James Mason
7 April 2012
The latest new and views in the world of accounting and business… If a week is a long time in politics; then 24 hours in the life of an economy is an eternity. In one day alone last week we saw petrol hit a record high, Halifax raise the UK cost of mortgages (others will follow) and Moody’s downgrade Greece. The Post Office announced that stamps are going up (again) and Spain and Italy both missed their deficit targets. Germany’s reta...
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by James Mason
8 February 2012
More drama than Alien v. Predator, the UK National Debt reaches a staggering £1 trillion… Please bear with me. Ordinarily my remit is to write on micro subjects to better aid the understanding of business related, tax and financial issues for the local and wider business community; and I have said it before and I will say it again that this is not a political column and I am not an economist. However, I couldn’t resist the temptation ...
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by James Mason
22 January 2012
Fifth Element, February 2012 and this is the news… On a personal level 2011 had a huge amount going on. I did think on the basis that nothing continues forever (death, taxes, Peter Andre episodes aside) that 2012 would be calmer, quieter, less eventful and that we could deal with the Euro zone without much else t-boning the issue. Then Scotland gears up its intention to leave the Union. You have to smile. On the one hand we have Germany fighting...
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by James Mason
3 January 2012
A Fifth Element ‘Making-Sense-of-it’ special... A very happy New Year; it seems only appropriate to start with what were the closing headlines of 2011. The Autumn Statement, aka The Pre-Budget Report (PBR), is an interesting thing. Like Fry’s Turkish Delight, full of promise, but unless you’re a big fan, does it really deliver? More importantly, did last year’s PBR? Here are some of the highlights and my views on what took place and how things m...
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by James Mason
16 December 2011
Black Friday; who cares? We should, and here’s why… The day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States is often referred to as Black Friday. Officially, it’s the first day of the Christmas shopping season for our cousins across the pond and, traditionally, the day when retailers come out of their overdrafts and go into the ‘black’. Whether this is totally true or not matters little; what is important is that we understand the issues surrounding...
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by James Mason
6 December 2011
Retailing is easy - it’s just margin and volume. Or is it? Traditionally, a huge percentage of annual retail sales take place in the eight week run up to Christmas; and in some countries the proportion can be as high as 60% of total annual sales. The pressure is on for retailers - get it wrong at Christmas and you can be in a whole heap of trouble. Aside from the margin and volume issues, this is what we know… Planning ahead Visual Merchandi...
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by James Mason
26 November 2011
This is Fifth Element, December 2011, and this is the news Sometimes it seems that the world of business and tax is a continually changing and constantly evolving series of complex problems and issues; principally because it is. To counter this, we hope that our ‘What’s Hot’ periodic updates will help with the necessity of keeping up to date; and on that note here’s our latest review. This is hot… Reasonable excuse The law says that the pen...
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by James Mason
6 November 2011
The taxman’s ‘Business Records Check’ scheme steps up a gear… HMRC’s initial findings in respect of their ongoing Business Records Check pilot scheme reveals that 44 per cent of businesses have issues with their record keeping and 12 per cent have seriously inadequate records. Fines could be as much as £3,000 and HMRC is planning on making 20,000 spot check visits during the 2012/13 tax year. This is what you need to know. Keeping records Th...
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