1. What does the autumn statement mean for you and your business? Tuesday 10 th December 2013 Presentation by Ru Howard

2. Help For Businesses – Fuel Duty The 3p-a-litre increase in fuel duty planned for January is to be scrapped altogether, not just postponed as in previous announcements. (A separate 3p rise planned for April has also been deferred to September 2014.)

3. Help For Businesses -Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) The £250,000 allowance came into effect in 1 January 2013; plans are that this will revert back to £25,000K on 1 January 2015.

4. Help For Businesses -Corporation Tax From April 2014 the main rate of corporation tax will be decreased to 21%, small companies rate remains at 20%.

5. Help For Businesses - Apprentices Making it cheaper for businesses to employ young people by abolishing National Insurance contributions for under-21s earning below £813 per week. TIP Make sure you get your apprentices contract RIGHT.

6. Help For Businesses - Small Business Rates relief Businesses in England whose property has a rateable value of less than £18k (£25k in London) will be able to apply for a reduction in business rates through the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme for another year. Small Business Rate Relief Scheme NOTE: Only businesses who apply to their local authority in England can be included in the Small Business Rate Relief scheme (it is automatically given in Wales) However, research suggests that fewer than 50% of eligible businesses have applied in England.

7. Help For Businesses - Employee Ownership Scheme Following the announcement of new employee-ownership schemes, the Government has pledged extra money to give businesses that choose this option funding so they can design and develop their own training programs.employee-ownership schemes

8. What is an employee-owner? This arrangement essentially gives employees a financial stake in their firm's growth and success through tax-free shares. In exchange, the worker sacrifices some of their employment rights. Employee- owners could be given shares in a company of between £2,000 and £50,000. Any increase in value of these shares will not be subject to capital gains tax. It is an entirely voluntary arrangement, so neither employers nor employees will be required to offer or accept such an arrangement.

9. Employee-owner employment rights Employees taken on this way will have all of the rights associated with other employees except for: -Unfair dismissal rights (apart from automatically unfair dismissal or dismissal on grounds of discrimination) -Rights to redundancy pay -Certain statutory rights to request training -The statutory right to request flexible working -Employee owners will have to give more notice to if they want to return from maternity or adoption leave early. An employer will still be able to choose to offer more rights to their staff (e.g. the right to request flexible working or higher levels of contractual redundancy pay), but this is at their own discretion.

10. Help for Families Personal Allowance to increase to £10,000

11. Help for Families The Fuel duty increase as announced in the last budget which should have increased in September 2014 has been cancelled; this should save approximately £405 per family.

12. Help for Families Introducing the married couples transferable tax allowance, benefitting eligible couples by up to £200 in 2015-16 (only applies to couples where one is paying tax at the basic rate with the other earning nothing or below the Personal allowance). Increase of the personal allowances by £1,000.

13. Don’t forget -Loans to participators, consider the date and the amount repaid, don’t fall foul of the bed and breakfasting rules. -Pension Auto Enrolment – do you know your staging dates, are you ready!

14. 7 Christie Fields 7 Christie Way Christie Fields Manchester M21 7QY Tel: 0161 249 5040 Email: partners@leonherman.co.ukpartners@leonherman.co.uk