Monthly Archives: August 2020

Hot Business News Today

VAT on taxi fares, vehicles, fuel and staff travel – what can I claim?

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Originally written by Ben Lobel on Small Business
Small business owners often have a tough time navigating tax and what expenses they can claim VAT on.
Let’s start with Taxi fares. Zero rating of domestic passenger transport does not apply if the vehicle is designed to carry fewer than ten passengers.
Taxi and hire car fares are therefore, standard rated and if the business provider is registrable for VAT, it must charge VAT to customers.
Extra charges for baggage, waiting time, etc are also standard rated as are referral fees from other taxi businesses.
Tips and gratuities given voluntarily are not payment for supplies and are outside the scope of VAT. VAT due is calculated by multiplying the fares, including extras, by the VAT fraction.
Registered persons (such as a standard rated Taxi driver) must issue a VAT invoice to any customer who asks for one.

If the taxi is VAT registered they should issue you with a receipt which includes the VAT registration number, the date and the amount of the fare which will enable you to reclaim the VAT as Input VAT (the VAT added to the price when you purchase goods or services that are liable to VAT).
What else can small businesses claim VAT

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Hot Business News Today

What do SMEs think is the best business bank account?

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Handelsbanken has been voted the clear winner when it comes to what SMEs think is the best business bank account.
The Swedish bank, which has more than 200 UK branches, came top of the leader board in four out of five categories, according to the latest Competition and Markets Authority survey published this month.
The bank was named best for overall service quality (79 per cent); relationship/account management (86 per cent); SME overdraft and loan services (78 per cent); and services in branches and business centres (73 per cent) for the fifth time by the survey.
>See also: Business Banking Resolution Service opens doors in November
However, Barclays beat it to the top spot for online and mobile banking services.
BVA BDRC surveyed nearly 17,000 small business customers between July 2019 and June 2020, asking them if they would recommend their provider to other SMEs.
Mikael Sorensen, UK CEO of Handelsbanken, said: “We are particularly pleased to see this response coming from our SME customers, many of whom we have been working closely with to provide a range of tailored, flexible support.”
>See also: 12 of the best digital banking platforms for small business
Overall service quality – Handelsbanken
Handelsbanken was ranked

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Hot Business News Today

What winning The Start-Up Series meant for me – Scott Lever, Zobi

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
One thing that the coronavirus pandemic has changed is the whole concept of how we work. For many of us, video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Teams means we can work from home. The technology has shown it can work. And many homeworkers are reluctant to go back to the office, with more than one third not believing their employer has done enough to protect their health, according to Aviva.
But businesses are just as vulnerable to homeworkers as vice-versa.
An astonishing 30 per cent of all smart home devices are hacked and right now, over 1.8bn passwords are being sold on the dark web. What this means is that hackers steal passwords, listen in on commercially sensitive conversations and use employees’ home networks to access businesses.
>See also: What winning The Start-Up Series meant for me – Daniel Verblis, The Moving Home Warehouse
Scott Lever began his career at IBM, and over the last 25 years, his roles included head of infrastructure and end user computing for the Houses of Parliament and chief technology officer for The Royal British Legion.
His background in technology, digital transformations and cybersecurity made him realise how vulnerable we all

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