Business Technicians is delighted to announce that we have been approved to use the Cairngorms National Park branding in our marketing material. It is great to be contributing to the economic growth of the park and looking forward to using the branding on future promotions.

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

We are delighted to continue with our complimentary marketing audit. This provides a review of your marketing and some key suggestions for improvement. For more details contacts us today.

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

Then think about your current customers. They are your easiest ‘sell’. Having bought from you before they know your company, they know you and they know your products and services. So why not tell them again. Use your existing marketing channels – Facebook, Twitter, website, customer database.

It doesn’t have to cost a lot either. Social media sites are free all it needs is a bit of your time and putting an email together for your existing customers also just take a small amount of your time.

You will no doubt have something new to tell them be it a new or improved service or product, new skills in your team or a company success let your customers know about it as you never know when your communication will come at the right time for them to engage with your business again.
 

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

A new taskforce to tackle tax dodgers in the Scottish restaurant trade was announced last week by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

The specialist team will undertake an intensive burst of compliance activity in the coming weeks targeting high risk businesses.

The taskforce has come as a result of the Government’s £900m spending review investment to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud from 2011/12, which aims to raise an additional £7bn each year by 2014/15.

The taskforce is going to focus on the restaurant trade over the next few weeks and stresses that if you are up to date with your tax then you have nothing to worry about. It is aimed at those who deliberately evade tax.

If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact Business Technicians who can review your current tax liabilities.
 

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

Have you been frustrated by marketing efforts that produce little
results?

Are customers confused or unaware of what you offer?

If you answer ‘Yes’ to any of these then having expert marketing input from Business Technicians into your business will let you and your
business meet and exceed your objectives.

Business Technicians are offering a complimentary marketing audit of your current marketing activity and will provide you with up to 5 key improvements to get the most out of your current activity.

For more information contact Jennifer on 07738 966588 or click here. We look forward to hearing from you.

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

What are you doing to ensure that you maintain your existing customer base and bring in referrals. At Business Technicians we will carry out a review of your current customer database and look at how and when you are contacting these customers. We will consider how clean you data is and look at your requirements for meeting the Data Protection Act 1998.

Using your current customer base is a cost effective way to bring in business on a regular basis.

Contact Business Technicians today for a review.
 

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

Personal Tax and mileage allowance

The Chancellor confirmed this year’s personal tax allowance 2011/2012 at £7475 increasing to £8105 in April 2012.
Plus the approved mileage allowance payment rates for 2011/2012 will increase to 45p per mile from the 6th April 2011. As a reminder you can claim mileage as long as your income is below the VAT threshold at the time of buying your current vehicle.

Corporation Tax

The Chancellor is also reducing corporation tax over the next two years with the main rate of corporation tax being 26% for the financial year commencing on the 1st April 2011 and 25% for the financial year commencing on the 1st April 2012.

VAT

The threshold for which a person or company must register for VAT will increase to a taxable turnover of £73,000. This is an increase on the 2010/11 threshold of £70,000.

For more details on how this year’s budget will affect you and your business give us a call.
 

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

Business Technicians is delighted to announce that Jennifer Macdonald-Nethercott is joining the team to provide marketing consultancy. Jennifer has over 10 years experience within the tourism, hospitality and motor industry’s and is a Chartered Marketer. This means Business Technicians will be able to provide companies with financial and marketing solutions from business planning, book keeping, payroll and marketing planning and implementation. “I am delighted to be joining the team at Business Technicians and look forward to the challenges ahead” commented Jennifer.
 

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The deadline for 2010/2011 is the 19th May 2011 that employer annual returns for PAYE have to be filed online.

From this year all returns will have to be filed online and HMRC will fine if returns do not hit the deadline! If you are not already registered just click here to request your user ID.

Alternatively, give us a call and we can talk you through it.

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website

One of our more, shall we say, 'famous' clients (okay, we are bragging here!!!), recently emailed us asking if we would double check that they had completed an HMRC form correctly which had been received in their inbox. 
 

Our client had received an email from HMRC saying that they were entitled to a tax refund and required a form to be completed for the refund process to start. The refund was to be transferred to the clients bank account.
 

My first question was, how can you be entitled to a tax refund when you've barely paid any in years! Ed. Sadly the famous aren't always the rich!

A very quick search on Google confirmed our suspicion that it was indeed a scam, and a very lucky escape for our client. The form to be completed was very detailed including requesting personal information such as Bank Account Numbers, Mothers Maiden Name, Date of Birth and much more. We have to admit, it was very well done and it did indeed look like an HMRC form.

We spoke to HMRC about this, who said they are aware of a numerous scams out there which sadly are very successful, it appears the thought of us getting a surprise windfall back from the government is simply too good to resist.

The reason this keeps happening, and that fraudsters keep pursing this line, is because it just works so well.  While HMRC has a department dedicated to solving this problem, they have not yet managed to eradicate it.

The simple guidance to everyone is please be vigilent. HMRC will never send an email to inform people of tax rebates, nor will they ever ask for personal information via email. If you have received an email claiming to be from HMRC that you suspect may be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.
 

This feed was drawn from the Business Technicians website