Finance and Business Blog

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is urging the Chancellor to have a moratorium on any further major changes to the tax system when he sdelivers his Budget on Wednesday 22 April.

Nick Goulding, CIOT President, said:

“At a time when business and individuals are facing very challenging financial circumstances, they need stability. Part of achieving that is to ensure there is certainty and that the Government works towards a simpler and fairer tax system. If the Government wants to help people by using the tax system, reform needs to be thought through very carefully. A less complex, and therefore simpler, system would be one way to make things easier for the taxpayer.”

“There are many proposals already in progress - Foreign Profits and the continuing review of HMRC’s Powers being the biggest - to give taxpayers and their advisers plenty to deal with as they grapple with the downturn.”

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting and Bookkeeping Software Tool for Contractors and Freelancers

The following petition, in the form of an ‘Early Day Motion’ (EDM), has been started by Lib Dem MP, Lorely Burt, and is open to MPs of all parties to sign.

It reads:

“That this House notes with concern the 10 year anniversary of the Government’s implementation of IR35; further notes that the 1.4 million freelancers in the United Kingdom face a perpetual threat of a costly and distressing HM Revenue and Customs investigation under IR35; further notes that IR35 obliges freelancers to spend time and money assessing their status as best they can, with contract reviews, tax investigation insurances and negotiations with clients and agencies, and that this effort would be better spent generating wealth for the UK economy; highlights concerns expressed by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) that 1,462 of the 1,468 cases known to PCG have resulted in no extra tax being owed; further notes that there is no evidence that IR35 is raising any money for the Exchequer; and calls on the Treasury, in light of the current economic difficulties, to remove unnecessary barriers to enterprise and to abolish IR35 at the earliest opportunity.”

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting Software Tool for Contractors and Freelancers

This month (March 09) sees the release of version 5.5 of Earnings Tracker, which comes hot on the heels of version 5.1. The reason I decided to put out a new release so quickly is because there was a usability issue with version 5.1 (and earlier) that was starting to bug me, as a user of the software.

Default data
When I first introduced the use of static data, my intention was to simplify the process of adding or editing months within Earnings Tracker. I thought that by putting values such as the VAT rate, corporation tax rate, gross salary, etc on a separate page, it would reduce the clutter on other pages.

Unfortunately, it meant that everytime you added or edited a month, to be on the safe side, you need to check the static values. Otherwise, there was always the possibility that the wrong static values would be used in the monthly calculations. As this caught me out on a few occasions, I guessed that it was probably catching other people out.

In version 5.5, static data has been renamed as default data, and is copied onto the form when you add a month. The default data is also available when you edit a month, based on the values the used when you added the month.

This, I hope, offers an elegant solution to the problem.

Context-sensitive help
With version 5.5, I took the opportunity to add some context-sensitive help at window level. There is now a link in the top right-hand corner of each form that, when clicked, opens a page of help that relates to the form.

Unless there are any bugs that need to be fixed in a hurry, I don’t anticipate putting out another release until next year (2010). I have released three or four versions over the last 12 months and I feel it’s time to leave the product alone for a while.

I think in the next release I will allow the entry of multiple salaries. I’ll also have a look at some other products to see if there are any features I think would be useful to Earnings Tracker.

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting and Bookkeeping Sofware Tool for Contractors and Freelancers

Negative equity is when the value of a property is less that the mortgage amount on that property.

For example, if a property is worth £150,000, but the mortgage on that property is £200,000, the owner(s) of that property would have a negative equity of £50,000. In other words, if they sold the property for £150,000, they would still owe the lender £50,000.

Negative equity was a big problem for home owners in the UK in the early 1990s, and is becoming an increasing problem now in 2009.

Of course, you don’t make or lose any money until you sell. Therfore, if you are able to hang onto the property until property prices recover, you can still make a profit.

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting and Bookkeeping Software for Contractors and Freelancers