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Law Society Financial Stability Toolkit

Buy the Financial Stability Toolkit book by Peter Scott from The Law Society and Andy Poole from Armstrong Watson.

Five reasons for couples to include a trust in their wills

If you're reviewing your will, or maybe even writing one for the first time, you may not have thought of including a trust in it. There are several reasons couples may wish to include a trust in their will, from historical practice to forward planning. Here are five reasons you may wish to consider including a trust in your will that you may not have thought of.

Three small changes that could save you a lot of time

In this modern world almost everything happens quicker than ever before, and the old adage ‘time is money’ couldn’t be more true! I say ‘almost everything’ because there’s one thing that consistently takes many a consistently long time; filing a tax return. If you spend too long dealing with your accounts and tax return, you’re not alone.

Could your business really survive the loss of key personnel?

Over the past six years, Legal & General has conducted three waves of research with owners of different sized businesses at varied stages of development.

The research continues to demonstrate a general lack of awareness of business protection, showing that many businesses have not evaluated the potential risks. As an example, Legal & General’s research shows that 40% of businesses will cease trading in less than 12 months if a key person dies or becomes critically ill.

Failure to borrow could hold back growth

I was reading an article in the Independent by David Prosser saying that 'SMEs who fail to access external finance can expose themselves to just as much risk as firms which borrow too much.' Research has found that almost half of all SMEs now are a 'permanent non-borrower', meaning they are not currently using external finance, and have not done so in the past five years. It also means they have not applied or wanted to apply for finance over the past 12 months, and have no plans or desire to apply in the next three months.

Advisory fuel rates for company cars - 1 June 2015

These rates apply from 1 June 2015. You can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply.

Grant fund worth £4m available to qualifying businesses in Cumbria

I’ve recently been working with two of my clients who previously secured in excess of £100,000 of grant funding to assist the expansion of their businesses. This funding has enabled both businesses to achieve both growth in turnover and growth in Cumbrian employment, which is great news for the Cumbrian economy.

#AWMoo15 - Cumberland Show

If you were at The Cumberland Show at the weekend you may well have spotted an Armstrong Watson Sterling squeezy cow around the show ground! We had hundreds to give away and asked show goers to send us their selfies with their very own Sterling using #AWMoo15. We had some really good entries, from Sterling at the wheel of one of Lloyd's brand new Range Rover Sport, to Sterling having a cheeky pint, and Sterlings being cuddled and kissed by their new owners.

Is £10,600 the most tax efficient salary for directors?

In May 2014 my colleague David Robinson wrote an extremely popular blog entitled 'Is £10,000 the most tax efficient salary for directors?’ which examined the way in which directors should remunerate themselves from their family company. In the blog, it was identified that a director could receive an additional £164 without any additional cost to the company.

Academies under pressure

Academy school budgets are currently under severe pressure with expected funding reductions, the planned increase in teachers’ pension contributions and increase in National Insurance contributions leading to school reserves being fully utilised.