Preparing for the VAT Increase

We know the standard rate of VAT will increase on 4 January 2011 from 17.5% to 20%, but will your business be ready?

It may be difficult for retail businesses to re-price everything displayed in the store over the New Year break, ready for opening on 4 January. Fortunately the law does allow you to make the adjustment from 17.5% to 20% VAT at the till for up to 28 days after the VAT increase. You do need to notify your customers that you are making this adjustment so have a sign advising customers that a price adjustment will be made at point of sale to reflect the increased VAT, and find time to reprogramme your tills before 4 January!

An alternative approach is to increase all your prices before 4 January 2011 to accommodate the higher VAT rate. If you are having new menus printed for winter, now could be a good time to make the price changes.

Where a customer places an order before 4 January 2011 for goods or services to be delivered after that date, you can generally charge VAT at the current standard rate of 17.5%. To apply the current rate of VAT you must either issue an invoice, or receive a payment before 4 January 2011. You should not artificially advance sales by issuing invoices that are not due for payment for six months or more. You will also be caught by anti-avoidance rules if your business is connected with your customer, or the amount due is £100,000 or more.

If you use the flat rate scheme for small businesses you need to check-out the flat rates that will apply from 4 January 2011, as set out on the HMRC guidance website: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/schemes/flat-rate.htm#5a

You may find that when you apply the new flat rate to the gross sales made on and after 4 January 2011, you will be worse off than operating outside the flat rate scheme. If this is the case you need to inform the VAT office in writing that you want to leave the flat rate scheme. It's easiest if you do this with effect from the start of your next VAT quarter. If you leave the flat rate scheme you can't rejoin the scheme for at least 12 months.

For specific advice on how to deal with the VAT rate change in your business, please contact us or get on to Twitter and Ask Mr P!

Win an iPad!

Well, I always knew that my employers Mazuma were generous folk, but now they've only gone and offered to give away an iPad!

I'm trying very hard not to feel threatened; after all, the iPad is rectangular, stylish and super useful...just like yours truly. However, I do have one significant advantage over the iPad....I'm purple!

Anyway, now you can have the opportuntiy of winning an iPad to accompany your favourite little purple envelope. Smashing!

For me details see the Mazuma website here.

TTFN

Mr P
xxx

My very own page!

It turns out that being a busy little envelope does have its rewards!

Imagine my surprise when I turned up in the Mazuma HQ only to find that one of the humans (a techy one) has created me my very own page on my website!

I've been saying to the humans for ages that I'd like to answer questions on Twitter for free and so they've listened to a humble envelope and set me up my very own page.

I have high hopes and I'm hoping for interesting questions to come through soon, perhaps even some fan mail for Mr P!

Check out my page here and don't forget to follow me on Twitter!

Love,

Mr P
xxx

Scam HMRC emails - don't be fooled!

A Warning from Mr P!

There are some horrible unscrupulous people out there and now they are trying to swindle money out of you by pretending to be the Tax Man!

HMRC is warning of a significant rise in email scams that offer a tax refund. These emails are designed to throw recipients off their guard by warning that the refunds are subject to a deadline which expires in the near future.

Some emails direct you to a website that looks just like HMRC's official one. Others invite you to either complete an online application or to download, complete, sign and then fax it to the number given. Both versions request your full bank or credit card details.

An alternative scam asks you to call a number to check your eligibility to the refund. Callers will hear a dialing tone but while waiting for an answer they will be charged £6 a minute!

HMRC has not yet adopted email as a way of communicating with the public, so treat any email offering you a tax refund as suspicious and report it to HMRC.

We have seen a significant number of our clients receiving these emails. They look very realistic and even a person who is as savvy as a purple envelope could be fooled by them.

As a general rule, if you are even slightly concerned that an email may be malicious, don't open any files attached to it, click on any links it contains, or telephone any numbers given within it.

Phew, I'm glad I've told you all that, now spread the word. It's hard enough handing money over to the real Tax Man, let alone a fake one!

Love,

Mr P
xxx

Things you'd never do yourself...

There are some things in life that most of us would never dream of doing ourselves unless we had the appropriate skills and knowledge. I have compiled a list of some of them here for your enjoyment!

• Re-wire your own house


• Cut your own hair


• Represent yourself in court


• Give yourself a filling or root canal surgery


• Remove your own appendix


• Personally hand deliver your own letters


• Service your own car


• Test your own eyes and then buy glasses based on your results


• Build your own extension from drawings prepared by you


• Clean your own chimney

The one glaringly obvious ommission from this list is..... you guessed it....

Prepare your own Accounts and Tax Returns!

I won't bang on about it too much, but come on folks! When you can get Mazuma to do it from only £17 a month with their Purpleforce service, why on earth would you want to do it yourself?

'nuff said!

Over and Out,



Mr P



xxx

The Mazuma Promise

It's all well and good saying you'll provide this and that as a business, but where are the solid promises? Lots of Accountants can't even tie themselves down to how long it will take them to do your bookkeeping and Accounts, let alone make any promises over and above that!


Well, fear not! As always, Mr P has had a word with our Accountants and seeing as customer service is at the heart of our business, we have made a set of promises to our customers.

The Mazuma Promise...

We promise to keep our fees fixed, fair and affordable. We would never charge you based on how much you earned in a year or send you an unexpected invoice.


If you email, text or call us through our dedicated help lines, we promise to respond to you within one business day.


We promise that all our staff are qualified to do the work they do. Whether it is bookkeeping, accountancy or tax advice, our staff range from qualified bookkeepers through to Accounting Technicians and Chartered Accountants, so you'll always have the right person doing the right job for you.


We structure our business so that you get the best possible customer service. This means that if your usual point of contact is away on holiday, that you'll still be able to get an answer to your question.


We promise to speak in Plain English! We don't believe in blinding our clients with jargon.


Finally, we promise to always remember that our clients are the most important part of our business. Without our clients we wouldn't be here and we promise never to forget that!


Now, you can't say fairer than that can you?

TTFN,

Mr P
xxx

Try us out for free!

As a savvy little envelope I know that the words "free" and "accountant" usually mix together about as well I mix with a shredder! Once again, I have put my foot (well ok, flap) down and told Mazuma that they are so blooming brilliant that people should get the chance to meet one of my purple envelope colleagues for free!

Guess what? They listened! Now you can try out Mazuma's Purpleforce service without having to hand over a single penny!

We know that changing your Accountant, or even hiring one for the first time can be a bit scary.

We know that because we work so differently from standard Accountants, that you might be a little bit nervous about signing your accounts over to us. Isn’t it better the devil you know?!

No! Because we also know that our services are second to none!

So, why not try us out for free?

The taster pack will give you an idea of how our services work and you’ll see the quality of service and speed at which your accounts are processed and your documents are returned to you.

All you have to do is fill out the form, pop your documents in the Freepost envelope provided and send it off to us. In about 5 working days you’ll get your accounts back, simple!

There is absolutely no commitment, no ulterior motive and no catches! We just want you to see what a life of hassle-free accounting would look like for you with Mazuma!

So, go and Get A Quote , put the word "FREE" into the promo code and I will personally instruct one of my envelope buddies to go and see you!

Well, that's another day revolutionising Accountancy under my belt, I wonder what I'll get up to tomorrow?!

TTFN

Mr P
xxx

How many envelopes does it take to grow an accountant?

Goodness! What a busy week I've had at Mazuma HQ! Literally thousands of my envelope colleagues left the building yesterday, off out on a mission to help small businesses with their accounts.

For those of you lucky enough to be visited by one of us, you might just get something a little like this in the post:

Now don't be alarmed, it's not too difficult, you'll just have to follow these instructions:

Just joking! Of course Accountant seeds don't really exist, but I am trying to get you all to think a little more about what one of us Purple Envelopes could do for you. You see, we don't ask you to slot into our time scales, or charge you unexpectedly, or make you use a spreadsheet or a bit of software. You just have to give us all your accountancy bits and bobs and we'll sort out the rest - marvellous stuff!

Of course, as I have said many times before, being a bit different means that lots of Accountants (especially the ones who look like the chap on the seed packet!) really don't like me very much. I try very hard to stay purple and not let it make me feel blue, but sometimes it can be very difficult. If I had tear ducts instead of an adhesive strip, I might cry a little bit.

Still, I visit so many wonderful small businesses that I never let it get me down for long! In fact, I'm planning on getting out and about much more over the summer months so if you'd like a visit then just message me on Twitter. You can't miss me, I'm the purple envelope called @MrP_Mazuma!

Well, I'd better shuffle off and get Lowri's office tidied up for her. She's been away on holiday so I've been using her office but ssshhhhh, don't tell her!

The cheeky little paperclips had a party last night and invited the shredder along. Needless to say there is shredded paper and unclipped paperwork everywhere and the post-it notes have hidden in the kitchen with the tea spoons by way of a protest.

Honestly, an envelope's work is never done!

Over and Out

Mr P
xxx

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...apparently!

Being a trend setter is great. Everyone wants to be an innovator and not a follower, but whilst it's great to stand out in a crowd, one of the disadvantages of being distinclty different is that people want to copy you. Just look at Madonna, Michael Jackson, Jedward and the like. It's flattering when people like what you do, but when it comes down to business there are rules about this stuff!

As an envelope in the field I get out and about quite a lot. I love meeting other businesses, I even love meeting other accountants when there is a mutual respect for eachother's market! What makes me absolutely purple with rage (although you could never tell) is when other accountants steal my ideas!

Sadly this is not a new occurance. Over the years I've sent out many a letter to naughty folks stealing our hard work. This can range from copying text from our website and tweaking it for their own purposes, to copying our packages and services, to actually pretending to be us!

The thing is, there's only one Mr P and my alliances lie firmly with my employers Mazuma. I know that I'm in demand, many have tried to woo me over the years with the promises of a bigger letter tray, special delivery postage or my own PA (paper assistant), but the fact is that Mazuma were the first to see my potential and envelop me into their world.

So, to all you cheeky scamps who think that you can slip under my radar; be warned! Pilfering text from our website is not just naughty, lazy and unimaginative, it's also illegal! If you care enough to start your own business then at least care enough to come up with your own ideas. We care about our intellectual property and if you nick it, you might just have a rather angry little envelope through your letterbox very quickly!

Over and Out!

Mr P

xxx

How I Keep Accountancy Costs Low!

You'd think that being an envelope wouldn't give me much sway when it comes to pricing decisions, but you'd be wrong! Yep, us envelopes are in fact the very reason that we keep all the accounting costs low.

Now, it's not just because we are so efficient that we can do this, and it's not just because we are so marvellously clever either (although that does help). The main reason is.....

We're not greedy!

The sad fact is that lots of accountants have been charging far too much for their services for years, and because people tend not to question their accountants (they're super clever, right?), or shop around for another one (why bother, they're all the same....), they never realise that they are being seriously over charged!

I met a man recently who came to me for a quote, which I gladly gave him and he was very pleased with the saving he'd make. However, he said that he'd been with his accountant for nearly 20 years and wanted to see if they could provide him with a similar quote. As it goes, they did, but this didn't make him happy at all. They matched my quote by more than halving theirs, which rather than make the man happy, just made him wonder why they had been charging him so much for all these years. I'm pleased to say that he's now a very happy client of mine, as are some of his friends, although it would seem that his old accountant isn't too eager to be my friend himself!

Want to know a secret? Many medium sized accountancy firms deliberately charge small businesses too much to put them off using their services! They don't do it because they are mean, they do it because small businesses aren't their target market and so they can't afford to do it for less. Now this might not make them mean, but I think it does make them a little bit greedy! They should just make a good arrangement with some smaller accountancy firms who cater for the market they don't want, rather than charge their smaller customers high fees! I may only be a stationery item, but I can see the value of a good strategic partnership, so why can't they?!

We only do work for the market we love - small businesses! That is how us envelopes keep the accountancy costs so low for you, by not being greedy. Clever eh? (Well, it's actually just common sense....)

It's a bold thing for me to say, not many have had the courage to say it before me and I hope that me revealing this doesn't land me in the nearest shredder! I'm willing to take the risk though. If it means that just one small business questions why their fees are high, or more importantly, what they actually get for their money and if it's right for their business, then I'm a happy envelope!

Right, I'm off to organise my paperclips; every time I turn my back the little blighters leap from the holder and scatter themselves across my desk!

Mr P
x

The Blogging Envelope!

Well people, here I am. Possibly the world's first envelope blogger. And I don't mean I blog about envelopes (gosh now that would be dull). I am Mr P, the original ambassador for Purpleforce, the monthly accountancy service offered by Mazuma. I am the the most useful envelope to ever get pushed through your letterbox, as I can provide you with monthly bookkeeping and management accounts and I can even sort out all your scary Year End stuff too!

All you need to do is pop everything into one of my brothers or sisters every month, post it to us and let Mazuma do the rest.

My wonderful employers here at Mazuma have let me loose on the world, in order to blog about my exploits as a Purple envelope. It really is a lot of fun! I get to go all over the country delivering accounts to clients anywhere from Aberdeen to Portsmouth. I meet fantastic, talented people and I have become an integral part of many successful businesses.

So please drop by anytime you want to read my blog, which will range from the informative to the frivolous, and will let you lucky readers see life from a busy envelope's point of view. For those of you who like their information in 140 character soundbites can also find me on Twitter @MrP_Mazuma, where I update my loyal followers with my daily antics, both massive and mundane.

Who knows where my travels will take me next, but I'll be sure to keep my readers informed and entertained with my Purplexploits!

TTFN!
Mr P.
xx