December 18, 2009
Filed under: IT,Legal — Alan @ 8:52 am
SMEs are facing large penalties for failing to follow new procedures that were set in place to protect the credit card details of their customers.
The rules state that all businesses must be able to prove that debit and credit details are kept in a central location that is safe from fraud, such as in an approved electronic database.
However, most small business owners say that they would be happy to follow the rules, if there was more information about how to regulate or implement an appropriate system.
SMEs that are in violation of the rule must pay fines that are around a few pence for every transaction that comes through their store. This of course adds up to a much larger amount by the close of the year.
The main complaint is that the fines are not properly being assessed, with some banks failing to flag the fines, and other businesses facing fines even though they are in compliance with the new regulations.
National chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses John Wright stated that the new measures were put in place to help improve data security but that small businesses were not considered when they were first introduced.
Even more disturbing perhaps is the fact that the banks that provide processing services to UK businesses have full discretion over how much they want to charge SMEs for breaking the rules. Among the banks in the UK that asses fines are Lloyds, RBS, and HBOS.
November 3, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:34 am
Wales businesses will soon get a break on their rates, with the announcement that the assembly government plans to decrease the amount many small businesses will owe in 2010.
SMEs were worried about upcoming bill hikes after it was recently evaluated that rateable values would soon rise.
Now the Welsh government is addressing the problem by lowering the rate at which SME’s bills are calculated at.
The Federation of Small Businesses stated that they are pleased with the new announcement and that many SMEs were worried after receiving revaluation notices that stated their bills would increase in the next year from the Valuation Office Agency.
The new rates will be lowered for SMEs from .489 to .409.
Wales’s chair of the FSB, Janet Jones, stated that the organization is welcoming the news but stating that they are still cautious to see what its results are. Jones continued to say that the FSB has worked hard to see a reduction in rates and they are glad to see the Government finally take notice.
A spokesman for the assembly government stated that they were not able to delay the revaluation of property, but can reduce the multiplier to make its results more suitable for business owners.
October 30, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:35 am
The FSB, Federation of Small Businesses, has petitioned the Chancellor not to hike taxes in their latest pre-budget report, amidst fears that higher taxes may lead to a greater rate of unemployment.
In the submission, the FSB points to a report performed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) that shows that raising taxes costs UK businesses billions of pounds, which in turn leads to businesses being forced to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The hypothetical report by the CEBR shows that a simple 1p increase in employer national insurance can result in massive job losses without actually helping out public finances in a significant manner.
Additionally, the FSB is asking that corporation taxes be reduced so that small businesses are rewarded with incentives if they hire more staff.
According to the CEBR report, if the Government were to raise corporate taxes on small businesses from 21% to 26%, 100,000 jobs would be lost from SME’s, reducing the economic output of these businesses by £4.3 billion, which in turn would only help reduce the deficit of the public sector by around £1.6b over a period of ten years.
Additionally, the FSB would like to see the VAT rise delayed as well.
September 19, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:17 am
In an age where the post office is quickly being replaced by digital mail, the Federation of Small Businesses has proposed that post offices should be transformed into business hubs so that they do not disappear in the near future.
The FSB says that small firms use PO’s on a regular basis and they should receive better service than the PO s are able to provide at the moment.
It proposes that each PO should have a business desk that has staff trained to specifically offer advice on insurance, government services, banking, and the best way to send and receive parcels.
They also have requested that a Business Link service should be placed in each PO that can give out advice one-on-one the same way that mortgage advisors would, new advertising services, financial services, and the addition of meeting room facilities to aid small start up businesses as they get going.
In summary, the FSB is looking at Post Office locations as the perfect way to build a tangible social network out in the real world.
The FSB says that Post Offices at the core of many communities because not only do they collect letters and parcels, but they also are a great place for small businesses to get together and network. He added that at the moment there is no operational service that meets their needs however.
Turning post offices into the newly envisioned small business hubs will not only preserve post offices but will help sustain the local communities and encourage the growth of small businesses.
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