The Social Media conference in Bracknell was very interesting.  I came back inspired and ready and raring to go.

At the conference someone raised a very valid question....if we all spend so much time on our social media, when will we actually get any work done?  The reply wasn't particularly useful - 'social media becomes your business' (or words to that effect).  Perhaps for certain industries this will be the case.  However I'm not too sure how many clients will be impressed by frequent information regarding HMRC and other useful snippets on Twitter and Facebook if their own returns are filed late!

So it's all about finding a happy medium.  I'm still more enthused reading tweets from Tweeps in an industry which I don't work in!

We now have a Facebook page, and I hope you will choose to 'like' it!

The past couple of months I've been focussing on work rather than social media, but with a bit more available time over the next couple of months watch this space!

 

On Friday I'm off to a Social Media conference in Bracknell to learn all about using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for small business marketing.  I joined the three shortly after working for myself and have been using LinkedIn for business contacts and Facebook for personal contacts, however Lakeview Accountancy has a Facebook page which I'm hoping I will learn how to make better use of on Friday!

I joined Twitter about eighteen months ago, but my first mistake was to follow the BBC News.  At the time I thought it would be useful, but they post a tweet every two minutes and as I only checked my twitter account occasionally, tweets from colleagues and clients just got lost in the stream.

Shortly before Christmas I got an iPhone (could never see the what the fuss was about before!).  What an amazing device!  I now know why everyone raves about them. I downloaded the twitter app and found it a lot easier to check the tweets more regularly without wasting excessive time.

At the same time I 'unfollowed' the BBC News and started to follow some people in fields I actually find interesting.  Now half of the people I follow are useful business related Tweeters (eg HMRC, accountingweb etc) and the remainder are where my interests lie - the theatre!  So Oxford Theatres, Andrew LLoyd Webber, Oliver Thornton, John Barrowman and Michael Ball - I'm following you!

At the conference on Friday I hope to learn more about twitter and how it works, especially with replying to tweets, and retweeting.

If you would like to follow me I'm @lakeviewp.

 

 

My desk has now been relocated next to the window for the past few months and it's great!  Feng shui consultants would no doubt agree that previously having my back to the room and the door wasn't that great, and now I can see the door, the rest of the room and out of the window.

 

There has been lots of bird activity in the garden recently with a new family of sparrows. The parents have about eight babies and watching them feed is very relaxing, even if it is costing us a fortune in bird feed!

 

At the end of April my husband and I went up to London to the CioT (Chartered Institute of Taxation) Admission Ceremony where I collected my certificate and met up with fellow new CTAs.  The event was the day before the Royal Wedding, but the area around the Guildhall in London wasn't as busy as we expected it would be.

 

 

I'm often asked why we named our company 'Lakeview' Accountancy.  Well, shortly before we started the company we purchased an apartment in Austria with the most stunning view of Lake Wolfgang.  It seemed a natural progression to name the company after the fantastic view (see photo).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, like a typical accountant I have failed to maintain my blog for a few months!  I've been getting stuck into tax returns and year end accounts.  Not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it!

 

My new year's resolution last year was to declutter and I didn't do too well on that one.  So this year my resolution is just to declutter the study.  The great plan to move my desk to the window (good for the eyesight to vary between looking at the screen and looking into the distance - honest, not just an excuse to watch the goldfinches in the garden), will hopefully take place early next month.

 

Lakeview Accountancy Ltd was two years old last weekend.  The company has grown from strength to strength and with yet another tax qualification under my belt (Chartered Tax Adviser - the gold standard in tax exams), I think I'll leave off the studying for a while.

 

 

On the news on Saturday evening they reported that nearly 6 million taxpayers had underpaid tax and would be receiving a bill.  The average of these bills was expected to be around £1500 and had been caused by a 'system error' in previous years.

 

We checked out the web for more details, but there was very little available.  It seems there may have been some errors in the PAYE system particularly with tax codes and would mainly have affected those who had more than one source of employment income or had changed jobs mid-year.

 

I would suspect that if you have filed a tax return for 2008-9 you will not be affected as any under or over payment would have been calculated through the return.  However the HMRC information states that letters are also being sent for the tax year 2009-10 for which many taxpayers have not yet filed their returns.  (The deadline being 31st January 2011). 

 

The first letters are likely to arrive today.  Please read the details on our 'Latest News' page to see what you should do if you receive one.  If you have an accountant, please forward a copy of this letter to your accountant as they will not be receiving a copy direct from HMRC.

 

It is essential that you check the detail in any letters you receive from HMRC.  They are not immune from making errors!

 

 

It has been quite an exciting week for Lakeview Accountancy.  Yesterday the BBC's Working Lunch came to film an interview.  Sadly this daily lunchtime business programme is being axed after 16 years and will finish next week.  I emailed in to say how much I would miss the programme and how I had enjoyed it for the last eleven years since I discovered it during maternity leave. 

 

After a phone call on Monday, reporter Simon Gompertz and a cameraman came round yesterday to Windsor to film me discussing what I had gained from watching Working Lunch.  I do wish I had tidied up my desk a little bit more before they arrived!  The interview will be aired next week during their last week of programmes. 

 

I am surprised and disappointed that the BBC have decided to cut this programme as now is the time when the general public are starting to take more interest in tax and personal finance.  The programme itself is so easy to watch, yet serious and covers so many useful issues.  Who knows where the powers that be get their ideas from? Perhaps they will replace it with a similar programme but during prime time on BBC1 !!  We can but hope!  So look out for yours truly next week at 1230 on BBC2!

 

Today is 'Budget Day'.  The first budget from the new government has been eagerly awaited (if with some intrepidation).  Rumours abounded for weeks.  Now we know the contents many are relieved purely because they now know where they stand.

 

VAT is to be increased to 20% from 4th January 2011. This is the measure which will have the most impact on individuals and businesses who sell to consumers.  It does however raise significant funds for the government and is perhaps preferable to tax increases.  Some (although not all) VAT expenditure is a matter of choice.  It will be tough for businesses who sell direct to consumers as they will have to either increase their prices by 2.5% or reduce their profit margins accordingly.

 

On the plus side, at least we have six months notice to prepare for this and to get accounting systems ready.

 

Furnished Holiday Letting rules are being reinstated which means that they will still be eligible for many capital gains tax reliefs including entrepreneurs relief which in itself is having its lifetime limit increased from £2m to £5m.

 

Obviously, the detail is yet to be uncovered and there may be more yet to come out, but the Chancellor opened his speech by promising to tell the British public the hard news rather than hiding it in the small print, so we will just have to wait and see.

 

 

Where has the time gone?  It's already the middle of May, nearly half way through the year!  We spent most of last week fixing the PC.  The hard-drive decided to die at the end of April.  Fortunately we had another PC to continue working on and our online backup turned out to be a lifesaver.  Everything has been backed up online with Carbonite and whilst we waited for the new hard drive to arrive, we were able to access files using the remote access function.  Following the installation of a new hard drive we reinstalled the operating system and all of the software and then recovered all of our data files through the restore programme.  It was such a relief to see everything again, including all of our emails going back many years. Thank you Carbonite!

 

Off to Warwick University this weekend for a Tax conference.  Hope to pick up some useful gems for tax planning.  The Budget this week was pretty straightforward with no earth shattering news.  Most of it we already knew about.  Not increasing the tax bands means less for everyone in real terms when you take inflation into account, but at least it isn't as painful as a tax increase which is visible from the start.  But as they say, the devil is in the detail and we will have to wait and see what has yet to come to the surface which wasn't in the headlines.

 

Lakeview Accountancy has been investigating mobile broadband.  We want to be able to take our laptop out and about and on occasions access the internet where there isn't a free wifi connection available.  No UK provider seems able to offer this.  Vodafone have a dongle for £25 with 3GB, but it, and any further top ups expire after 30 days.  What a waste!  We may only need it on occasions. Why can't they do one which is valid for a year?  We have a dongle with A1 which we use in Austria and that costs approx 20 euros for 1GB but it is valid for a whole year, so if it is only being used occasionally it works out very good value.  With Vodafone we would need to pay £15 every 30 days just to use it one day a month.  We can thoroughly recommend the A1 dongle to anyone who needs to use mobile broadband abroad, it's certainly cheaper than using a UK dongle.

 

Lakeview Accountancy Ltd will be one year old tomorrow!  It has been an enjoyable year and we have met so many new and exciting clients.  I would hate to work for a large organisation and be a small cog doing the accounts for a company which made widgets.  I need to, and want to be able to understand the products and services of our clients.  It makes the numbers come alive. It's great to work alongside clients as their company grows and to be part of the team which enables that.  With experience in management accounting and compliance it means we can provide the whole package to a small company as their own finance department.  Here's to the next year of Lakeview Accountancy!

 

The last two weeks have been very strange with more snow than the UK can remember.  Most of us don't remember schools being closed when we were that age and the weather was bad.  Fortunately for me, working from home has meant there were no disruptions and all tax returns are scheduled to meet their deadlines. 

This morning I'm off to a networking meeting in Maidenhead.  'Ladies Who Latte' is purely for ladies (sorry guys!) and only costs the price of a cup of coffee (or drinking chocolate if you prefer!).  Around 30 local women meet to swap business cards and discuss what is going on in their particular industry.  It is a lovely atmosphere and the ladies are all very supportive to each other.  It's also a great opportunity to get out of the house and away from the desk!

 

Happy New Year!  My New Year's Resolution this year is to de-clutter.  Working from home it's important that everything is neat and organised, so we've bought a big shredder and started with reducing copious amounts of paperwork.  Financial documents for a company need to be saved for at least six years, but I really don't need to keep all the Tescos receipts from 2004!   2010 is a new decade, so with positive thinking and lots of hard work (and hopefully less clutter!) Lakeview Accountancy and our clients are all looking forward to 2010!