Cantium Accountants, founded by Andrew Bradley in 2002, has been a trusted and well-established firm in the Tonbridge community for more than two decades.  With Andrew planning for retirement, we were honoured to be chosen as the firm he felt would best look after both his clients and his dedicated team.

A smooth transition and continuity for clients

One of the most important aspects of this acquisition is continuity.  We are delighted that three members of the Cantium team, Jana, Gillian, and Simla, have transferred to Spurling Cannon and will continue supporting clients day-to-day from the Tonbridge office.  Many clients will already know them well, and we are pleased to ensure the familiarity and personal service they’re used to will continue.

The Tonbridge office is now headed up by Sam Graham, one of our Directors, who grew up locally and is excited to return to an area he knows well.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to know Cantium’s clients and supporting local businesses across Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells,” says Sam. “Our goal is to provide the same approachable, personal service clients expect, with the added benefit of the wider resources, expertise and specialist knowledge available across Spurling Cannon.”

A positive milestone for Andrew Bradley

Andrew Bradley, founder of Cantium, has been working closely with Sam and the team over the past few months to ensure a seamless handover.

“This was an important decision for me as I approached retirement,” Andrew explains. “What mattered was finding a firm whose ethos matched ours, professional, friendly, and focused on doing things properly. I’m confident our clients and staff are in very safe hands with Spurling Cannon.”

Andrew will remain involved until late December to support the transition before beginning a well-earned retirement.

Strengthening our presence across Kent

The acquisition of Cantium Accountants is an exciting next chapter for Spurling Cannon.  With established offices in Ramsgate and Charing (Ashford), the opening of our Tonbridge office expands our footprint across Kent and strengthens our support for individuals and businesses in the region.

As an independently owned firm with more than 70 staff and nine Directors, we continue to grow while maintaining the personal, approachable ethos that has been at the heart of Spurling Cannon since 2003.

Looking ahead

We are committed to investing in the Tonbridge office and have plans to expand our team and services there in the coming year.  Whether you are a long-standing Cantium client or new to Spurling Cannon, we are excited to work with you.

If you have any questions about the transition, or if you would like to arrange a conversation with Sam or the Tonbridge team, please feel free to get in touch.

Welcome to the next chapter for Spurling Cannon.

Many of our employees and directors personally volunteer in a range of charitable organisations and service clubs such as Rotary, Roundtable and Scouting. Several hold trustee or director positions within various charities and community organisations. We therefore have extensive and practical experience in all aspects of running a charity, from day-to-day fundraising and administration, to financial and strategic planning and risk management. This has certainly helped us better understand our clients in the 3rd sector.

The Fund has enabled us to strengthen our ties with the local community and to raise money for local charities and community groups with meaningful and useful projects.

All of the monies raised by the fund are donated directly to the chosen organisation and all of the running costs are covered by Spurling Cannon

We endeavor to publish our community news and more in our newsletter which you can obtain by simply subscribing at the bottom of the page and we also provide up to date information via our Facebook, Twitter and social media pages links for which can again be found below.

In 2012/13 we supported the Pilgrims Hospices in East Kent, and through a number of fundraising activities and events, including our annual golf day, which was a great success, we were able to donate £1,708.31 to the charity.

http://www.pilgrimshospices.org/news/spurling-cannon-supports-pilgrims-hospices/

In 2013 /14 we supported East Kent hospitals Charity, and in particular funds were raised for the special care baby unit at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate. We managed to beat our previous years total and presented a cheque to the Special Care Baby Unit for £2,696.74

http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/Accountants-raise-thousands-QEQM-Special-Care/story-22051602-detail/story.html

In 2014/15 we supported the Kent Air Ambulance and raised £2,663.00.

In 2015/16 we supported Catching Lives, a Canterbury based Charity supporting homelessness in Canterbury. Despite a very wet Golf Day we raised £2,125.85

www.spurlingcannon.co.uk/blog/community-fund/spurling-cannon-charity-golf-day-2015/nicola-sait/

In 2016/17 we will be supporting the Canterbury Oast Trust, which is a Charity which supports adults with learning disabilities. Our Golf day has been booked for 16th September 2016 at Broome Park Golf Club, to take part or support this event please contact us.

Below is a summary of the charities that the community fund has supported and amounts raised.

The government recently announced an extension to the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS). The first grant covered a three month period to 13 July 2020. The second grant will cover the three months commencing 14 July 2020.

Those eligible for the first quarter must have claimed SEISS by 13 July 2020.

Can you claim for the second period commencing 14 July 2020?

If you received a grant for the first period this does not give you automatic rights to claim for the second period.

There are two things you will need to consider:

• Are you eligible, and
• Do you meet the qualifying condition?

If you qualified for the first grant, to 13 July 2020, you would likely qualify for the second grant. However, you will need to consider the qualifying conditions.

What are the qualifying conditions for the second grant under SEISS?

The qualifying conditions are the same as those for the first grant, but because time has moved on, you may have qualified for the first grant but not the second.

You will need to consider if your self-employment continues to be adversely affected by COVID disruption after 14 July 2020. The factors that you should examine are:

• Have government regulations had an adverse impact?
• Have regulations affected your staff or customers?
• Restrictions mean you cannot organise your work or workplace to allow staff to work safely.
• You cannot serve customers due to social distancing.
• Your supply chain is affected.
• You have lost contracts.
• You have fewer or no customers.

Additionally,

• You may be ill or obliged to socially distance.
• You may have had to care for others and unable to work.

If you do not fit any of the above criteria, for the three months beginning 14 July 2020, you may not be eligible to make a further claim under SEISS.

How do you make a claim?

On 17th August 2020, the government will open a portal on their website so you can repeat the process you had to undertake to claim for the first grant. If you are unsure how to do this we can help.

What if I could not claim for the first grant but circumstances have changed?

If you were not able to claim for the first SEISS grant to 13 July 2020, but you are now adversely affected – and you meet all other eligibility criteria – you should be able to claim the second grant.

If you need any help please contact us at hello@spurlingcannon.co.uk

For very many people, finances have suddenly become much more of a worry than we would have imagined little more than a month ago.

With their customers effectively in lockdown due to the Coronavirus, even successful enterprises are finding that a collapse in Turnover is putting the future of their businesses at risk.

It’s little wonder then that the over 55’s are looking at the pension savings that they have built up over many years, as a source of vital funds.

The “Pensions freedoms” brought in by George Osborne mean that pension pots can in many cases be easily accessed.   Whether it’s a good idea to encash substantial pension savings now when the market value of the underlying investments has recently taken a large hit is not discussed here.  Neither is the question of what income will be left for retirement if those savings are encashed now, although both of these questions deserve careful consideration.

If I cash In my Pension Savings, how will this be Taxed?

And How will it affect Benefits I claim such as Tax Credits, Universal Credit and Child Benefit?

Normally if someone encashes a pension policy or part of a pension policy, the first 25% will be tax-free.  Anything above that is counted as taxable income, which is where a number of pitfalls come into place.

Firstly if this takes your income over £50,000 the excess will generally be taxed at 40% and if it takes your income over £100,000 the rate of tax on the encashment will be higher still.  Many people find that the pension companies will deduct tax at an emergency rate and the excess tax deducted will have to be claimed back later.

If someone is claiming Universal Credit or Tax Credits they will find that the “taxable income” arising from their pension encashment is counted as income, when those benefits are considered, so that the Benefits available may be severely affected.  Tax Credits in particular are often paid in advance, with a “clawback” after HMRC have been informed of the pension encashment.

A further significant aspect to be considered is in connection with households where Child Benefit is being claimed.     If a significant pension pot is cashed in, and as a result the individual’s taxable income goes over £50,000 then part or all of the child benefit may effectively be payable back to the Government through the “High Income Child benefit Charge”.  This is declared to HMRC via the annual Self-Assessment Tax Return.

What should also not be forgotten is that once someone has taken pension benefits, in general this severely restricts the future tax-relievable pension contributions they are able to make.

There is a great deal of sensible advice and explanations in connection with pensions generally on moneyadviceservice.org.uk

When considering action in relation to these matters we recommend consulting a Financial Adviser to discuss how the rules apply to you personally.

In 2018-19 HMRC collected £34.1 billion through compliance activity.

How is HMRC collecting more money? HMRC’s Connect System is an £80m investment programme and now contains over 22bn lines of data. HMRC claims that any information received by them concerning any individual tax payer can now be linked to the taxpayer’s file in minutes.  

As you can imagine, HMRC investigations are immensely time consuming and highly stressful. Then there are the professional fees to carry the fight to HMRC.

Where we come in

No-one can prevent an investigation, but out tax investigations package:

• Will remove your concerns about the cost of an enquiry
• Ensure you receive the best defence so that your tax position is protected
• Enable us to challenge HMRC’s assertions and assumptions head on
• Ensure that the basis of any enquiry is corrected and that your case is handled fairly
• Handle all communications with HMRC, including letters, phone calls or notices issued
• Ensure the tax inspector is only asking for relevant information and documents and provide all supporting information from our files that relates to your accounts
• Prepare for and attend any face-to-face meetings with the tax inspector
• Argue any complex or technical tax cases that are raised during the enquiry

So whether it’s a PAYE or VAT visit, a technical enquiry or full blown books and records enquiry, our tax investigations service is designed to get you the best result.

That’s why we strongly recommend that all of our clients subscribe.

For your information pack, call 01843 848383 or contact info@spurlingcannon.co.uk