Missing CIS records

 HM Revenue and Customs have confirmed that they will no longer automatically provide anyone with details of payments and deductions made during a tax year unless there is a reasonable excuse to explain why the original  records are information is not available.

Under the new CIS scheme, the contractor should provide a statement to each subcontractor confirming amounts paid and tax withheld from payments made.  This should be done either per payment, or it can be done once a month to each if preferred.  The subcontractor should be invoicing the contractor for work completed and should therefore also have invoices confirming the same details.

In view of this, HM Revenue and Customs have said that requests for missing details from individuals or their agents will only be allowed if it can be demonstrated that they have been back to the contractor concerned to request duplicates, but have failed to obtain the details.  In these cases HM Revenue & Customs will require all of the contractors details so that they can make further enquiries into why the CIS scheme is not being operated correctly.

If you are a contractor who has not been providing your sub-contractors with monthly statements of payments and deductions and you have not been keeping other records of these amounts, HM Revenue & Customs enquiries into this could lead to you losing your own gross payment status, if applicable, in addition to the extra costs and hassles associated with any sort of enquiry into your business affairs.

If you are in this situation and need some clarification of the correct documentation you should be keeping, please contact us.

In a recent report to business owners it was revealed that many business and salespeople do not tell their customers the reason why they are doing what they are doing.

Could this be you?

It's totally understandable that potential customers are sceptical about what they are being offered when you market your products and services. You and I and everyone else are being bombarded with sales and marketing messages all day long.

There's TV and radio adverts, newspaper and magazines, e-mail, direct mail, hoardings, even adds on sight screens of sports arenas or down the sides of tube station escalators - adverts everywhere!

And yes, we get used to seeing those ads and becoming somewhat inoculated against their messages.

Roy Williams, the Wizard of ads, is known for saying “Most marketing messages don't move the needle on the ‘who gives a monkeys’ meter.

e is how you do it differently and get the needle into the ‘action zone’.

Tell them why.

If for example you are offering a client or product discount - tell them why you are offering it.

For example:

“We are clearing out the warehouse to make room for our new product line and because of this you can take advantage of purchasing the older, limited stock at a discount - but you need to hurry to place your order.”

Now, providing that the reason is true then telling customers why is not only good business practice - it makes more sales.

Next example.

If you're offering a product or service, and using one of the eight factors of ethical influence -- the scarcity principle -- then tell your customer exactly why there is a limited time to act -- or why you only have a certain number of the product or service available. 

If there's limited time to act; limited stock of the product or service; limited versions in a particular colour -- say so -- and explain it clearly.

There are many more examples of how to improve your marketing and sales and if you would like a free copy of the report written by Peter Thomson International on ‘The Seven Big Mistakes  That Business Owners And Salespeople Make That Cost Them A Fortune In Lost Sales, Lost Profits And Lost Personal Cash, then e-mail us right away and we will send you your free copy – but hurry – we only have a limited supply.

"When it comes to looking ahead and planning for changes and challenges in the marketplace, Make sure you are reading the signs correctly"

We are delighted to announce that Sarah Tyson our marketing assistant won the English Girls Golf Championship last week at Durham City. Sarah aged 17 qualified 3rd out of 110 girls and went on to win all 5 of her matches eventually claiming the title. The weather throughout the week was windy and raining though this did not effect Sarah from her overall aim.

" There is no reason why anyone would want to have a computer in their home"  Ken Olson, President & Founder of the Digital Equipment Corporation 1977. The Company was later broken up and sold to Compaq in 1998  ( Since acquired by Hewlett Packard 2002).