Benefits of hot tub servicing
These days, hot tubs are not just a wooden container filled with hot water. Instead they are complex equipment that provides much more than a warm soak. They come with jets that provide massage to different parts of your body, filters that clean the circulating water, pumps that keep the water moving around and electronic controllers that keep everything in control.
The air blowers that provide you with a bubble bath experience is another component that adds to the complexity. The plumbing of the modern hot tub is also more complex as it has to serve the water jets and air blowers in addition to draining and filling the tub.
The modern lifestyle-enhancing hot tub (or spa) also comes with lighting effects and music to keep you entertained during your soak.
Servicing the today’s hot tub requires different kinds of expertise. You need plumbing, electrical and electronic expertise. You also need detailed familiarity with hot tubs themselves and their special problems.
The task is complicated by the fact that there hot tubs in use that are made by many manufacturers with each of them supplying different models. Only years of experience in the field can equip a service provider with the needed familiarity to service all the varied makes and models.
You might decide to call service providers not only when your hot tub has some problem that needs being attended to. You might prefer to avoid the tedious and time-consuming work involved in cleaning the tub, and draining and filling it. These tasks are essential to keep your hot tub experience pleasant and healthy and needs to be done at periodical intervals.
Select your hot tub services provider by checking on their capacity to for all the above tasks. Are they familiar with the particular make and model of tub that you use? Do they have the parts in stock or can they get them at short notice? What do their customers say about their service?
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Managing your Business – Capital Allowances
If you own commercial property, either as an investor or owner occupier; within a corporate entity or as an individual; then the chances are you are amongst the 90% of property owners who have either under claimed or never made a claim for capital allowance tax relief, a relief that you are legally entitled to.
Capital Allowance tax relief is a right and not claiming it represents a real loss of cash and revenue; it is a voluntary claim, complex in nature and therefore, in most cases, either missed or not maximised. It is essential that any claim is managed professionally and by specialists.
Capital Allowances are a relief offset against the highest level of income or corporation tax payable. The allowance is provided against capital expenditure made on a wide range of plant and machinery contained strength in partnership within the fabric of the property that you own or intend to purchase.
The real revenue opportunity lies not only in assessing the level of entitlement on current and future property transactions but also in establishing the entitlement to relief on historical acquisitions and refurbishments on commercial property.
Many individuals and businesses buy properties and do not realise they can claim capital allowance relief on these acquisitions – in some cases where there is a high plant and machinery content, up to 40% of the purchase price can qualify for tax relief.
How does it work?
Capital allowance claims are a very specialist area of tax planning and require a rare combination of tax knowledge and surveying skills in order to correctly identify and maximise the client’s entitlement. In general, most accountancy practices do not retain the services of specialist surveyors and therefore the opportunity is often missed or not maximised. In many cases the accountant only finds out that a property has been purchased after the acquisition has taken place.
Following a survey of the property, the specialists are able to identify how much of the original purchase price and/or refurbishment costs can be apportioned to plant and machinery within the property. In broad terms, up to one third of a property’s purchase price can be apportioned to plant and machinery resulting in the equivalent of a 10% reduction in the real purchase price of the property on the basis of a successful Capital Allowance claim.
On receipt of basic information and after carrying out a ‘desk top’ evaluation, specialist advisors in this tax planning sector will arrange a site visit at no cost to you. If the specialist firm identifies grounds for making a viable claim for capital allowances then they will discuss terms of business and will formally engage with you on the basis that a fee will be charged based upon a percentage of the savings generated or a fixed fee if preferred.
The specialist will carry out a full site survey, collect and collate all of the necessary paperwork with the minimum of disruption to you or your advisors, delivering a detailed claim report for presentation to HMRC by your accountant or on your behalf; generating a tax repayment and/or future tax savings.
The specialist’s fee is payable on completion of the claim in which tax savings have been identified.
Benefits
Managing cash flow – We all know how vital this is to our businesses and revenues especially when economic conditions remain so challenging. Correctly claiming capital allowances will result in either less tax being paid on the next return or allow you to claim a tax repayment.
The service is cost effective – The specialist fee is a percentage of the tax savings generated – therefore it is more than self-funding as it will normally generate cash for you after the fee is paid – no savings, no fees – simple!
Hassle free -The specialist will carry out all of the work and deliver a fully documented capital allowance claim, liaising directly with your accountant if required. No need to use up your time or your accountants time which could be expensive regardless of a successful claim.
Technical
Capital allowance reliefs can be set against the client’s taxable profits reducing the amount payable. Companies pay tax at 21% or 28%, whilst individuals pay tax at 20%, 40% or 50%. Please note as it is an allowance against taxable profit, you have to be a tax payer to benefit, therefore this does not normally apply to property owned in SIPPS or by charities and trusts.
Allowances are generated when a business client builds or acquires commercial property. The amount of plant contained within the build or acquired property is the key to maximising the relief.
The claim should be considered as an effective discount and cash contribution to the construction cost or purchase price. The claim provides a tax saving that accrues over time. It is possible to claim allowances on investment properties but plant let in a “dwelling house” is excluded. Blocks of flats, halls of residence etc will therefore qualify.
For property that is being acquired, the specialist can apportion the purchase price under a recognised HMRC formula, and this is where the inherent property skill can maximise the claim with optimal costing of the plant contained within the property.
Section 198 election – a potential trap
Commercially, it is imperative that you consider capital allowances during a property acquisition. It is the buyer’s right to acquire the capital allowances for the plant within the property, however this can be lost if a S198 election is agreed between vendor and purchaser. This becomes highly material when the relief can be worth up to 10% of the purchase price.
This is the ideal time to involve the tax specialist in contract negotiations with your solicitor – there are real cash savings to be made with just a little forethought and planning.
Important exceptions to claiming Capital Allowances Relief
This relief is not available in the following circumstances;
The buyer is a trader i.e. property developer. This is because the expenditure is on trading account and not being held as a long term asset.
Buyer is a non tax paying entity – trust, charity etc
Buyer is unlikely to be paying tax
How do I identify whether Capital Allowance relief is applicable to me?
If you own or intend to purchase commercial property, spending more than ?150,000 within the following property sectors then there is a strong probability of a successful Capital Allowance claim being made:
Healthcare – care homes, surgeries etc
Leisure – pubs, hotels, restaurants
Motor trade
Offices, retail, industrial units etc
Remember:
Claims can be made retrospectively; specialists have successfully claimed on
property purchased up to 6 years ago.
Capital Allowance Planning is about real cash savings that would otherwise be paid to
HMRC – there are only two outcomes to a successful claim – less tax paid in the future
and/or a tax rebate
No downside to you, no fee charged if savings cannot be identified and you always keep
the lion’s share of the tax saving
Successful claims boost tax yield for investment properties
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MS SQL.offers the most porwerfull features in todays market
MS SQL Server is Microsoft’s offering of an enterprise-level database. It has undergone several revisions to meet changing technologies and user requirements and the current version, MS SQL Server 2008 R2 is a powerful program that can handle different types of data, including multimedia, and provides several new capabilities such as SQL Sever Always On technology and a master database management system.
MS SQL Web hosting involves making MS SQL database and server available to hosting clients for managing their data and queries. Depending on the hosting plan, the client’s database can be hosted on its own separate SQL Server which can be SQL 2008 or 2008 R2, or even SQL 2005. Few hosting companies are now likely to support the earlier SQL 2000 servers.
MS SQL hosting is typically offered along with Windows, IIS and ASP.NET, all Microsoft products. The SQL Server 2008 can come with Windows 2008, IIS7 and ASP.NET 4.5, for example. The 2008 version is 64bit, and developers can issue queries in a managed programming language instead of SQL statements.
SQL 2008 has introduced new data types for date, time and spatial data (e.g. geographical data specified with latitude and longitude). There are several other valuable features such as the ability to manage the databases remotely over the Web using a web-based SQL manager. SQL 2008 R2 comes with tools like SQL Backup, SQL Restore, Shrink SQL and Attach MDF File.
As a commercial product that is constantly updated based on user feedback and changing technologies, MS SQL can meet user expectations better. Additionally, as a Microsoft product, it will work well with the Windows environment most users will be familiar with. MS SQL hosting thus offers not only powerful and up-to-date features but also meets a need many users will have.
Cameron J Sinclair
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Capital Allowance Claims – Section 198
When a person engaged in a “qualifying activity” as defined under section 15 of the Capital Allowances Act sells a building, it can have very serious tax implications both for the buyer and seller. By looking at the issues carefully, it is possible to arrive at a sale agreement that is advantageous to both the seller and buyer. In this article, we look at some examples that bring out the major implications a property sale can have.
Before we start, let us look at the basics. When a building used for a qualifying activity is sold, if the value fixed for the fixtures (“plant and machinery”) in the building is more than the written down value arrived at after deducting capital allowance claimed so far, the seller will be liable to a balancing charge, i.e. the person will have to pay back the tax relief already enjoyed. On the other hand, if there is a loss, no such repayment will be involved. One thing to note that property traders, developers and charitable organisations will not be eligible for any 198 elections, because they are not entitled to claim capital allowances.
If the buyer in a transaction is paying tax at a higher rate, the seller might opt to repay the full relief already enjoyed in return for a share in the higher relief that the buyer will be able to claim. In such a case, the parties might agree to fix the value of the fixtures at its full original value so that the buyer can claim capital allowances to the maximum. This agreement will be recorded in the Election Notice under section 198 and signed by both the parties.
The election can be made subsequently within two years of the disposal transaction. Once made and accepted by HMRC, it cannot be changed.
It is a common occurrence for the seller not to have claimed any capital allowances on the original building purchase. Yet the same seller might have claimed eligible allowanced on refurbishments of the building. Unless the buyer gets a full list of the plant machinery forming part of the building, and also details of the capital allowance claims made by the seller, the buyer might lose substantial amounts in potential tax relief. Buyers should hence insist upon getting full details about these.
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Tax Savings can be gained by Claiming Capital Allowances.
Fixtures are Plant and Machinery that have been permanently fixed to a building or land and enhances the value of the building or land. Plant and Machinery Allowances (PMA) can be claimed on the fixtures, and such claims can be of substantial amounts. What this means is that substantial tax savings can be gained by persons who are entitled to claim the allowances.
It is in this context that the issue of who can claim PMA on the fixtures becomes important. Land and buildings can be leased to a third party who then carries on some qualifying activity using the leased asset. Would such a third party be entitled to claim PMA on fixtures that they do not own?
There is also the issue of the lessee installing a fixture at the person’s own cost. Once this fixture has become a permanent (and not easily removed) part of the building or land, who is the owner of the fixture?
As a rule, PMA can be claimed only by the owner of the plant and machinery. In normal legal sense, the owner of fixtures is the owner of the land or building, i.e. the lessor in case of a lease. However, according to Section 176(1) of Capital Allowances Act 2001, if the lessee has incurred capital expenditure on the plant and machinery that has become a fixture, that person is treated as the owner of the fixture entitled to claim PMA.
Different kinds of elections can be made by the lessee and lessor acting together under which one or the other of these persons can claim PMA. Different rules apply for long-term leases. One major condition is that the two persons should not be persons connected with each other (the presumption being that connected persons might be acting in concert to avoid or minimize tax burden). We will look at these elections in separate articles
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Reseller Hosting vs VPS Hosting
When providing hosting services to your own clients, you normally achieved this in one of 2 ways, either by signing up for a Reseller Hosting plan or by purchasing VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server). There are many things to consider for both these options, and what is good for one person may be a stumbling block for others. It’s all about what you need as an individual or organisation.
The main advantages of Reseller Hosting is that you are using an established service and network and all the configuration is in place and the service is tried and tested. Resellers hosting often has generous allowances and is often the very first step to running your own hosting business. The downside of Reseller Hosting is that you are sharing the service alongside other reseller hosting clients and the servers are setup to best fit the requirements for most users, which although it not a limitation of the service, it can limit the growth of your business and website. Reseller hosting is fantastic if you host multiple websites which are not business critical. If your site is business critical, it is better to step up a level to a VPS.
VPS Hosting effectively gives you your own server to do with as you wish. You can reboot on demand if needed, install your own components and configure every service to your own specification. You are completely isolated, giving you 100% of the resources available. VPS solutions are normally unmanaged, which means you will need some technical knowledge to get up and running. However, most VPS come with an optional control panel system which take much of the work out of setting up your server, although support teams are able and can offer advice and guidance when needed.
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