Is this an end to tax return hell?...or just the start of four tax returns a year?HMRC has revealed more information on how small businesses and the self-employed will be expected to handle their tax in future.It's planning to digitise the process of self-assessment, with taxpayers submitting their figures online by next year.Small businesses and the self-employed earning more than £10,000 a year - including buy-to-let landlords - will be forced to submit accounts four times a year instead of just once.The Fixer: self-assessment tax return HMRC says the changes will make it easier for taxpayers, with software doing most of the work."We know that the majority of businesses want to get their tax right first time, but the latest tax gap figures show that too many find this hard, with more than £8 billion a year lost in tax as a result of avoidable taxpayer error by small businesses," says HMRC's director general for customer strategy & tax design."Making tax digital will help businesses to get their tax right first time; it will help reduce the likelihood of errors, lower the chance of unwelcome compliance checks and give them greater certainty that they are getting things right."Designer

jeans and betting slips among 'ludicrous' expense claims on tax returns However, many of those affected are horrified by the prospect of having to file tax information - and probably pay an accountant - four times a year, rather than just once."HMRC's own research indicates that 400,000 businesses would rather disengage totally from reporting their taxes than transmit their information over the internet to a government body.For those prepared to give it a try, the outlook is 'challenging'," says Jason Piper, senior manager, taxation and business law, for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants."Charities with experience in the sector have warned of the risk of exploitation of vulnerable taxpayers if they have to rely on third parties to handle this aspect of their financial affairs."Canyou cut your tax bill with these little-known rebates?The Federation of Small Businesses has described the government's timetable as 'total fantasy'."Today, small businesses were expecting clarity around how to meet their tax obligations from 2018, and they still do not know what they will face.

Government now needs to take this time to rethink the proposals," says chairman Mike Cherry."To make them work, FSB will push for the removal of businesses with turnover of less than £83,000 from the scheme, and for a phased approach that starts initially with the largest firms.bitcoin historical graphWe will also press for implementation in 2020, not next year."safest bitcoin wallet for macAnd it seems that the vast majority of people affected don't even know that this will be expected of them, with a recent survey carried out by tax software firm 1Tap Receipts revealing that a whacking 94% of the self-employed unaware that the changes are coming in.wiki litecoin minerTen terrible tax excuses Suggest a correction Let us send you our Newsletter Our editors will email you a roundup of their favourite stories from across AOL FOLLOW USbitcoin setup miner

Home  Format  Resources  Infographics: the most exciting thing about bitcoin isn’t bitcoin Infographics: the most exciting thing about bitcoin isn’t bitcoin Written by Banking Tech Print Email Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, but the blockchain protocol behind it can be used for a variety of non-currency purposes.702 bitcoinPeople are using the blockchain to develop everything from ride-sharing services to voting applications to cloud storage.bitcoin wallet was ist dasThis nifty infographics sums up how the blockchain protocol works and how it’s being used.Source: Who is hosting this?View our regional knowledge sites Select location Global Africa Australia Belgium Canada China France Germany Greece Hong Kong Indonesia Italy Japan Kazakhstan Latin America Middle East Morocco Poland Russia Singapore South Africa Tanzania Thailand The Netherlands United Kingdom United States

Home > There have been some interesting moves in our six “charts that matter” this week.Gold Gold has had a nightmare week.Last week when I wrote to you [...] Want to read this article now?Please log in below Username or Email Address Password Remember Me Forgot Your Password?Claim 12 issues of MoneyWeek (plus much more) for just £12!Click here to take advantage of our offer Let MoneyWeek show you how to profit, whatever the outcome of the upcoming general election.Start your no-obligation trial today and get up to speed on: The latest shifts in the economy… The ongoing Brexit negotiations… The new tax rules… Trump’s protectionist policies… We’ll show you what it all means for your money.Plus, the moment you begin your trial, we’ll rush you over THREE free investment reports: ‘How to escape the most hated tax in Britain’: Inheritance tax hits many unsuspecting families.Our report tells how to pass on up to £2m of your money to your family without the taxman getting a look in.

‘How to profit from a Trump presidency’: The election of Donald Trump was a watershed moment for the US economy.This report details the sectors our analysts think will boom from Trump’s premiership, and gives specific investments you can buy to profit.‘Best shares to watch in 2017’: Includes the transcript from our roundtable panel of investment professionals – and 12 tips they’re currently tipping.The report also analyses key assets, including property, oil and the countries whose stock markets currently offer the most value.Minifree used to accept payments via PayPal, but since 7 December 2015, Minifree no longer accepts payments via PayPal.Minifree accepts payments via wire transfer (SEPA, SWIFT, BACS – direct bank to bank transfer), and has done so for some time now.This payment method has proven to be rather popular with our customers already; it is now the only option on the Minifree website.We are philosophically opposed to PayPal and all credit/debit card payment processors, whenever an alternative is viable.

Just to be clear, we are hurting our profits by refusing to use them.That’s how serious we are.We also pay for most of our stock (to our suppliers) via wire transfer.Very few of Minifree’s purchases are done using a debit/credit card, often none.We pay our hosting provider via wire transfer.Here are just some of the things that PayPal does to projects/companies that use it: Really?Just look at this well-known project and what they had to say: There are thousands of stories online.These are just a few examples pulled from a very large proverbial hat.Initially, Minifree had decided to use PayPal because, as is often believed by small start ups, it seemed like an easy option to us, and it looked decent enough since so many other sites use it, even the big ones.It even offered an option for non-paypal-users to pay with a credit/debit card without creating a PayPal account.So we thought, it was acceptable.Minifree apologises on behalf of all of its customers who felt compelled to use PayPal when ordering from Minifree (or Gluglug, Minifree’s previous incarnation) in the past, even if they hated PayPal.

PayPal should never be used.A wire transfer is when you (payee) give your bank account number (IBAN, SWIFT, etc) to the payer.They then give this information to their bank, and tell their bank to transfer the money to your bank account.This has been the standard way of sending money to foreign countries for decades.Wire transfers usually have zero fees for the merchant, and usually low or zero fees for the purchaser (in the UK and other EU countries, it usually costs nothing to initiate a wire transfer).Not only that, but you’re not even taking any private financial details from the customer; this is far more secure by design, and it means that you don’t have to comply with PCI DSS standards, since you’re not taking card payments.Your bank also does not receive any private financial details about your customers.There’s also another advantage: your website no longer needs to process payments.You simply give them your bank account number (IBAN, SWIFT, bank address, etc) and they can start the transfer at their bank without needing to use a computer; this means that there is no risk of proprietary JavaScript being needed at all.

These days, most banks also provide their customers with a method to initiate wire transfers online, so it is virtually the same convenience-wise as debit/credit cards, while being much more secure.It’s much more federated, since your customers will all have different bank accounts with different banks (in different countries); you’re removing an intermediary from the equation entirely.The way to accept wire transfers these days are also pretty much standardised in most of the world.In practise, wire transfers are probably less susceptible to fraud (fraudulent buyers), because getting a bank account is much harder than getting a credit card in most countries, and often involves showing up to a meeting with your bank manager (your face will be on their cameras).In some cases, a wire transfer can also be initiated somewhat anonymously.If you’re in the UK, you can walk into a branch, without a bank account, and pay cash at the counter, giving them Minifree’s sort code and account number, which they will then use to deposit that amount into Minifree’s account.

You only need to specify the correct payment reference (usually the invoice number), and then the payment would be received and identified correctly.This presents similar issues to PayPal.For low value sales, credit/debit cards certainly do make sense, but Minifree mainly focusses on higher-value (laptops, desktops, servers) and is not interested in anything else.For processing card payments, the merchant has to be PCI DSS compliant; basically, they must comply with several security practises.Most merchants outsource to third party card processing facilities (which won’t be mentioned here), typically redirecting to a page on that providers website, for accepting payments.The problem with this is that they often serve proprietary JavaScript.However, the beauty here is that you’re not storing card details yourself, which means that your PCI compliance is quite easy and straightforward.If you want to be absolutely sure that no proprietary JavaScript is used, then you must process (and store) card details yourself.

You would still still typically use a third party (outsourcing company) for actually taking the payments, but you would be able to provide your own interface on your own website for taking details.This means that you yourself can control what JavaScript code is supplied to the user.There are several problems here: Credit/debit card payment processors also typically take a very large portion of your income per sale; typically anywhere between 2-4 percent, usually on the higher end of this scale.It may seem small, but this percentage applies regardless of how much you charge for your products.For high value sales, this can become very expensive.Even if you do meet PCI standards (which you have to) when taking card payments, think about it: you are being trusted to store peoples payment details in your company.Why should you need to do that?Is this not inherently insecure?What if a breach occurs?Cryptocurrencies are generally difficult to deal with, accounting-wise (Minifree is a UK company, and it pays tax to HMRC, the UK’s tax revenue service).

In UK tax returns, you also need to convert everything to GBP for HMRC purposes.This means using a bitcoin exchange, and most of them are shady and untrustworthy (probably no better than PayPal, since they’re not banks so they have less governmental regulations protecting your finances).We do not feel comfortable using bitcoin, even if fiat currency (GBP, EUR, USD, DKK, NOK, RUB, etc) has it’s own share of problems.Our suppliers also don’t use BTC either, so this means we’d be forced to use a BTC exchange if we accepted BTC as payment method.Practically speaking, BTC is a no-no for Minifree at present.However, philosophically speaking, we support it 100% (but we can’t use it, yet).This requires the director of Minifree to show her ID to a cash pickup point, which she doesn’t want to do.Minifree does not accept in-person visits, and sending cash through the mail is not secure.We do not accept cash.If you’re in another country, sending cash also means getting currency converted (for cash, we would only accept GBP), and your bank would charge a lot for the currency conversion; roughly the same amount as they would for a wire transfer.