Orkney Islands Council’s Trading Standards team is warning local businesses about a scam that is currently doing the rounds. The team has had reports of businesses receiving a letter headed ‘’UK – DATA CONTROL – Missing information about your VAT Registration Number’’ with ‘’Scotland Business’’ prominently stated at the top of the first page. The letter says that the sender is looking to update VAT Registration Numbers. However, what the scammers are actually trying to do is

The impact of new tax legislation relating to dividend income on owners of SME’s Until now the most business efficient way of extracting company profits is by its direct-shareholder was to draw a minimal salary and have the cash flow flexibility to draw dividend’s (assuming availability of reserves) For most owner managed businesses this meant that the salary was set at the personal allowance of £10,600 (2015/16) or up to the NI threshold of £8,059 (2015/16). Most tax conscio