In business, it's good to know who you're working with. It's quite easy for someone to say "I'm a company director", but how do you know you're dealing with a reputable person or company? The Companies House Service (CHS) is there for you to check all this information. Our free service was introduced in 2015 and now gets more than 2.2 billion searches each year. You can look at the details and filing history of a company, including: directors' names and service addresses accounts confirmation statement...

Check the list of VAT appeals that HMRC has lost, or partly lost, that could have implications for other businesses.

We all have names we answer to. Usually we’ve had little input in choosing them as they’ve been selected for us by our parents using various methods. We may have been named after an ancestor, grandparent or maybe a family tradition. It could have been because of a current trend, royal baby or someone famous. Depending on your surname, the choice of first name can be tricky, entertaining or somewhat embarrassing. Tim Burr, Hazel Nutt, Terry Bull, Barbara Dwyer and one you’ll hear fans shout at every football ground around the country: Ann...

I recently attended an interesting talk by TARIAN, the Regional Organised Crime Unit. The subject was staying safe online which is becoming increasingly important for everyone. At home and in work, I need to use the internet for lots of transactions. Like most of us, I go online for all kinds of things such as checking my bank account, paying my utility bills or booking a holiday. Using real life examples, the talk from TARIAN was aimed at the non-technical user and was easy to understand. The message really struck home when the speaker...

When a company goes into administration, they have entered a legal process (under the Insolvency Act 1986) with the aim of achieving one of the statutory objectives of an administration. This may be to rescue a viable business that is insolvent due to cashflow problems. An appointment of an administrator (a licensed insolvency practitioner) will be made by directors, a creditor or the court to fulfil the administration process. The administration puts in place a statutory moratorium. This is a ‘breathing space’ that frees a company from...

Use these tables to manually calculate free pay for codes with the suffix L, P, T or Y (not NT) and to work out additional pay for codes with prefix K.

A company voluntary arrangement (CVA) is a tool for business rescue like no other insolvency procedure which can give a viable business the chance of recovery. A CVA is a formal procedure and is a legally binding agreement between the business and its creditors. It sets out how repayments of company debt should be made to creditors and can deliver a better outcome than an administration or liquidation. Potential CVA benefits Some of the key benefits of a CVA are: all or a percentage of a company debts can be paid back, depending on...

How HMRC is making it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their tax affairs.