This is not the place to discuss your personal options, but this is an ideal time to consider your business and personal financial planning options for 2019.

What are your options?

If Brexit, as it seems likely, has a depressive effect on the UK economy, we may be pushed back into a mild recession. If so, the enthusiasm for investment will decline and businesses will hoard cash.

Accordingly, you might like to consider your present cash position, plan for a levelling off or decline in your sales and pressure on your margins as competitors seek to maintain their competitive advantage; and, you will need to invest some time in considering the effects of any disruption to your supply lines especially if we are faced with a no-deal Brexit.

There has never been a more appropriate time to prepare a formal business plan.

Ideally, the numbers should be entered into your accounts software so that you can closely monitor what is happening to you financially compared to your expectations. In this way you can take remedial action as events unwind rather than considering the mess left behind if you take your eyes off the road ahead.

We can help. Please call so we can make a start on finding the best-fit solution for your business. 2019 will likely be a challenging year. Be prepared.

As all our self-assessment readers will be aware, 31 January is the date by which any arrears of tax for 2017-18 need to be settled, together with a payment on account for 2018-19, if one is due.

Those who have completed their tax returns for 2017-18 should be aware what these liabilities amount to and any clients reading this article who are unsure what they should be paying, please call so that we can advise in good time.

If you have cash problems and are unable to clear tax due on the 31 January, you can approach HMRC for extended terms. Call:

Business Payment Support Service – 0300 200 3835, or

Self Assessment Payment Helpline – 0300 200 3822

If you miss the payment deadline and receive a letter or bill threatening legal action, call the HMRC office that sent you the letter.

Before you call be sure to estimate how much you can pay on account and you will normally need to clear any balance before any future payments on account become due (ordinarily this would be before 31 July 2019 when the second payment on account for 2018-19 falls due).

And don’t forget, HMRC will charge interest on tax paid late and penalties so make your call before the 31st January 2019 to minimise these costs.

Completing your tax return may not have been top of your priorities on Christmas Day, but that didn’t stop 2,616 taxpayers from filing their Self-Assessment returns on 25 December 2018.

For some taxpayers completing their return on Christmas Day is as traditional as spending time with family and friends or waiting for the Boxing Day sales to start. The peak filing time, according to HMRC, was between 1pm and 2pm, when more than 230 customers filed.

Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:

This year, more than 2,600 taxpayers chose to file their returns on Christmas Day.

Whether you fit it in while cooking the Christmas turkey, or after the kids have gone to bed, or after the Queen’s Speech, our online service is available for you to file your tax return at a time that suits you.

More than 11 million taxpayers are expected to complete a 2017-18 Self-Assessment tax return form by 31 January 2019.

Taxpayers who completed a Self-Assessment tax return last year but didn’t have any tax to pay, they will still need to complete a 2017-18 tax return unless HMRC has written to them to say that it is not required.

And don’t forget, the 31st January filing deadline is also the date that any arrears of self-assessment tax and NIC due for 2017-18 will need to be paid. To add salt to the wound, you may also need to make a payment on account for 2018-19.

Our advice, if you have not yet filed your return, do so as quickly as possible. In this way you can see what any tax payments at the end of the month may be before the due date.

The government is to consider new laws to protect consumers who have prepaid for products when a business becomes insolvent.

• Government to consider new laws to protect consumers who have prepaid for products when a business becomes insolvent

• proposed measures will include guaranteeing consumer schemes like Christmas savings clubs can safeguard customers’ money

• reforms are part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy to ensure markets work in the interests of consumers

New laws to protect consumers who have already paid for products but not received them when businesses go bust will be considered by the government, it was announced Thursday 27 December 2018.

Business Secretary Greg Clark confirmed that during 2019 the government will consult on laws requiring consumer prepayments to be protected in particular sectors. This would further strengthen the government’s ability to respond quickly to problems involving consumers who have prepaid for goods or services before a firm becomes insolvent. Common forms of prepayment include internet orders, the purchase of gift vouchers and money saved in payment schemes marketed as forms of saving like Christmas savings clubs.

If a business running a savings club becomes insolvent, consumers’ money is not protected unlike when it is saved in a UK-regulated bank account. New laws proposed today would see this money safeguarded, with legislation requiring businesses to adopt measures to protect customers against losses – whether that is through trusts, insurance or other mechanisms.

If enacted this announcement by the Department for Business will help to protect consumers who have laid out funds and are waiting for delivery of the relevant goods or services. As much of the concerns of Parliament are Brexit focussed at present it will remain to be seen if meaningful legislative change is completed this year.