Smith-Milne & Co.

Plain talking proactive Rickmansworth Accountants helping you maximise profits & reduce tax #WD3

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

This is a real struggle that I’m hearing from lots of concerned clients

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

Business rates. The British people, and its MPs, do not understand the coming apocalypse. And it is going to be an apocalypse. I talk to pub owners, cafe owners, all types of small business owners. They are terrified and nobody is listening.

Real people. Family businesses. The sort of places that keep towns and villages alive.

They are running out of road, and the business rates change will be the end of the road for many.

They’ve absorbed blow after blow over the last few decades and kept going anyway. But this will be the end for many. A sad, bitter end.

Rising rents. Rising supplier costs. Rising insurance. Endless compliance. Paperwork that grows every year but adds absolutely zero value.

They dealt with all the lockdown bullshit.

Forced closures. Confusing rules. Constant U-turns. Damaging loans. ‘Following’ the science, remember?

Many got no proper support due to the structure of their businesses. They battled on.

People remortgaged homes, drained savings, worked unpaid - just to keep the doors intact so they could reopen when finally allowed.

When restrictions were lifted, it wasn’t normal. Customers poorer, costs stayed high, footfall patchy.

Then the energy costs blowing up after the Ukraine war. Still bleeding the business dry.

And now, on top of all of that, they’re staring down a business rates revaluation that could be the final straw. Not because their business is suddenly thriving or profits are surging, but because a formula has made some impossibly complicated recalculations.

For hospitality, there is no escape. A pub can’t go remote. A cafe can’t move to a warehouse.
They have to be there. In the town, paying extortionate business rates.

This, of course, is all after higher operating costs from the first Reeves budget. NI changes were punishing for these businesses. Absolutely punishing.

We inflict such brutal costs on high street businesses, then we’re confused when so many of our town centres are becoming desolate shitholes? Not that difficult to figure out, is it?

And now this. The rates increase. For small pubs, it’s adding tens of thousands of pounds to the bill every year. THEY WILL GO BUST.

There is no way to pay it and stay viable. It’s impossible. I’d like to see Reeves try. Then she’d really start crying.

I am doing what I can in Westminster. Questions asked, motion tabled - with just three MPs supporting so far.

James McMurdock, Gavin Williamson and Peter Bedford. I am going to lobby for more support, and hopefully we can get Government to listen.

We’ve seen with the farming tax changes can be made if enough noise is made, but sadly I’m just not seeing anywhere near that same level of anger. And we need anger for them to notice.

This could be the end of the British pub.

That is not an exaggeration, and it’s not just pubs - it’s entire industries.

So get angry. Ask your MP to sign the motion.

I am doing what I can in Westminster.

It HAS to change.

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

We are hiring. Full time Senior accountant. Salary negotiable depending on experience. Full time. Email us for more details.

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

#budget2025 https://t.co/5hnwxdYRwQ

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

I sit in Parliament listening to these ministers, and it’s all just so depressing - the vast majority of them have never run a business, and it SHOWS. You would not believe how bad it is.

They think ‘work’ means turning up to an office between 9 and 5, answering a few emails, and going home at the end of the day. Nice lunch break, few coffees away from the desk, probably a smoking break or several. It doesn’t - not for the millions of men and women who actually create the wealth that funds the state.

Running a small business isn’t a job. It’s a way of life. It is life. It’s 24/7/365. It’s relentless. You are the accountant, HR department, compliance officer, cleaner, marketer, and customer service team - all in one. There’s no sick pay, no safety net, and no taxpayer-funded pension waiting for you.

Holiday? Good luck. If you do manage to get away, it’s checking the phone all day, every day. Wife/husband obviously getting pissed off. We’ve all been there...

It’s all on you. Every invoice chased, every tax deadline met, every bit of red tape navigated is on you. And if you make one mistake, one error, one small slip-up, the state comes after you - in a relentlessly efficient manner that is never afforded to us when we ask questions of it.

Most MPs have no idea what that feels like. They just don’t. We’re going to see more of this in the budget I’m sure. More hurt. More pain. More tax. They don’t get it.

They don’t understand that when a small business owner gets hit with another tax, it’s not absorbed by a ‘budget’ - it’s taken straight out of their family’s pocket.

There is no ‘deficit’ in the business world - that’s called going bust.

And they certainly don’t understand what real risk looks like. Politicians can vote through a policy on Monday and forget it by Tuesday - a small business owner lives with the consequences of that policy for years, decades. The MP monthly salary is safe. It always has been. In the public sector before, and in the public sector after - if not that, some charity/NGO funded entirely by the public sector.

GET A REAL JOB.

If MPs actually spent a week running a small firm - paying suppliers, tackling VAT, navigating health and safety law, sorting out HR issues, chasing clients for payment, trying to expand while staying compliant with everything from GDPR to local planning regulations - they’d legislate very differently. I can promise you that.

They’d realise that most of Britain’s problems could be solved by the state doing less, not more.

Cutting tax. Simplifying regulation. Slashing back the HRification of the country. Trusting people who actually produce things to get on with it.

Instead, we have a political class that talks endlessly about ‘growth’ while brutally punishing the only people capable of delivering it - especially going after the family businesses/farms, which is a particularly spiteful policy decision.

Small business owners are people who work harder than almost anyone in Parliament could imagine - and who are treated worse for it.

Britain’s small businesses don’t succeed because of politicians, they survive in spite of them.

[SCD PhysicalEd @SCDPhysicalEd]

Congrats to the Year 10 rugby team who have got back to winning ways with a 64-0 win over Rickmansworth
Excellent performances from Oscar & Jonny but Henry starred as potm 👏

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

Tax year end round up https://t.co/JOZttp0nec

[SCD PhysicalEd @SCDPhysicalEd]

Wonderful performance from our year 10 boys Rugby team once again after their 33-5 win over Cokethorpe
Tries came from Oscar 🏉🏉Noa , Harry & Dylan . Ruari converted 4 of the 5 👏
They now have Bishops Stortford in the National Vase Regional Final !

[SCD PhysicalEd @SCDPhysicalEd]

Wow these boys are good!
The yr 10 Rugby team have beaten Aylesbury Grammar away 29-14 in the National Vase Round 3
Their place into the last 32 was booked by some brilliant kicking from Ruriari & some outstanding attacking play from Noa, Henry & Harry 👏

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

Budget report available to download https://t.co/5hnwxdYjHi

[SCD PhysicalEd @SCDPhysicalEd]

Year 10 Boys Rugby march on in fine style
Their 52-5 win over Hitchin Boys in a friendly was another outstanding performance
Tries from Noa 🏉🏉Alex 🏉🏉Oscar ,Henry, James, Will, secured the win with Ruari converting 6
Zane, Alex & Will were potm 👏

[SCD PhysicalEd @SCDPhysicalEd]

In what Mr Lowe deemed as their best ever performance, our impressive yr 10 Rugby team were 52-0 winners over Habs Boys today
Outstanding passing Rugby resulted in tries from James 🏉🏉Oscar 🏉🏉Henry 🏉🏉& Dylan 🏉🏉
MVPs were James, Zane & Joe

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

@YGTRory Chopped my way around my grandads home club of sandilands when I was about 13 years old. They had this awesome junior golfer there at the time by the name of Jim Payne who went on to be a fantastic player. If you can get to plus handicap round there then you’re bloody good

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

At https://t.co/pWUmfqL4E6 we are always looking for new clients to help, so if you or someone you know isn’t getting the service they deserve please take a look at our website and see what we can do and what sort of businesses we look after #WD3 #tax #accountants #rickmansworth

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

@jk_rowling Cis stands for the construction industry scheme. It’s a method of paying subcontractors within the construction industry. It was first introduced in 1971 to combat serious tax evasion within the industry. It was overhauled in 2007 by the finance act 2004. From accountant (male) x

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

Check out our website https://t.co/vnRfzKTPxv for newsletters, cloud accounting and much more. #accountant #tax

[Talk @TalkTV]

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the Queen in a speech to the House of Commons.

#TalkTV

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

At https://t.co/whXwCXc4k7 we are always looking for new clients to help, so if you know needs a tax return doing, is self employed, owns a company, is paying too much in tax and isn’t getting the service they deserve please do put them our way. #WD3 #tax #accountants

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

At https://t.co/pWUmfqL4E6 we are always looking for new clients to help, so if you or someone you know isn’t getting the service they deserve please take a look at our website and see what we can do and what sort of businesses we look after #WD3 #tax #accountants #rickmansworth

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

@mattsjwallace @usopengolf 😂

[Smith-Milne & Co. @SmithMilne]

At https://t.co/pWUmfqL4E6 we are always looking for new clients to help, so if you know needs a tax return doing, is self employed, owns a company, is paying too much in tax and isn’t getting the service they deserve please do put them our way. #WD3 #tax #accountants