News from OCAS

Oldham & Tameside Learning & Skills Programme
November 2011 - March 2012

In partnership with Voluntary Action Oldham & Tameside Third Sector Coalition, OCAS has contributed a number of financial management courses towards this progeramme for community, voluntary and faith organisations.
 
The training programme includes a wide range of topics including:
 - The Funding Factor
 - Staying Legal & Safe
 - Volunteering
 - The Essentials for Small Groups
 - Influence & Partnership
 - Marketing Money
 
Please click hear to view a PDF version of the training programme.

The financial management courses being run by OCAS are:
Financial Reporting & Year End Preparation Tuesday 28th February 2012 5:30pm- 8pm
Budgeting & Cash Flow Forecasting Wednesday 29th February 2012 5:30pm - 8pm
Full Cost Recovery Tuesday 6th March 2012 5:30pm - 8pm.
Basic Bookkeeping Wednesday 14th March 2012 5:30pm - 8pm
 
Please click hear for more details.
 
Booking Form

Corporation Tax Returns go Paperless

From 1 April 2011 HMRC will no longer accept paper tax returns fro accounting periods ending on or after 31 March 2010.
 
From now on companies are requried to submit their accounts and tax computations in a particular electronic format called iXBRL.
 
OCAS has produced a factsheet to help organisations understand how these changes will impact their organisation.
 
Please click hear for the Corporation Tax factsheet.
 

2012 PENSIONS REFORMS

2012 will not only be an important year for the United Kingdom when the 30th Olympic Games are held in London but there will be new major duties for employers in respect of pensions.
 
The most important change is that for the first time employers will be required to automatically enrol employees into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The key points in these changes are:
• Employers must auto-enrol all employees in a pension scheme if they are aged between 22 and state pension age and earn more than £7,475 (in 2011/2012 terms)
• Contributions will be made by the employer, the employee and the addition of tax relief
• Between October 2012 and October 2016, contributions will be 2% of banded earnings with at least 1% from the employer
• Between October 2016 and October 2017, contributions will be 5% of banded earnings with at least 2% from the employer
• From October 2017, contributions will be 8% of banded earnings with at least 3% from the employer
• Jobholders can opt-out of the scheme if they so wish
• Employers must re-enrol jobholders who choose to opt out at least every three years
• Employers can choose to use a good quality private scheme, a National Employment Savings Trust or a combination of the two
However it is important to know that these changes will be implemented in a step by step process, therefore not all employers will need to have these changes implemented by 2012. You will be advised 12 months before you need to ensure all employees have a qualifying pension scheme.
 
The impact that this will have on groups is that they will need to look into establishing pension schemes for all their employees and the additional cost of making the contributions to the schemes.
 
For more advice on how these changes are likely to affect your organisation please contact Angela our Payroll Supervisor who will be happy to help.

VAT to rise to 20% from 4th January 2010

You may already be aware, but unfortunately the standard rate of VAT is increasing from 17.5% to 20% on the 4th January 2011.
The vast majority of Voluntary, Community and Faith groups within Oldham will not be registered for VAT and therefore will be unable to recover any of the VAT they pay. As a result this increase in VAT is an automatic increase in your costs which you will need to take into account for your 2011/12 budgets.
However there are a number of special rules for sales that span the change of VAT rate which may wish to remind your suppliers of as to help soften the blow of the VAT increase. Please download this form to find out more information on these special rules.

OCAS HAS MOVED

We would like to make you aware that as of Monday 29th November OCAS will be located at:
 
Unit 12
Manchester Chambers
West Street
Oldham
OL1 1LF
 
Telephone numbers and email addresses have stayed the same.

Charity Commission highlights compliance mistakes

The Charity Commission has published its third annual report setting out the lessons from its compliance work, "Charities Back on Track".
 
According to this report, some charity trustees are making too many basic mistakes in managing their charities.
 
The report reveals the most serious concerns include failures in trustees to properly governing their charity, poor financial management and no - or inadequate - accounting and reporting.
 
If you are concerned about your charities financial management or accounting records please contact OCAS. We can provide tailored support to help you to effectively manage your group.
 
Please click here if you would like more information on the Charity Commissions report.

New Training Courses

OCAS will be providing the following training
courses from now to March 2010:
 
· Basic Bookkeeping
· Introduction to Budgeting and Cash Flow Forecasting
· Introduction to Management Accounts
· Full Cost Recovery
· Using MS Excel for Bookkeeping
· Year End Preparation
· Introduction to Financial Reporting
 
To register your interest in any of these courses please contact us

Increases in National Minimum Wage and National Insurance Contributions

From the 1st October 2010 the national minimum wage is increasing to the following rates:
16-17 = £3.64 per hour
18-20 = £4.92 per hour
21+ = £5.93 per hour
 
From April 2011 there will also be an increase in National Insurance Contributions of 1%.
 
Organisations need to take these into account when preparing budgets for next year.
 
If you have any queries about this or any other payroll matter please contact our payroll bureau.

OCAS available at Local Drop In Centres

OCAS and its partners Voluntary Action Oldham, Children & Youth Alliance, The Hub and the Volunteer Centre will be holding informal drop in sessions within Oldham. If you are a voluntary, community or faith group/organisation working in the borough of Oldham, then why not pop in and chat with us to see how we may be able to help you or your group.
 
You can also use this as an opportunity to raise any local issues and concerns affecting you and the communities you work with and if you have ideas and suggestions to make things better, we want to hear from you.
 
The remaining drop in sessions will be held on:
 
Tuesday 7th September, at Wrexham Close, Tenants Hall, Hollinwood, - 6pm - 8pm
Thursday 16th September, at Honeywell Centre, Ashton Road, - 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Wednesday 22nd September, at Wimpole Street Tenants Association, Higginshaw, - 5:30pm - 7:30pm
 
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us

Support Central Wednesay 7th July 2010

A drop in centre is being held at Voluntary Action Springboard for one to one advice and information on developing and strengthening your voluntary/community group.
 
For more information please see the Support Central leaflet.