I trust you have all summered well, ready for Autumn and the coming Winter months. Although COVID is still lingering, as things become a little more normal, I hope you have managed to grab some time away from the farm – whether it be staycations, livestock sales, one or two agricultural shows or just a trip out to visit the family. We are glad to be back out and about on farms carrying out accounts meetings after a period of Zoom meetings (other virtual platforms are available) and being confined to barracks.
On the farming front, livestock and milk prices have been good, but as always, costs have tried to keep pace and eat into any extra margins (feed, fuel, fertiliser etc). In addition, this December we will see the first deductions of the Basic Payment Scheme.
On the other side of the coin, we await further details of what will replace BPS, namely ELMS, the Environmental Land Management Scheme. The offerings that this will provide will be key to many farm businesses.
The last time I drafted the editorial we were entering the Making Tax Digital phase which covered businesses with turnover over £85,000.
This was a massive change for all businesses but I am pleased to say that you have all coped and took the new software on board by working closely with our CAT (Cloud Accounting Team). We are now nearing the next MTD stage with the remaining VAT registered businesses needing to be MTD compatible by April 2022. As always, Dodd & Co will be there to help!
Although the agricultural shows were a miss this year (again), I hope to see some of you at Borderway Beef expo in October. Until then, we look forward to having our usual events back up and running, and fingers crossed a year of seeing faces again in 2022!
Robert Wharton (Partner)
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