Post strike gets personal

CREATE a new post.
That's the button I click on that enables me to write this.
But not the post that has occupied our minds this week.
Without getting into the nitty-gritty over the dispute, I just want it over and quickly.
Professionally it is a drag for businesses. Administration is put on hold, alternative couriers have to be found, but so much day-to-day correspondence is now digital, I doubt there will be any real losers.
But what a week to await replies to a wedding...
Yes that's right I'm a personal victim of the pickets. Cheers folks!

Guest blog: Kate Brown, a tax expert from AP Robinson & Co Chartered Accountants in Grimsby gives her take on this week's Pre-Budget Report

MANY local businesses could be worse off from next April as a result of the Pre- Budget Report. Alistair Darling’s tax changes could create risk for small businesses that are not ‘in the know.’Of critical importance are changes to capital gains tax. At present, if you hold business assets, including unquoted shares, for at least two years; the amount of capital gains tax you pay on their sale is discounted to 75 per cent of normal rates. That works out at just 10 per cent tax for a higher rate taxpayer or 5 per cent for a basic rate taxpayer. This is due to the taper relief, which was introduced by Gordon Brown in April 1998.Now on its 10th birthday taper relief is to be abolished and replaced with a flat rate of capital gains tax of 18per cent. Indexation allowance for individuals and trustees (but not for companies) is also to be abolished from April 6, 2008. This will simplify the capital gains calculations, but it does not hide the fact that the potential 10 per cent tax rate payable on the sale of businesses will jump to 18 per cent from April 6, 2008.The plans are the biggest disturbance of capital gains tax in the past eight years that I have been practising as an accountant. “The affect of the changes, which were primarily aimed at private equity investors, is potentially wide reaching, with many smaller family businesses also feeling the change.”The Pre-Budget Report also revealed that people who are planning to sell their business, or an asset used by a business such as a commercial let property, which they have owned for at least two years then savings of at least 8 per cent tax will emerge if they sell before April 6, 2008. However, the news isn’t all bad. The new flat rate of capital gains tax will be good news for anyone selling a non-business asset, such as a buy-to-let property. At present the maximum the taper relief for non-business assets is 60 per cent, but only available after 10 years of ownership, which works out at 24 per cent tax for higher rate tax payers and 12 per cent tax for basic rate taxpayers. If you expect to make a large gain on a non-business property, it may be better to complete the sale on or after April 6 2008 to save tax.The annual capital gains exemption (currently £9,200) will be retained, as will other capital gains reliefs such as hold-over, roll-over and the deferral of gains using the Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Scotprime a sign of things to come?

The loss of one job, let alone 17 is painful, but is this an indication of a squeeze on an industry integral to the economic well-being of Grimsby?
Hopefully not.
Interest rate rises, speculation about instability over the future of the housing market and - dare I say it - Christmas looming - have all added to a slow down in the amount we spend.
In conversation with Steven Norton, chief executive of Grimsby FMA, he rightly observed that when pulling our belts in, one of the first cuts we make is the number of times we eat out.
So when your custom is based largely in catering and prices for raw materials go up and demand for the product is static or declining, it is a difficult position.
Scotprime MD Paul Gower has felt the pinch of slightly more sought after supplies on the Humber markets and acted accordingly with the long-term interests of the company, and profit targets, to hit. It is a hardball game, but in the modern world it is shrewd business acumen, albeit with a heavy heart.
There should be enough work available within a square mile of Murray Street to give the 17 unfortunate souls hope, and there is little evidence of negativity elsewhere in the industry.
Iceland may be reducing quotas, fish may be more expensive, but the consumer will pay, and when they deicide not to, then the market will react.
We pay enough for a cut of sirloin steak, so why not a fine piece of salmon, cod or rather barramundi and arctic char?
Like meat, fish ranges in quality, and with the value-added know-how this town has to offer, there is as much variety from the sea as there is from any livestock farmer.
They have no feet for foot and mouth worries, and blue tongue is unheard of in Grimsby's great history.