Rural Intelligence - Summer 2023

Introduction

Welcome to our summer 2023 Agri Intelligence. As ever we aim to bring you up to date with the latest on financial and tax matters impacting rural businesses.

It has been an interesting few months taking back the first sets of March year end accounts which, in the main, have been very good results for the sector. Whilst input costs have been high the livestock and commodity prices have remained strong. As a result we are helping businesses plan for their January 2024 tax bills as commodity prices fall, interest rates rise and so cash has never been more important to remain a resilient business.

As a team we are continuing to grow and welcomed some of our new trainee recruits into the team this week. We continue to train and develop specialist accountants and tax advisors in this ever dynamic and exciting sector. If you are interested in a rewarding career at Albert Goodman please get in touch.

In this issue we bring you some updates on tax including capital allowances, national insurance and VAT as well as some reminders on planning required for inheritance tax and for land with value for development. Kate Bell provides an update on the Rock Review and Kate Hardy on some of the less talked about tax issues for environmental land use.

I would also like to refer our next generation of farmers to the end of the newsletter and the free workshops being run by Grace Popham and Holly Porter. The last series was very popular so please book your place before they go.

We have enjoyed seeing clients and fellow professionals at agricultural shows which have already taken place this summer and we look forward to seeing you at the remaining shows including Honiton, Melplash and Gillingham and Shaftesbury.

We wish you all a profitable harvest and a good summer.

Sam Kirkham PARTNER AND HEAD OF FARMS & ESTATES TEAM

INTEREST RATES -

We have all enjoyed borrowing at low interest rates over the past 13 years. From February 2009 to June 2022, we saw the Bank of England (BoE) base rate at 1% or below. In the past year, we have seen a 3.75% rise in the BoE base rate.

The base rate is likely to rise further due to inflation not yet being contained. Speaking to a high street bank economist in the last month, they are expecting the base rate to rise at least two more times to just over 5%.

The question is how long will it stay at this level and what is the “new normal”?

The answer to this question will be important to our farming clients that have fixed-rate terms ending or are taking out new borrowing.

To think about what is “normal” we should look backwards. From the 1950s to now, the average BoE (or equivalent) base rate was around 4.5%. This suggests that where we are currently is actually somewhat “normal”.

The challenge for borrowers is that lenders have not significantly reduced their margins yet. This means that

Mind the gap

The new normal?

for the vast majority, the cost of borrowing is still over 6.5-7%. When interest rates were at the same rate prior to the 2008/09 financial crisis, the margins were significantly lower.

So, borrowers have two options.

1. Take the risk and choose a variable rate loan, hoping that in the longer-term, interest rates will come down and as a result you will be better off not fixing, or fixing in the future at a lower rate.

2. Fix the loans now to secure your risk and know your monthly outgoings.

Which option is best for you depends on your attitude to risk and business cashflow.

TOM STONE

You may have previously read that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) extended the deadline for making up gaps in National Insurance (NI) records for the years 2006 to 2017. Initially the deadline was 5 April 2023 but was recently extended to 31 July 2023. However, after an increase in demand for this service, the government have extended the deadline even further to 5 April 2025, to ensure people have the time to make these contributions.

The extension gives you more time to check your NI record for any gaps or incomplete years, check whether these are covered by any automatic credits and, if not, look at whether making voluntary contributions would boost your state pension.

You can check your NI record by accessing your Personal Tax Account with HMRC online or by using the HMRC app. Currently 35 qualifying complete years are required for a full NI record.

Voluntary Class 3 NI contributions may seem expensive at over £800 per full year but each extra year could add almost £6 per week to your state pension and so pay for itself within 3 years of drawing state pension. Alternatively, if you had a selfemployment record for those years, but were under the small earnings exception and were therefore not required to make Class 2 NI contributions, voluntary Class 2 NI contributions could be made, which is a far cheaper alternative.

However, paying voluntary contributions does not always increase your state pension. To help you decide if you should make up any missing years using voluntary contributions, please therefore call and speak with your normal contact or one of our Financial Advisers at Albert Goodman Financial Planners.

DAVID PINCHIN Farms & Estates Team david.pinchin@albertgoodman.co.uk

CAPITAL ALLOWANCES –opportunities and pitfalls

Increasing relief using capital allowances, certainly for companies, has featured heavily in the last few Budgets.

Most recently the 130% super-deduction, introduced in 2021 by then chancellor Rishi Sunak, has been replaced with what is known as full expensing for companies on certain qualifying new plant and machinery purchases from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2026.

This means that 100% of expenditure can be set against income in the year of spend, with no limit.

The £1m annual investment allowance (AIA) for all businesses has also been made permanent – this is important as it includes used equipment, which full expensing does not.

While the above is welcome for farming businesses, particularly those operating as a company, the complexity of the capital allowance system continues to increase. This means taxpayers should be careful when planning machinery purchases, property improvements and new agricultural buildings.

There are now many capital allowance rates, each with their own limits and conditions. The benefit for corporate businesses is that full expensing and the 50% first year allowance (FYA) on what are termed special rate assets have no annual limit, unlike the AIA - see table. Special rate assets include integral features which perform a function in a building for example, electrics, heating, ventilation, and plumbing. Solar panels also qualify.

Full expensing - what is not included?

As with the super-deduction, the following do not attract full expensing:

„ used plant and machinery.

„ special rate items such as solar panels – this is often misunderstood.

„ cars (except for the purposes of the FYA for electric and zero-emission cars).

„ expenditure incurred in the accounting period in which the qualifying activity is permanently discontinued.

„ expenditure on the provision of plant or machinery that is to be leased.

Corporation tax rates

The timing of the commencement of full expensing coincides with the increase to the main rate of corporation tax.

From 1 April 2023, the corporation tax rate for each business will be based on the level of a company’s profits, with those

over £250,000 paying tax at 25% (on the total), and those with profits below £50,000 continuing to pay at 19%.

What is known as marginal relief will apply to profits between £50,000 and £250,000. The tax due in this bracket is calculated by applying a complex formula which has the effect of increasing the tax due in this range to a rate over 25%.

Care also needs to be taken with the £50,000 lower and £250,000 upper limits as these will be proportionately reduced where:

„ an accounting period is less than 12 months, and/or

„ there are associated companies.

Any potential large capital expenditure should therefore be planned well in advance to ensure that both the correct timing and structure is in place to attract the best relief.

Tenant farmers are at the heart of our rural economy

Some of you will remember Baroness Kate Rock’s report that was issued late last year. The report considered how changes could be introduced to balance the interests of both the landlord and the tenant to support a positive relationship that enables the tenanted business to be a success.

Defra have now responded, reporting that they have been working with the Tenancy Reform Industry Group to evolve their plans in line with some of the recommendations made in Rock’s report. Defra have also created the new Farm Tenancy Forum to continue to strengthen relationships between landlords and tenants.

Potential tax implications

At the beginning of June we submitted evidence to the consultation launched in the Budget 2023 exploring the extension of inheritance tax (IHT) relief to include environmental land management schemes and ecosystems service markets. The consultation also considers limiting IHT relief to only cover land that is let out for 8 years or more. We will let you know when their response is published.

Currently, agricultural property relief applies to land used for the purposes of agriculture, but business property relief may still apply if the business is mainly trading. It should be remembered that landlords do not qualify for business property relief on such land.

HMRC recognises that we are experiencing changes to the ways in which land is farmed, including land being farmed less intensively.

HMRC have provided some guidance on the tax implications of land entered into the Woodland and Peatland Carbon Codes but this currently does not go far enough.

Scheme offering and accessibility

Pledging their support for the private market, Defra confirmed the possibility of stacking private sector arrangements and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements. Also, despite the SFI agreements being 3 years in duration, Defra have announced that tenant farmers with less than 3 years on their tenancies can now join without landlord consent and, more importantly, leave without penalty. ELMS agreements can also be entered and transferred, if necessary, at the end of a tenancy.

Landscape Recovery Schemes are also open to tenant farmers if they have management control or landlord consent during the development and implementation stages. Alternatively, the landlord can apply with the tenant’s consent and support. Finally, the larger value grants under the Farming Investment Fund, Countryside Stewardship capital grants and grants from the Farming Equipment and Technology Funds are all available to landlords and tenants.

To be continued

There will continue to be a review of landlords taking land back for the purpose of entering environment land management schemes in order to consider whether the recommendation of a buffer period is required. Defra also recognises that diversification supports many farming businesses and will review how this can be encouraged within FBTs rather than restricting it.

The report, and Defra’s response, have been welcomed across the industry, but we await the outcome of the consultation regarding the IHT position of environmental land management schemes.

INHERITANCE TAX RULES behind livery businesses

It appears illogical that a field used for grazing cattle qualifies for Agricultural Property Relief (APR), whereas the same field used for grazing horses generally qualifies for no inheritance tax (IHT) relief at all (with the notable exception of stud farms). IHT may therefore be payable at 40% on horse paddocks.

Business Property Relief (BPR) can be valuable in terms of IHT relief in the case of livery yards. Part or full-service livery yards can be seen to be trading businesses which attract BPR, especially in cases where the livery operator provides substantial day to day care of the horses. DIY or grass livery businesses (grazing and stabling) however, are often deemed to be investment businesses and as such BPR is denied.

HMRC are therefore likely to consider the nature of the additional services supplied beyond that of a DIY livery which give it the character of a trading business.

This was tested in the case of a deceased livery yard owner, Maureen Vigne from Buckinghamshire, where her children successfully argued that Mrs Vigne ran a trading business and that BPR applied to the 30 acres of land and buildings. The following services were successfully argued:

„ The livery operator provided worming products and administered them to the horses when the owners could not.

„ Hay was provided. In DIY livery yards the horse owners would be expected to visit and feed their horses, whereas at Mrs Vigne’s livery yard, the staff did this job.

„ Removal of manure. At most DIY livery yards the horse owners would be expected to poo pick and remove the manure themselves. In the above case, this was carried out by the livery staff.

„ Finally, the yard staff carried out a daily check of the horse’s general health and reported to the horse owners where any issues required further attention, ie. a call to the vet.

It was also considered to be an important fact that a yard manager was employed who was qualified at a high level in equine management. This would not typically be a requirement of a DIY livery yard.

Every case is assessed individually and so it is important to keep records and evidence of trading activity if it is thought that inheritance tax may be payable on the death of the owner.

TAX ON SALES OF DEVELOPMENT LAND – OPPORTUNITIES AND PITFALLS

Despite the slowdown in the housing sector and the squeeze on developers’ margins there is still demand for land for development. For tax purposes, the sale of land for development can be complicated. In most cases the gain on the sale of land is chargeable to capital gains tax (CGT). However, in some cases the profit could be charged to income tax.

Capital gains tax

CGT treatment is usually preferable with tax rates at 10% or 20% for CGT purposes compared to income tax rates of up to 45%. Further, CGT treatment can provide additional reliefs, such as business asset disposal relief (BADR) and rollover relief. There is also the CGT annual exemption, currently £12.3K reducing to £6K from 6 April 2023 and £3K from 6 April 2024.

CGT rollover relief

Where the proceeds of a qualifying land sale are reinvested into a new qualifying asset the tax on the sale can be deferred into the new asset. This effectively delays payment of tax until the new asset is sold. Qualifying assets include property used in a trade, such as farming. It also includes property let under the furnished holiday letting rules. The new asset will need to be purchased within either a year before the sale of the old asset or three years afterwards.

The difficulty with rollover relief is that, for full relief, all the proceeds from sale must be reinvested, which leaves little ability to retain cash for other use.

CGT BADR

BADR halves the CGT rate from 20% to 10% for gains of up to £1M per individual over their lifetime, effectively a £100K tax saving per individual. Claiming this relief can be problematic, particularly where only part of a farm is being sold. Therefore planning for the sale well in advance is crucial to ensure the business structure, ownership, drafting of contracts and the timing of sale enables the relief to be maximised.

Income tax pitfall

There are anti-avoidance provisions known as “Transactions in UK Land” (TIL) rules intended to catch profits generated from “trading in or developing land” by taking the profit which emerges as a capital gain and charging it to income tax. These rules potentially apply to any disposal of UK land where one of the main purposes of acquiring the land was to realise a profit or gain from its disposal. As mentioned above income tax rates are significantly higher than CGT rates so the tax at stake can be huge.

It is common to see ‘slice of the action’ contracts that enable the landowner to share in the future proceeds of the developer. Typically, in these cases, the landowner would receive a fixed sum at the time of the land disposal followed by a percentage of the sale proceeds of each building subsequently constructed by the purchaser, under an overage clause. Therefore the landowner is able to share in the proceeds of the developer’s trading activity. Whilst the landowner is not himself trading, the conditions of TIL will be satisfied as land is being developed with the purpose of realising a profit from disposing of development land.

The contract

The sale of land can be dealt with under various contracts. Often land might be put into an option agreement or a promotion agreement. Both often have an upfront, nonrefundable payment to the landowner. The upfront payment is chargeable to tax in the tax year of receipt, but at that time no land is sold so there is very little cost to deduct before tax is charged.

The land sale often occurs once planning permission is obtained, on the exercise of the option agreement or once the promoter has found a successful buyer and contracts have exchanged. Under a promotion agreement the promoter will charge a fee, usually a percentage of selling price, plus VAT, for their services. The VAT cannot be reclaimed by the landowner unless there is an option to tax in place.

For tax purposes, the exercise of the option agreement is the tax point of sale, or the exchange of sale contracts on all other contracts. However, further complexities arise where contracts are ‘conditional’ on certain events taking place. For example, a sales contract might be exchanged, but the sale and purchase is conditional on an event such as planning permission. Depending on the precise wording of the contract this may delay the tax point of sale.

Many land sales also include overage clauses. For example, the sale price may be agreed based on a certain planning permission, or condition at the time of sale. However, the landowner may wish to benefit from any increase in value, after the land is sold, should the purchaser change the planning, such as from commercial to residential use which might increase the value of the land. Where an overage clause is included in the sale contract, the overage must be valued. Effectively on the sale the landowner receives £X plus the right to receive further consideration if the overage clause is triggered. The total consideration (£X plus the value of the overage) is charged to tax in the tax year the land is sold. If later the overage clause is triggered the landowner will receive additional consideration which will be charged to tax at that point, less the value of the overage previously taxed at the time of sale. The later overage consideration will not qualify for all the CGT reliefs mentioned above so careful consideration needs to be given to this at the point contracts are drafted. Further it is important to ensure the TIL rules are considered on the overage payment.

It is also important to consider the timing of receipts under the sale contract vis-a-vie the tax payment date. Often payments are made over a period of time, not on exchange or completion of the contract. Therefore it is important to ensure sufficient payments are received to cover the tax liability.

Land collaboration agreements

It is not uncommon for several landowners to ‘pool’ land to create a suitable site, signing up to a collaboration agreement. Often this entitles the landowners to a percentage of the total proceeds, based on the acreage of land they have contributed. These arrangements are complicated and can result in unintended tax consequences such as each landowner being taxed in full on the proceeds they receive for the sale of their land, with no deduction for the amounts paid to the other members of the collaboration agreement. The other landowners may however be taxed in full on the amounts they receive. For example, a landowner with a 20% share, receives and is taxed on £300K for the sale of an acre, with the gain taxable at 20%. The landowner makes a payment of £240K to the other landowners, on which they will also be taxed

in full. There are a number of ways this double taxation can be avoided if advice is taken at the outset.

VAT

The sale of bare land is normally exempt from VAT, unless the vendor has notified HMRC of a valid “Option to Tax”. A key step in any transaction is to identify whether the land is Opted to Tax.

In some circumstances it can be beneficial to opt to tax the land as it will enable VAT to be reclaimed on related costs, such as a promotion fee.

If the purchaser is constructing new homes for sale (rather than letting) it will usually be able to recover VAT charged, although being charged VAT will impact on its cashflow. The contract should of course state that VAT is payable in addition to the agreed price.

If the sale is subject to VAT, the purchaser will normally suffer an increased SDLT charge, because SDLT is paid on the VAT-inclusive consideration. A purchaser being charged VAT may therefore wish to negotiate over the price.

An Option to Tax normally binds the person making it for at least 20 years. If the intended transaction is aborted, the Option to Tax will thus normally be in effect for any future transaction. Therefore opting to tax the land should be carefully considered.

This point also needs to be borne in mind if an overage payment, or a payment for agreeing to lift a restrictive covenant, is received at a later stage in relation to Opted land.

With so many complexities it is important professionals work together to ensure the aims of the landowner/s are met whilst maximising the net of tax proceeds.

SAM KIRKHAM Farms & Estates Team sam.kirkham@albertgoodman.co.uk

SUSTAINABLE FARMING INCENTIVE

With phased reductions in BPS payments well underway details have now been released regarding the 2023 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer.

Phased applications are due to start in August and you can apply for a 3-year SFI agreement to undertake environmental land management actions with the aim of managing land in a more sustainable way.

The 2023 offering has learnt from previous pilot schemes, it is more flexible and has a greater number of grassland options than have been available in the past. It is possible to add new options into your agreements after it has started and to change the areas of rotational options each year to fit in with cropping plans more easily. Payments will also be made quarterly to aid cashflow and you are able to claim an annual management fee of £20 per ha up to a maximum of £1,000.

There are no capital items available under the SFI, however capital funding options are currently available through Countryside Stewardship.

It is possible to apply for the SFI scheme alongside a current or new countryside stewardship agreement if the options are not resulting in ‘double funding’ through carrying out the same option on the same parcel of land.

Full details of the scheme options and payment rates are available on www.gov.uk

JENNY BATCHELOR Farms & Estates Team jenny.batchelor@albertgoodman.co.uk

Environmental agreementsunderstanding the income tax position…

We are starting to see momentum pick up, with a large volume of heads of terms for various environmental agreements coming across our desks, whether these are for the creation of carbon credits, wetlands or biodiversity net gain agreements.

So far, the agreements all differ in terms of:

„ The length - with some ranging from 30-50 years to some spanning 80 years to perpetuity.

„ The restrictions on the land.

„ The acreage and monies involved.

„ The structure of the agreement and structure of payments; and

„ When and what basis the payments will be made.

This gives accountants a bit of a headache, as all these differences mean that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to either the accounting or tax treatment and, consequently, our advice. In addition, as these agreements are only just coming to the table, no case has yet been tested in the courts and so there is no precedent to follow.

To help provide some understanding as to how the range of agreements affect the tax position and therefore our advice, I thought I’d briefly run through some of the issues in turn.

So, firstly, is it income at all?

If the agreement is likely to de-value the land due to covenants restricting its use, the income/compensation for this devaluation could be treated as capital. This would then be subject to capital gains tax, instead of income tax. With lower rates for capital gains tax, this treatment may be more favourable but not necessarily guaranteed.

If, however, the receipts are considered payment in return for providing a service then this would be treated as income, subject to income or corporation tax. If this is the case, we then need to understand when this income will be recognised.

Income recognition

As we are not aware of any comparable cases to set a precedent for these agreements, we therefore must refer to UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) to consider when the income will need to be recognised for both accounting and income tax purposes.

Under UK GAAP, income is generally recognised when goods or services are provided, or when services are performed. With long term contracts, revenue is recognised with reference to the stage of completion.

Part of the agreement may therefore refer to the ongoing management and maintenance costs and this element could be argued to be spread over the term of the agreement. However, part of the income might be received earlier to reflect the initial outlay required in the first few years. In this situation, a proportion of the income may be recognised sooner.

In addition, part of the receipts will fall due when certain qualifying criteria has been met.

In many cases, there will often be a mix of the above, with a proportion of the income spread over the term and part being recognised sooner, depending on the detail in the agreement.

Income tax implications

Depending on the amount of income involved, even if the income is recognised over the term of the agreement, this could result in paying higher rates of tax, losing your taxfree personal allowance and a clawback of child benefits, where received. To put some perspective on this:

If you are due to receive £3.5m over 35 years, that could result in an extra £647k tax if received by you personally compared to being received through a limited company –and that’s on the basis the income is spread over the term!

However, while we will want to ensure we are mitigating your income tax position, it is also important to ensure all taxes have been considered and that mitigating the income tax position is not detrimental to potentially more valuable Inheritance tax reliefs.

Aside from tax, it is also worth considering the position of risk. If you do not meet the management criteria and have already received a large lump sum payment, would there be a claw back of this payment? If so, how would this be calculated, how much would be clawed back and could this risk be mitigated through the use of a limited company.

It is therefore important to speak with us as soon as possible so that we can ensure the agreements consider your overall position.

Should you wish us to review any draft agreements or Heads of terms or would like any advice in this area, then please do get in touch.

CAN I HAVE RELIEF?

HMRC have released figures showing that receipts from Inheritance Tax (IHT) have exceeded £6bn in the last tax year and are increasing year on year. This trend is likely to continue as property values increase and allowances remain static at £325,000 until at least 5 April 2026.

With HMRC clearly focusing on increasing receipts from IHT, it is key to ensure that the availability of relief is correct to minimise any liabilities. While there are several reliefs from IHT available, this article focuses on Business Property Relief (BPR).

To claim BPR a business must be deemed to be mainly trading. This is determined by looking at the Balfour Test; a complex test which compares the trading and investment elements of the business in terms of capital invested, turnover, profitability, and time spent. In order to pass the Balfour Test the business has to be wholly or mainly trading, and at present, this is considered to be a 50% test. If the business passes then IHT relief is available on the full value of the business.

Where assets are used by a business but are not actually part of the business, the relief is restricted to 50%.

As such, once the Balfour Test has been passed, it is important to understand which assets officially form part of your business. With limited companies this is reasonably straightforward as there will be legal paperwork stating the company is the beneficial/legal owner of the property.

Partnership property is more complex and is an area where HMRC frequently makes challenges. Should HMRC successfully argue that property is not partnership property then the relief reduces from 100% to 50% which could lead to significant tax liabilities.

In the case of a partnership between a husband, wife and son or daughter, where the husband owns farmland and buildings used within the partnership, it is frequently assumed that the farm is partnership property. It is however, not that simple, and even if the property has been included on the partnership balance sheet, HMRC have won cases where they have argued that it is not partnership property but rather used by the partnership. As such BPR has been limited to 50%.

Where the open market value (OMV) is the same as the agricultural value, this should not be issue as Agricultural Property Relief (APR) should be available. However, where the OMV exceeds the agricultural value, BPR is required to provide relief for the excess.

Example

A farm includes 150 acres of land and buildings with no development potential, 20 acres with development potential at a value of £500k (£300k above agricultural value), and two farm worker’s cottages which are rented out and have a value of approximately £250k each.

If the assets are partnership property then BPR would cover the total value and no IHT would be chargeable, assuming the Balfour conditions are met. Should HMRC argue however, that the property is not partnership property but simply used within the business, then BPR is limited to 50%. This would result in chargeable assets totalling £400k (£800k of property less 50% BPR) which, assuming there is no nil rate band available, leads to an IHT liability of £160k.

Please see the table below:

It is therefore key to ensure that the correct planning is undertaken in advance to minimise large, unexpected IHT liabilities. It would be frustrating if the intention was for assets to be held as partnership property but the paperwork was incorrect and a large IHT liability arose.

If you think that this could affect you, or you would like an IHT review, please do contact us.

ANDREW WITHERS

Farms & Estates Team

andrew.withers@albertgoodman.co.uk

PENALTIES FOR LATE FILING OF VAT RETURNS

We’re now seeing clients who have been given points for failing to file VAT returns on time. As a reminder, if a return for a VAT period beginning on or after 1 January 2023 is late, HMRC can award a penalty point. Clocking up 4 penalty points (quarterly returns) or 5 (monthly) and you’ll receive a £200 penalty. You’ll also receive a further £200 penalty for each subsequent late submission while you’re at the threshold.

There is a defence of “reasonable excuse”, and we are seeing clients get points who may well have a reasonable excuse for their late filing. However, I do wonder whether lodging a reasonable excuse appeal will be cost effective if the client has a one-off software glitch and is unlikely to accumulate any further points.

STEVE CHAMBERLAIN VAT Senior Manager steve.chamberlain@albertgoodman.co.uk

XERO TOP TIP – CHECKING BANK BALANCES AND REFRESHING BANK FEEDS

Although Xero typically has a live bank feed which connects to your bank account, this doesn’t always mean that it is correct or agrees to your bank statements. This needs to be manually checked at least once a year, but ideally, I would check each time you go to submit a VAT return. This will save you time in the long run identifying the source of the issue.

To check this you need to either click on ‘manage account’ within the bank reconciliation screen, or on the three vertical dots to the right of your bank account on the dashboard screen. After this you will need to select ‘reconciliation report’. You can then select the date that you wish to check, and this will produce something similar to the below. The ‘statement balance’ is the figure that should agree to your bank statements and, if everything is reconciled correctly, then the ‘balance in Xero’ should agree to this as well.

Every 90 days you will have to refresh your bank feed which links your bank statements through to Xero. Unfortunately, there is no way around this as it is a legal requirement for the reauthorisation to happen.

Xero will typically give you several prompts when the link has expired such as the example below taken from a dashboard screen. If you click ‘renew bank connection’ this will then redirect you to your online banking where you can log-in with your online banking details.

If you find an issue with duplicate entries on the bank feed then these can be removed by going on to the ‘bank statements’ tab within the bank reconciliation screen and ticking the box to the far left of the relevant transaction.

The options ‘restore’ and ‘delete’ will then appear, allowing you to remove duplicated transactions but also, if you make a mistake, restore a deleted line. If you have already reconciled both the original and duplicated transaction, then you will need to remove it from this screen but you will have to remove the transaction from the ‘account transactions’ page as well.

RURAL BUSINESS & FINANCE GROUP

The Albert Goodman Farms and Estates Team are delighted to be running The Rural Business and Finance Group.

A series of six FREE workshops aimed specifically at the next generation of farmers to help you understand the financial and business side of running a farming business, together with some exciting topics and talks from other professionals.

The workshops will run from 7.00pm - 9.00pm (with a break for refreshments (pizza!) half way through) and are being held on the first Wednesday of each month in our Taunton office as shown:

1 NOVEMBER 2023

6 DECEMBER 2023

3 JANUARY 2024

TOPICS COVERED INCLUDE:

7 FEBRUARY 2024

6 MARCH 2024

3 APRIL 2024

Understanding your accounts, tax and cash position

Banking / finance

Forecasts and budget

Diversification and planning

Preparing tenancy applications

Grants and subsidies

The future of farming

The final session will bring all of the previous sessions together in a case study. The format of the workshops will be an introduction / presentation on the topic, followed by an interactive session with worked examples, where questions are encouraged from participants.

We feel that these workshops would be of great benefit to you and hope you are able to join us.

For further information or to book your place, please contact Grace Popham or Holly Porter Tel: 01823 286096

grace.popham@albertgoodman.co.uk

holly.porter@albertgoodman.co.uk

THINK WE COULD HELP, PLEASE DO CONTACT ONE OF US

SAM KIRKHAM

sam.kirkham@albertgoodman.co.uk

01823 250350

IAIN MCVICAR

iain.mcvicar@albertgoodman.co.uk

01823 250283

KATE HARDY

kate.hardy@albertgoodman.co.uk 01305 752064

KATE BELL

kate.bell@albertgoodman.co.uk

01823 250286

TOM STONE

tom.stone@albertgoodman.co.uk 01823 250397

JAMES BRYANT

james.bryant@albertgoodman.co.uk 01823 250372

KEEPING IN TOUCH

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