Creative: Brass; TaxAssist Accountants; DS.Emotion
BRASS has promoted its head of print and digital publishing, Stephen Dudley, to the position of board director.
Mr Dudley joined Leeds-based Brass in January 2013 to head up the print and digital publishing team from his previous role at St Ives, where he held the position of business development director.
He will still retain his responsibilities for the print and digital publishing teams, as well as assuming board responsibility for the Brass Media team.
Chief executive John Morgan said: “Stephen’s promotion to board director is very well deserved, in his two years at Brass he has been responsible for delivering significant growth on both existing and new business and has played an instrumental part in adding a stronger sales focus to Brass.”
Stephen said “I’m thrilled to join the board here at Brass, we produce really creative and effective work for both new and existing clients, I am both excited and up for the challenges ahead.”
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SMALL business owners who sell digital services are being warned to beware of new VAT laws.
Will Swift who runs TaxAssist Accountants in Horsforth said that many local small businesses and sole traders, including website and mobile app developers, providers of pre-recorded online training courses and musicians, could be affected by the new rules.
He said: “If you supply digital services to UK customers only, or to other VAT-registered businesses, then these changes do not apply to you. Anyone who provides digital services to consumers in other European Union member states will now have to pay VAT in that country. Unfortunately, there is no de minimus income level, so even if you have a full time job and you develop apps as a side-line, these changes could affect you.
“To comply with the new law, business owners must register for VAT with each country they sell to. There are 28 countries in the EU with 75 different VAT rates, so the costs and administrative burden could be enormous.
“To avoid this headache, there is the alternative to register with HMRC’s Mini One Stop Shop scheme – or VAT MOSS – and submit a single quarterly return and VAT payment. HMRC then sends the information and pays each relevant country’s tax authority. This route doesn’t escape the need to register for UK VAT, but thankfully HMRC have confirmed that domestic sales won’t have VAT applied to them provided they’re under the VAT registration threshold.
“There has been a storm of protest to this new legislation from small business owners across the UK, who are telling the Government it would wipe out any benefits to trading in Europe.”
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LEEDS creative and digital agency DS.Emotion has announced a 27% increase in turnover for 2014 prompting investment in growth plans for 2015.
The consultancy, which has studios in Leeds, Manchester and London, plans to increase its team by one-third, recruiting across all three studios to help manage and service an increase in client activity as it prepares to achieve similar growth in this next financial year.
DS.Emotion has been appointed to create brand campaigns for City House in Leeds for Bruntwood, Thorpe Park Leeds for Scarborough Development Group and Hills’ Zero carbon scheme in Cambridge.
In other sectors DS.Emotion has increased its remit to market 27 hotels for the QHotels Group, secured bespoke projects for NHS Trust service areas, provide brand campaigns for Workplace Pensions Direct and deliver branding and creative work for Civica, a global technology business.
