Cloud Funding II / Clear Books plc is raising £3.3M. You can own a part of the Company from as little as £12.

Clear Books writes:  Clear Books provides award winning cloud accounting software & easy to use cloud payroll and HR software to small businesses in the UK typically with less than 50 employees.

Cloud Funding II

Cloud Funding II is Clear Books plc’s second public funding round. In 2013 Clear Books took the crowdfunding model and turned it on its head. We created our own crowdfunding platform to manage the funding process from start to finish. Cloud Funding raised £840k from 736 investors. It was heavily oversubscribed with a waiting list totalling £1.1m.

Now it’s back. Bigger and better.

Key points

Growth company.

Revenue increased 74% to £823k for the year ending 31 March 2014.

Santander partnership.

A partnership with Santander, launched on 23rd June 2014, has the potential to be a significant source of growth for Clear Books.

Award winning.

In February 2014 Clear Books won the UK Cloud Awards Accounting product of the year.

Tax Relief.

A tax break, worth up to 30% of the cost of investment, may be available to UK tax payers in the form of EIS relief (subject to authorisation from HMRC, individual eligibility and compliance with requirements for such relief).

Together in business.

Clear Books has 736 shareholders (many of them customers), 33 employees. 7,000 customers have processed more than £2bn.

For more reasons to invest please read our Share Information Document.

FAQ

What are the risks?

Please read the “Important notice” on pages 3-5 and “Risk factors” on pages 53-60 of the Share Information Document to fully understand the risks involved. An investment in shares is speculative, and so you should carefully consider the risks and warnings before deciding if this is right for you and only invest what you can afford to lose.

How do I buy shares?

1. Read our Share Information Document, particularly the “Important notice” on pages 3-5, “Risk factors” on pages 53-60 and the “Terms & conditions of a share application” on pages 63-71.

2. Click on this application form to apply for shares. You will be asked for your debit card details to pay for the shares.

3. Our crowdfunding platform processes payments and issues share certificates. To view share certificates and other communications log into our investor module.

How much is one share?

One share costs £12. There is no minimum investment, and the maximum investment is subject to the amount of shares available at the time of investing.

What payment methods are accepted?

Our online Application Form only accepts payments by debit card. For payments over £100,000 please contactinvestors@clearbooks.co.uk.

What is EIS tax relief?

EIS is a tax relief scheme that could save you up to 30% of your investment if HMRC authorises the Company to issue EIS3 certificates and if your personal circumstances mean that you comply with EIS requirements. We strongly recommend that you speak to an accountant for more information and read the following guidance from HMRC.

How is this financial promotion regulated?

These webpages and our Share Information Document are approved by Brunel Capital Ltd as the authorised person under s.21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Brunel Capital Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 06480836. Brunel Capital Ltd is regulated by the FCA with firm reference number 488757.

What is the money for?

Clear Books intends to raise £3.3m to pursue a strategy to increase the number of small businesses that use Clear Books.

What happens if Clear Books doesn’t sell all the shares on offer?

If you apply and pay for shares and your application is approved then you will receive a certificate for the shares purchased regardless of the total amount we raise. Clear Books reserves the right to extend the Closing Date or close the Share Offer early, or to accept oversubscriptions.

How can I ask a question not answered above?

Email investors@clearbooks.co.uk and one of our Directors will respond.

The Intuitive Accountant Review : Sync QuickBooks Desktop files with Qbox

William "Bill" Murphy for the Intuitive Accountant writes: For years I have fought attempts by users to ‘make use’ of QuickBooks files over the internet; after all Intuit tells you that QuickBooks is designed to run in only three environments, on a local computer as a standalone product, on a local area network (emphasis on ‘local’) in multi-user mode, or in a Windows Terminal Server environment in multi-user mode.  QuickBooks was not designed, or intended, to be used across a wide-area-network via a VPN where users accessed a remote file from the QuickBooks application on their remote computers.

My own experiences with these unapproved alternatives have been with the results of users attempting to use QuickBooks in this manner and the resultant data corruption those users created. I usually ended up being called when someone had already corrupted their QuickBooks data, or had ended up with a file that would no longer open.

Commercially hosted QuickBooks is essentially a version of Windows Terminal Server in which the hosting company is providing the terminal services to you on a subscription basis. Even in a hosted environment, just as when you are running your own terminal server, the quality of the computing environment (resources vs. demand) and internet connectivity (bandwidth) are essential to successful performance.

A few years ago, with the advent of ‘file sharing services’, the craze (or perhaps I should say ‘crazy’) became attempts by people to ‘share’ their QuickBooks file via products like Dropbox. The same problems existed as with ‘wide-area-networks’ if users attempted to actually open their QuickBooks file while it was still in the ‘file share cloud’.  Of course if they were trying to ship the file back-n-forth between users, the issue became who used the file last, and is the file ‘in the cloud’ the most current version of the cloud? [snip]. The article continues @ the Intuitive Accountant, click here to continue reading...

Intuitive Accountant is an independent news and information source written specifically for the small business advisor who needs to stay current on the latest news and offerings from Intuit and the hundreds of Add On products serving the small business.    William (Bill) Murphy, better know as "Murph", is our Senior Editor in charge of all things related to content.   

Now is the Time for U.S. Taxpayers Living in Canada to File Delinquent Income Tax Returns

William D. Hartsock for California Tax Lawyer Blog writes: About one million United States and dual citizens call Canada home. Many of these expatriates have mistakenly failed to file their U.S. tax return and other forms because they believed they did not owe a federal income tax. In response to such failures, the Internal Revenue Service offers streamlined filing procedures for Canadian and other expats to disclose their foreign income and become compliant with their federal income tax obligations.

Each year, Americans living abroad have the option to decide whether to use any qualified foreign taxes paid throughout the tax year as a foreign tax credit or an itemized deduction. The foreign tax credit was designed to prevent a U.S. taxpayer from paying double taxes on income earned abroad. Since income taxes are generally higher in Canada, most expatriates living and working there will not owe a federal income tax to the U.S. Still, such taxpayers are obligated to file an income tax return each year. In many cases, a U.S. taxpayer living abroad must also file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

According to IRS Deputy Commissioner of International Operations Michael Danilack, the streamlined filing procedures were partially implemented to offer Americans living in Canada the opportunity to come into compliance with their U.S. income tax obligations. The streamlined filing compliance procedures allow individual U.S. taxpayers who certify that their failure to disclose foreign income or assets was not willful to file late federal income tax returns and pay any overdue taxes without facing harsh financial penalties. Although the program was initially only available to U.S. taxpayers living abroad, it was expanded in 2012 to include individuals who reside inside the nation’s borders. As part of that expansion, the owed tax threshold of $1,500 was also eliminated. Taxpayers who choose to utilize the streamlined filing procedures are required to file three years of tax returns and six years of the FBAR.

Previously, U.S. taxpayers with significant overseas earnings and assets could only use the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) to come into compliance with their income tax obligations. The OVDP’s financial penalties can be significant, however, since taxpayers who willfully failed to disclose foreign assets may be required to pay a penalty of up to one-half of the highest value of the foreign bank account or other overseas asset. Currently, taxpayers may not use both the streamlined filing compliance procedures and the OVDP.

It would be advantageous for U.S. taxpayers living in Canada and other foreign nations to utilize the streamlined filing procedures now. In July, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) went into effect. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to collect and disclose information about any financial accounts held by U.S. citizens and permanent residents to the IRS. Canada has agreed to begin sharing information regarding financial accounts worth more than $50,000 that are owned by U.S. taxpayers through the nation’s Revenue Agency beginning in late 2015. This is significant because individuals who are under investigation by the IRS may not take advantage of the OVDP or its streamlined filing procedures.

To visit William Hartsock click here.

Additional Resources:

IRS entices U.S. expats to come clean on back taxes with relaxed rules, by Barrie McKenna, The Globe and Mail

More Blogs:

What Am I Required to Report About My Foreign Financial Assets?, July 31, 2014, California Tax Lawyer Blog

Additional Civil Penalties for Failing to Apply to Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program And How to Avoid Them, July 27, 2014, California Tax Lawyer Blog