Small businesses across Gwent are being urged to spring clean their finances after a raft of changes were introduced from April.

John Thomas, who runs TaxAssist Accountants in Newport, said: “Small businesses should ensure they make the most of the new benefits and don’t get caught out by the changes.

"The cost of employing people came out as the top issue facing small businesses in a recent survey we conducted.

"While the latest budget didn’t provide a silver bullet for this issue, there are new tax breaks and changes from April which small business owners need to be aware of and in some cases could help them to make those vital recruitment decisions.”

Key changes include:

• Employment Allowance – from April 2014 most businesses and charities will be entitled to a £2,000 Employment Allowance per year towards their employer National Insurance (NI) contributions bill

• Employees and Employers NI - the point at which employees and employers start paying NI will be aligned from 2014/15 at £153 per week

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Recovery - from 6th April 2014 the recovery of SSP will be abolished

• Personal Allowance and Tax Code 2014/15 - The personal allowance for 2014/15 rises to £10,000 from £9,440 in 2013/14

• Workplace Pensions - from April 2014, it will be the turn of employers with under 250 employees to comply with the new rules and from April 2015, employers with under 50 employees will start their responsibilities

• RTI Reporting Concession for Small Employers – the concession for small businesses with under 50 employees comes to an end on 5th April 2014 and they will need to start reporting PAYE information in real time. Employers with nine or fewer employees can continue to report PAYE information on or before the last payday in the month until April 2016.

John set up the TaxAssist Accountants office in Newport on 61 Caerleon Road in 2009 and now has more than 140 clients across the region.