Earlier this year, the value added tax (VAT) returned to its normal level of 17.5 percent, following its decrease to 15 percent. I previously discussed how extremely important it was for businesses to ensure that they were recovering every penny that was owed to them. Unfortunately, businesses are yet again faced with the same set of circumstances. Chancellor George Osborne announced a couple weeks ago in his emergency budget that VAT is set to increase to 20 percent on 4 January 2011.

With this increase, consumers throughout the UK will have to pay more for their everyday goods. To make matters even worse; businesses are likely to see a significant increase in their expense and travel costs. The undesirable increase of 2.5 percent will make a considerable difference to travel costs for companies. However, there is no need to panic because Concur is ready to help its clients meet the altering economic demands.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that our products are easily amendable in order to meet the ongoing changes in the business world, and that’s why it is important to me that we continuously track the VAT rate. Moreover, Concur clients will be thrilled to know that our systems will automatically track the 20 percent VAT rate. Concur Audit, our receipt auditing offering, will be ready to validate expenses with the new VAT rate, ensuring that businesses are recouping all money owed to them.

In times where economic recovery is still uncertain, businesses need to guarantee that they are tracking employee spend, managing company expenditure and keeping an eye on the bottom line. While changes in the government also mean changes in policy, we are doing all we can to ensure that the transition for customers is smooth and doesn’t impact the overall business.