The countdown is on to this year’s Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, with film fans eagerly looking forward to the European premiere of Sir Terry Pratchett’s ‘Troll Bridge’.

Screening on the opening day of the festival on May 27, Troll Bridge is a short film based on a short story by the Discworld author.

It’s been produced by Snowgum films and directed by Daniel Knight,

The film premiere will take place at the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival’s new home – Llanelli’s Ffwrnes Theatre.

This is the eight annual festival, with the previous events all having been held at the Stradey Park Hotel.

Kelvin Guy, the festival chief executive, said: “We will always be grateful to the Stradey Park Hotel for helping the festival get ‘lift-off’ but the time is right now for the festival to venture into new territory with a bigger and better event.”

The Troll Bridge premiere will see director Daniel Knight flying in from Australia to take part in a Question and Answer session after the screening.

Troll Bridge is based on a short Discworld story originally published in After The King. The film is described as ‘a live action, hand-animated hybrid, a 15-year film-making odyssey and a love letter to the author Terry Pratchett’.

Mr Guy said fans of the Discworld books were very excited by the premiere.

He said: “At the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, we have been overwhelmed by the response from the Discworld community. Initially, we only released 90 tickets, which went in a couple of hours. Then, we decided to release a further 75. Still, that wasn’t enough! In the end, we had to move the screening from Stiwdio Stepni at the theatre into the main Ffwrnes auditorium.

“To date, the number attending has risen to 400, with some flying in from Europe! We even have some attending in costume! So, on May 27, there will be an estimated 500 attendees for CBFF #8 – our first festival at Ffwrnes.”

It’s been quite a journey for the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival.

The first festival, in 2012, saw 35 submissions in different film categories.

The 2018 event saw more than 650 entries from 52 different countries.

Mr Guy added: “We have had film-makers flying in from the US, Holland, Italy, France and many parts of the UK.

“The number of festival partners has also grown, with Stradey Park Hotel, BAFTA Cymru, RTS Wales, S4C, University of Wales Trinity St. David, Felinfoel Brewery and many more helping. The festival is now a BAFTA Cymru/Wales qualifying event, which means that any film screened during the festival and made here in Wales is eligible to apply to be considered for a BAFTA Cymru award.

One of the other major highlights of the festival will see the presentation of the John Hefin Award. Named after the legendary producer of the classic Grand Slam TV film, the award is for lifetime achievement in film, television or theatre.

Last year’s recipient was the broadcaster and journalist Beti George.

The president of the festival is Wynford Ellis Owen. Patrons include Arfon Haines Davies, Sharon Morgan, Euryn Ogwen Williams, Julian Lewis Jones and Marc Evans.

The festival runs from May 27-30.

Website for Carmarthen Bay Film Festival – https://carmarthenbayfilmfestival.org/

See what films have been nominated – https://youtu.be/cnfXbbdF5ZE

Link to ‘Troll Bridge’ http://www.trollbridge.film/

By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants. The Money Matters column appears in the Pembrokeshire Herald, the Carmarthenshire Herald and the Llanelli Herald newspapers.By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants.

There’s some more important information this week about work you may need to sort out for the taxman at HMRC.

The forms P11D which report details of benefits and some expenses provided to employees and directors for the year ended 5 April 2019, are due for submission to HMRC by 6 July 2019.

The process of gathering the necessary information can take some time, so it is important that this process is not left to the last minute.

Employees pay tax on benefits provided as shown on the P11D, generally via a PAYE coding notice adjustment or through the self assessment system.

Some employers ‘payroll’ benefits and in this case the benefits do not need to be reported on forms P11D but employers should advise employees of the amount of benefits payrolled.

In addition, regardless of whether the benefits are being reported via P11D or payrolled the employer has to pay Class 1A National Insurance Contributions at 13.8% on the provision of most benefits.

The calculation of this liability is detailed on the P11D(b) form.

The deadline for payment of the Class 1A NIC is 19th July 2019 (or 22nd for cleared electronic payment).

HMRC has produced an expenses and benefits toolkit.

The toolkit consists of a checklist which may be used by advisers or employers to check they are completing the forms correctly.

If you would like any help with the completion of the forms or the calculation of the associated Class 1A NIC, then please get in touch with West Wales chartered accountants Clay Shaw Butler.

In other news, Brexit continues to dominate the headlines.

The government has published additional documents containing advice on Brexit for UK small businesses.

According to the government, the information will help business owners to ‘understand how leaving the EU may affect their business’.

The advisory documents cover a range of issues, from changes to UK-EU trade following Brexit, to alterations to how businesses send and receive personal data.

Amidst ongoing Brexit uncertainty, the government is urging businesses to ‘prepare now’. Businesses that import or export goods to the EU are urged to apply for a UK Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number if they have not already done so, in order to continue trading with the EU post-Brexit.

Businesses that provide services to or operate in the EU may need to comply with new rules following Brexit.

A business could be affected if it has a branch or branches in the EU; it operates in a services sector within the EU; it is planning a merger with an EU company; or if its employees have to travel to EU or European Economic Area (EEA) countries for business.

Meanwhile, businesses that hold intellectual property are warned that they may face changes to their copyright, patents, designs and trademarks following Brexit.

The government is urging small firms to use the European Exit Tool.

Weblink to the Exit Tool – https://www.gov.uk/business-uk-leaving-eu

You can find out more about money matters on the Clay Shaw Butler website (under our news for business section) –

http://www.clayshawbutler.com/news/latest-news-for-business

We have a strong and experienced team with great local knowledge all geared-up to helping you get the very best from your finances – whether that is as an individual or as a business.

We stay ahead of the game by putting great store by continual professional development for our staff.

With Investors In People status at Clay Shaw Butler, we care passionately about making sure our staff have all the tools they need to serve you, our customers.

Weblink – http://www.clayshawbutler.com

The team at Clay Shaw Butler can be contacted on 01267 228500.

The team at Clay Shaw Butler are on Twitter. Look for @clayshawbutler.

Carmarthenshire residents are being reminded that there are changes to bin collections over the Easter holidays.

From Friday, April 19 until Friday, April 26, collections will take place one day later than usual. These changes also affect garden waste customers. So for example, if your collection is due on Friday it won’t be picked up until Saturday and so on. Please make sure you put your bins out by 6am on your collection day.

A number of residents have recently been affected by a change in their collection day; please use our online checker if you are unsure of your collection day / bag colour.

Please remember to recycle using your blue bags – it is estimated that 90 million chocolate Easter eggs are bought in the UK every year, that’s a lot of cardboard, foil and plastic packaging!

And if you are making a big Easter lunch for all the family, make sure you either compost your vegetable peelings or they go into your food bin, which is collected weekly, along with any leftovers – including bones from meat or fish dishes. An analysis of black bags carried out by the council showed that as much as a quarter of our black bags still contained food waste. Furthermore, almost three-quarters of it was avoidable and nearly half was still in its packaging!

Glass bottles and jars can be recycled at your nearest glass recycling bank; visit the recycling pages on the website for locations.

The recycling centres in Trostre (Llanelli), Wernddu (Ammanford), Nantycaws (Carmarthen) and Whitland are all open as usual over the Easter period. Check opening times on the website, please remember to take your driving licence, Council Tax bill or utility bill (no older than three months) with you as proof of residency.

Executive Board Member for the Environment Cllr Hazel Evans said: “If you have food waste, and let’s face it most of us do, anything at all even just tea bags should be placed in your food bin rather than your black bag as it is important it does not go to landfill. Please recycle as much as possible this Easter using your food bins and blue bags.”