Offering a company car as a benefit can be a valuable and attractive perk to any valued employee.

Unfortunately, it is not necessarily a tax-free perk and it may be liable for PAYE because HMRC considers the private use of a company car to be a benefit-in-kind.

The last few months of the tax year are the ideal time to pause and reflect, and to make sure you’ve organised your finances as efficiently as possible before the new tax year begins on 6 April 2020.

Many of my small company clients often have overdrawn director loan accounts. When considering minimising the beneficial loan charge, what interest can be taken into account to reduce or cancel the benefit charge?

My client is a surgeon who is currently employed by the NHS. During the year, he has attended various training courses to enable him to keep up to date with changes in the profession and gain new qualifications to further his career. Can he deduct the cost of attending these courses from his employment income?

Anne (aged 66) and Brian (aged 68) are a couple who could have started to draw their state pension a few years ago but they chose instead to keep on running their own trading company and defer taking it. From a look at their records for 2018/19, it’s clear that they both started to draw on their state pension in the year but with different effects on their income tax calculations for the year because Brian has received a lump sum but Anne hasn’t.

My husband and I jointly own a rental property, the income of which we declare 50:50 on our Tax Returns. I have been promoted and will be a higher rate taxpayer going forward. Is it possible for my husband to be taxed on a greater proportion of the rental income as he is a basic rate taxpayer?

The UK tax system is complicated but research and development
(R&D) tax credits can be especially tricky to understand.

That’s partly because what counts as R&D, and what amounts
to true innovation, is judged on a case-by-case basis against
criteria that can seem almost abstract.

My client has left their main residence to their children through a discretionary trust in their will. If a deed of variation is done within 2 years of the date of death would the residence nil rate band still be available?

My client company has a year-end of 31st May 2019 and throughout the year the company incurred capital expenditure that qualifies for the annual investment allowance (AIA). How do we determine the amount of AIA available and how do we allocate the AIA to the qualifying expenditure given that the amount of AIA went up from £200,000 to £1m in January 2019?

Many of my small company clients often have overdrawn director loan accounts. When considering minimising the beneficial loan charge, what interest can be taken into account to reduce or cancel the benefit charge?

My Client owns 100% of an investment property and wishes to transfer a beneficial interest in the property to his wife. I have just read an article on the internet that states he can do this by passing on a 99% entitlement to the income from the property but only a 1% interest in the capital proceeds. The author claims that HMRC Manual PIM1030 supports this view.

Australia has used a so-called “backpacker tax” to illegally tax foreign workers from eight countries, according to a landmark ruling.

How will the Employment Allowance reform coming into play from April 2020 affect my business?

A business has started paying fee protection insurance. The business has taken out the cover directly with the insurance company. Will it be allowable for tax?