HMRC have published company car advisory fuel rates for use from 1 September 2020.
(more…) Read More
HMRC have published company car advisory fuel rates for use from 1 September 2020.
(more…) Read MoreMy client operates a luxury hotel in the UK. They have recently reopened and will now recommence selling face value gift vouchers. The holder can redeem their vouchers against room reservations, dining at the restaurant/bar and when using the leisure and spa facilities. The restaurant does not offer a takeaway service. Historically the client has always charged VAT at the standard rate on all their supplies. Could you please clarify the impact of the temporary rate change on the issue of face value vouchers. When will the VAT be due and at which rate?
(more…) Read MoreSeveral years ago I separated from my wife but the divorce has now gone through. I still own half of the marital home but I have been living in rented accommodation since the separation. Can I claim that my old marital home is still my main residence for capital gains tax purposes when it is sold?
I intend to remarry and my girlfriend wants to give me a share of her current home after we are married. Apparently this was let for a time before my girlfriend made it her home. Would there be any capital gains tax advantage in doing this?
(more…) Read MoreMy client is a limited company operating a self-drive car hire business. I understand that because the cars are intended to be used primarily for self-drive hire, the vehicles are excepted from the block on recovery of input tax, and my client has recovered VAT in full on the purchase of each car.
(more…) Read MoreEven among those who follow good tax-planning practice and maintain forecasts running several years forward, it is unlikely that many foresaw the dramatic end to the 2019/20 tax year.
With the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, the economy shrank a record 20.4% in April 2020, and 19.1% in the three months to May 2020.
(more…) Read MoreSince the Budget in March, businesses have seen a stream of different support schemes and policies announced to help them manage the financial impacts of the coronavirus lockdown.
When Chancellor Rishi Sunak stood in the House of Commons again on 8 July, it was in the context of the gradual reopening of the economy, with several lockdown restrictions having been lowered on 4 July.
(more…) Read MoreINCLUDED IN THIS MONTHS ARTICLE:
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will close on 31 October 2020. HMRC have now issued guidance on how the flexible furloughing will work. I suggest a strong drink and print out the attached and go into a quiet room for several hours to digest!
A quick summary of the position over the next few months follows but the detailed Flexible furlough document attached is how to make the claims and what it involves!
(more…) Read MoreThe latest update on the amount of money lent under the various “Baubles loan schemes” as I like to call them:
(more…) Read MorePlease find enclosed our guidelines for the Vat change today relating to the hospitality, attraction and accommodation supply sectors. Remember Supply is the main word. It is fairly clear cut for most businesses but become Grey for those on the fringes of these sectors. If you supply these industries, in most cases, nothing has changed.
(more…) Read MoreIt’s safe to say Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not expect to be delivering the first official fiscal statement less than four months after his maiden Budget speech back in March, but here we are.
(more…) Read MoreIt’s safe to say Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not expect to be delivering the first official fiscal statement less than four months after his maiden Budget speech back in March, but here we are.
(more…) Read MoreHelping you plan for your retirement is one of our core services, ensuring you are prepared when the time comes to call it a day.
With medical advances enabling more people to live for longer, the average person who retires at 65 lives for another 20 years.
(more…) Read MoreOffering 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.
(more…) Read MoreCoronavirus has many people reflecting on their own mortality. So if you have more time on your hands during the lockdown, planning your estate may be a wise way to spend it.
(more…) Read MoreIncluded in this month’s article:
With redundancies on the rise due to the coronavirus, is it time you understood how termination payments work in 2020?
Beyond the human tragedy of COVID-19 is an economic one.
(more…) Read MoreThe VAT capital goods scheme affects input VAT recovery
relating to high-value capital assets. Input VAT is a tax incurred
on most purchases made by VAT-registered firms, and they can
usually reclaim it from HMRC in full.
Print off and sit down to read.
(more…) Read MoreWith massive pressure on owner-managers, how should they protect their mental health? What are the warning signs something is wrong? And what practical techniques can be used to protect the mental health of small business owners? Dave Howell reports
(more…) Read MoreAfter temporarily pausing tax investigations as COVID-19
business support measures rolled out earlier this year, HMRC
has restarted probes into businesses and individuals’ tax affairs.
The Revenue has also started to direct its attention towards the
misuse of coronavirus support schemes, such as the furlough
scheme and the self-employed income support scheme.
There are many ways to reduce or eliminate the inheritance tax
payable on your estate without using trusts.
But for some, especially if you are very wealthy, they may not be
enough. For others, the control that trusts give over who benefits
from your wealth, and how, is vital for estate planning.
Included in this month’s issue:
We are pleased to enclose out 2020 budget for your attention. Some of the more interesting/concerning points are:
· The lifetime limit on qualifying disposals eligible for the 10% tax rate is reduced from £10m to £1m for disposals made on or after 11 March 2020.
· Cash grants for businesses with a rateable value of less than £15,000
· A temporary loan scheme for SMEs
· A 30-day window for paying capital gains tax on property sales kicks in from 6 April – you will need to prepare your calculations before you sell any property.
· Corporation tax to stay at 19%
· Firms with rateable values of less than £51,000 in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors won’t have to pay business rates from April 2020 for a full year
· A 6.2% increase in National living wages to £8.72 from 6 April 2020
· Principal private residence relief to fall to 9 months in the final period (originally the last 3 years)
· Reverse charge VAT in the construction industry confirmed to start the 1 October 2020
· A significant increase in the pensions taper relief
· Class 1 & Class 4 National Insurance threshold will rise to £9500 from April 2020
· Employment Allowance will rise to £4,000pa from April 2020
Enjoy your read and please contact us to discuss any points – clearly there is a lot of new information here and it will take a few weeks for the Government to filter down how everything will work.
The Government left it to the very last minute to announce its tax plans for 2020/21. Fortunately, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had few surprises up his sleeve in last month’s Spring Budget.
(more…) Read MoreIt’s hard to believe Rishi Sunak has only been the Chancellor since Valentine’s Day, given what he’s had to deal with in a matter of weeks since.
(more…) Read MoreINCLUDED IN THIS ARTICLE:
– COVID-19 POSTPONES OFF-PAYROLL EXTENSION TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR
– CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC PROMPTS ONE-YEAR BUSINESS RATES HOLIDAY
– CHANCELLOR UPS ANNUAL PENSION ALLOWANCE THRESHOLDS BY £90,000
– ENTREPRENEURS’ RELIEF LIFETIME LIMIT SLASHED FROM £10M TO £1M
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.
(more…) Read MoreMy client is aware that new national minimum wage rates will be introduced in April and want to know what they need to do from an HR perspective to prepare for this?
(more…) Read MoreMany 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?
(more…) Read MoreMy 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?
(more…) Read MoreMy client wants to introduce fines for employees that are late to work, are they legally allowed to do this?
(more…) Read MoreMy client ran his decorating business for three years as a sole trader and is now going to incorporate. As a sole trader his turnover never quite reached the registration threshold but he will VAT register when he incorporates as a lot of his customers are now contractors. Will he be able to recover VAT on his limited company registration on the van, tools, and equipment he bought as a sole trader and will still use in the company?
(more…) Read MoreAnne (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.
(more…) Read MoreMy 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?
(more…) Read MoreCONTAINED IN THIS MONTH’S ARTICLE:
– QUARTER OF SMALL BUSINESSES IN THE UK EXPECT TO GO BUST BY 2024
– EXTENSION OF OFF-PAYROLL RULES INTO THE PRIVATE SECTOR COULD FACE DELAY
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.
You’ve got a business idea, you’ve got the skills, the concept,
the motivation and maybe even someone that’s keen to pay for
your services, but where do you start? What will you call your
business? What business structure will suit it best?
It may be that as your business grows you run through several
different structures, but most firms will set up one way and
remain just that, even as their turnover grows or falls.
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?
(more…) Read MoreMy 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?
(more…) Read MoreMany 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?
(more…) Read MoreMy client has been informed by an employee that they are planning to undergo IVF treatment, do they have to make any special accommodations for them at work?
(more…) Read MoreMy client has asked about the prospect of placing their staff on lay off or short-time working whilst business is slow. What should they know about this?
(more…) Read MoreMy client is a recently retired police dog handler. He has decided to start up a business selling dog-training and pet accessories online through Amazon. Do you have some pointers for what we need to think about in terms of VAT compliance obligations?
(more…) Read MoreMy 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.
(more…) Read MoreCONTAINED IN THIS MONTH’S ARTICLE:
– DELAY TO CONTROVERSIAL LOAN CHARGE REVIEW LEAVES THOUSANDS IN LIMBO
– MINISTRY OF JUSTICE FINALLY ABANDONS PLANS TO INCREASE PROBATE FEES
So you’ve got a business idea, and you think it might be a runner.
But then again, just as you’ve geared yourself up to commit, all
sorts of midnight worries start to creep in.
Is now the time? Are people spending money? What about the
sluggish housing market? What about Brexit? And the state of
the local high street – does anyone even go there anymore?
With only two months left until the 31 January deadline for online returns, self-assessment is very much on our minds.
There’s a first flurry of activity around the deadline for paper
filing at the end of October, now far behind us, but December
and January are when things really get hectic.
Australia has used a so-called “backpacker tax” to illegally tax foreign workers from eight countries, according to a landmark ruling.
(more…) Read MoreHow will the Employment Allowance reform coming into play from April 2020 affect my business?
(more…) Read More