HMRC’s “Making Tax Digital” programme (cf our news item from September 2016 “HMRC wants you to be software savvy“.) has started to make real progress with the recent launch of Personal Tax Accounts. Making Tax Digital (MTD) is intended to create a “real time” tax system where both businesses and individuals interact digitally with HMRC… Read more »
Posts Categorised: Tax
Dividend Income Over £5,000 – Use Your Personal Allowance
Depending on your circumstances there may a way to utilise your personal allowance to reduce your overall tax burden. Instead of automatically allocating all of your personal allowance (£11,000 in the 2016/17 tax year) against your salary, you can use it (or some it) to offset dividend income instead. In the current tax year the… Read more »
Does working from home give me a CGT problem?
An increasing number of our clients are running home-based businesses or are working from home at least some of the time. One issue that troubles lots of people in this situation is whether claiming home expenses against tax has any impact on capital gains liability when selling the home. Let’s clear up some misconceptions. Claiming home expenses… Read more »
Main Residence Nil Rate Band
You might need to change your will One tax change that we haven’t highlighted yet in our discussions about the Budget is the “main residence nil-rate band” (MNRB). The MRNB is an allowance that has been introduced into inheritance tax calculation, and applies if an individual’s interest in a residential property is left to children or grand-children. MRNB… Read more »
Apprenticeship Levy 2017
Are You Ready for the Levy? A change is coming to large payroll businesses with effect from 6 April 2017 – the Apprenticeship Levy will apply to all businesses with annual payroll costs in excess of £3 million pa. The levy is being implemented by the government to help pay for an expansion in apprentice training. Employers,… Read more »
No National Insurance Rise
Hammond Hangs Head Only days after upsetting the small business community and a substantial section of his own party, Chancellor Philip Hammond has scrapped plans to raise NICs for the self-employed. The 2% increase in Class 4 National Insurance, which we highlighted in our Spring Budget 2017 overview, was due to be introduced in 2 stages starting… Read more »
Spring Budget 2017
Bashing Business Budget? The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, may have expected some plaudits for his increases in social care spending and higher funding across a number of areas health, education and infrastructure. Sadly for him the big headlines have made by his supposed attack on “white man van” – the self-employed. Here’s our pick of the highlights of… Read more »
Flat Rate VAT Increase
Are you a “limited cost trader”? Flat rate VAT is rising to 16.5% from 1st April for businesses that HMRC designates as limited cost traders. This is defined as businesses that spend less than 2% of their sales on goods (not including capital goods, food and drink, and vehicles) for a given VAT accounting period. You… Read more »
Moving
