The new tax year starts on 6th April and with it comes changes to the tax rates and thresholds. Below we have summarised what we consider the most important changes. Dividend Allowance: The tax-free dividend allowance will be reduced from £5,000 to £2,000 per year for 2018/19 onwards. This will mostly affect directors of small businesses who pay themselves through dividends rather than ...read more
Leading up to yesterday’s Budget there was speculation that Philip Hammond would announce some major shake-ups to certain aspects of the taxation system. This was fuelled by the Budget earlier in the year being relatively uneventful and the political environment having changed substantially in the months since then. However, save for one change, the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered another ...read more
Many small businesses have been on the receiving end of substantial business rate bills this year, as the government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has started to act on the implications of a 2015 Supreme Court ruling that was delayed by two years. Some businesses which operate from different rooms or floors have seen particularly large increases in their bills, which ...read more
When providing services to your client, occasionally you might need to pay for items on their behalf. How do you then treat the VAT on the expenses that you recharge to the customer? There is one simple rule that you need to keep in mind: all recharged expenses carry VAT, unless the item is a disbursement. If you pay an expense on ...read more
Are you or your spouse/civil partner considering purchasing a property? If so, it may be subject to the higher rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). Before delving in to the detail, let’s first remind ourselves of what SDLT is. In simple terms, it is a tax on the purchase of land and property which is calculated as a percentage of ...read more
If you are a non-resident individual, company or trust and you have disposed of a residential property in the UK on or after 6 April 2015, you will need to report that disposal for the purposes of non-resident capital gains tax (NRCGT). The deadline for reporting the disposal is 30 days from the date of completion. This is taken as the ...read more
One of the questions that we are asked most often by those entering the world of self employment is “what costs can I claim as an expense?” Well, with the deadline for filing Self Assessment personal tax returns edging that little bit closer with each passing week, we thought now would be a good time to recap the answer to ...read more
A restriction on the amount of tax relief that landlords can claim on finance costs (e.g. mortgage interest payments) began to be phased in from 6 April 2017. It is the latest change to target beleaguered Buy-To-Let landlords, who have also seen the lending market halve in the last year (figures from Nationwide Building Society). It is therefore no ...read more
Some employers have reportedly been caught out after spending £58 on ‘Certificates of Auto Enrolment Exemption’ that are actually a scam. The appeal of the certificates is that, for a relatively small fee, the employer is told they will be exempt from any and all Auto Enrolment duties. However, such an exemption does not exist for (almost) all employers. Therefore as ...read more
A new tax-free childcare scheme has been introduced this year allowing around 2 million households to reduce the cost of childcare, including self-employed parents. How does the new scheme work? Parents with children under 12 years old can open an online account and pay in the amounts they would like for childcare provided by a registered childcare provider. For every 80p that is ...read more