Howlader & Co Blog

You can claim back some of the input VAT you paid on all the expenses and purchases before you registered for VAT (called pre-registration VAT). Read more here.

Planning on building or updating the site for your company and not sure about the tax and accounting treatment for website development costs? Does it go under profit and loss and count as an expense? Or does it go on the balance sheet and count as an asset? Haven’t a clue how to answer those […]

Rent a Room Relief is an optional scheme that allows you to earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free when you let out furnished accommodation to a lodger in your main home.

ATED is an annual tax charge on Enveloped Dwellings payable by companies, partnerships with corporate members and collective investments vehicles that own a UK residential property valued at £500,000 or above. When do I need to submit my ATED return and are there any penalties? If the property falls within the ATED charge, a return […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]