Category: Tax

The July Budget 2015 announced two further changes to the taxation of residential property. These changes will have the most impact on landlords and non-UK domiciled individuals (non-doms). IHT and UK residential property From 6 April 2017 all UK residential property, regardless of how it is owned, will be within the scope of UK inheritance … Continued

Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on additional properties such as buy-to-let investments and second homes will be 3 percentage points higher than current SDLT from April 2016. Corporate properties and properties in Scotland (which are subject to land and building transaction tax) are not affected by the new rules. The new rates will not apply … Continued

Remember that HM Revenue and Customs can collect tax debts by adjusting your Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax code. HMRC refers to this as ‘coding out’. The effect of this is to recover the tax debt from your pay or pension, by increasing the amount deducted during the tax year. This applies if you … Continued

The Enterprise Investment Scheme allows unconnected investors to obtain a 30% set off against their income tax liability up to £1,000,000 investment each tax year. So a £10,000 investment reduces the investor’s income tax liability by £3,000. In addition, provided those shares are held for at least 3 years, the gain on disposal of those … Continued

HMRC have recently announced that they have wound down their business record checks and will no longer initiate new checks using this process. HMRC say that they “remain committed to helping businesses to keep better records”. At the same time HMRC have updated their factsheet on compliance checks. However HMRC may still need to visit … Continued

Annual Investment Allowance: Reduction from £500,000 to £200,000 with effect from 1 January 2016                      In the July 2015 Budget, the government announced that from 1 January 2016 the maximum amount of the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) is to reduce to a new permanent level of £200,000. This reduction will have an impact on many businesses … Continued

A two-year plan aims to increase the use of research and development tax relief by raising awareness among small businesses and making it easier for them to claim. HMRC have launched the plan in response to a consultation which identified four themes – awareness, design, understanding and assurance – that were the key factors influencing … Continued

No doubt you are familiar with savings products such as ISAs and pensions. These products offer generous tax advantages because the government wants to encourage you to save for your future. When you invest through an ISA, for example, all the returns you make are free from all personal income tax and capital gains tax. … Continued

It is reported that tax staff are being taken on to work in the evening and more online services introduced in a bid to improve performance at HMRC as it emerged that only half of calls were answered successfully between April and June 2015. HMRC are apparently struggling to cope and although there has been … Continued

The issues and assets to be considered when discussing death planning have expanded radically. People increasingly have a complex digital life that can be more private and less well recorded than their physical one. For example you may own music on iTunes, books on Kindle, store family photos in the cloud and blog, tweet and … Continued