Category: Tax

In the Autumn of last year over 50 countries agreed on a Common Reporting Standard (CRS); an agreement to share information on residents’ assets and incomes.  It is therefore clear that there will be a huge rise in the number of reportable accounts when information exchange commences. You therefore need to be aware that if … Continued

Retirees plan to use a mix of assets such as pensions, cash ISAs and savings to fund their retirement, according to a survey by YouGov commissioned by Friends Life. The survey polled 7,000 people across the UK and found that many are planning to use a diverse portfolio of assets to see them through retirement. … Continued

If you’re a company, partnership or sole trader, you can deduct 100% of your qualifying plant and machinery expenditure against your pre-tax profits with the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA). The AIA is available for most plant and machinery expenditure. This includes machines, office equipment, certain building fixtures, vans and lorries. However, certain expenditure such as … Continued

Many mortgage lenders now request a copy of the official HMRC tax calculation (SA302) as confirmation of income. As the result of lobbying from the accounting profession, there has been a change of heart. From January 2015, self-employed individuals with a self assessment online account can provide proof of their income by downloading copies of … Continued

In his recent Budget the Chancellor announced “We will abolish the annual tax return”. This has attracted a lot of media attention, so what is proposed and will we really see an end of self assessment tax returns? There is not a great deal of information available at the moment but essentially individuals and businesses … Continued

Trivial benefits On 6 April 2015 the change to the trivial benefit rules comes into effect. This will exempt from tax (and Class 1 or Class 1A NI) any benefit in kind given to an employee that has a cash equivalent value of £50 or less including VAT. Such items would typically include small gifts … Continued

It’s been over a year since the Chancellor first announced reforms to how people can access their pension savings. We look at what you need to know about the changes: Flexibility in retirement From this April, people aged over 55 will be able to take their defined contribution pension funds in multiple cash lump sums. … Continued

The VAT registration limit has been increased by £1,000 to £82,000 from 1 April 2015. The de-registration limit also increased by £1,000 to £80,000.

As already announced  in the 2014 Autumn Statement, companies  that are Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) carrying out qualifying Research and Development can currently claim a corporation tax deduction of 225% of their qualifying spend. This relief is being increased to 230% with effect from 1 April 2015. In order to improve the cash … Continued

A single corporation tax rate of 20% will apply from 1 April 2015 whatever the level of your company’s profits. As already announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement there will be a new 25% rate of tax on profits artificially diverted by multi-national companies away from the United Kingdom, being labelled “Google Tax”.