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The bike to work scheme, introduced by the government is a tax break to encourage cycling to work. Read this blog to find out more...

If you are self-employed you will find that from April 2011, payment of your Class 2 National Insurance contributions (NICs) will be due on 31 January and 31 July. This of course is the same as for your income tax bill, and indeed for Class 4 NICs. Follow the link to find out more.

HMRC have been issuing questionnaires to companies asking how they monitor the private use of their company vans.

Find out what you need to do....

A new online resource, 'Basic PAYE Tools', replaces HMRC's Employer CD-ROM. The resource is available on the Business Link website. As well as having all the features of the CD-ROM it also has an automatic update facility to ensure that the latest information and figures are contained within the tool.

HM Revenue & Customs have announced that Plumbers, gas fitters and heating engineers are the latest targets on their clampdown on trades’ people failing to declare their earnings and pay tax.

For Greenstones customers (namely the small owner managed business) there are not really any new surprises following today’s budget.

After two years of no changes in the tax free personal allowance, the start of 2011/12 (6 April 2011) brings with it a tardy increase in the allowance from £6475 to £7475.

From April 2011 companies and self employed individuals need to be aware of the changes that have been made to the payment of corporation tax and Class 2 national insurance.

Most business owners pay an accountant each year to construct a balance sheet of assets less liabilities at a certain date. This can be a very useful tool to analyse the business net worth, cash flow requirements and liquidity. Clever business owners also construct a summary personal balance sheet to measure their personal net worth.

The new penalty regime for late filing and late payment of self assessment income started in April 2011. One of the most significant changes is that penalties will still be payable even if you have no tax liability or you have already paid the tax liability.

Furnished holiday lettings have been in and out of the news over recent months. If you own, or are thinking of buying such a property, then following the many changes in the proposed legislation has not been easy! So what are the key changes that you need to know now? The main changes are taking place over two tax years.

In recent press releases and public statements HMRC have made no secret of the fact that they intend to crack down on people evading tax. Recently it has been the plumbing industry that has felt the heat, but HMRC have now announced other target groups that they have in their sights.

HM Revenue and Customs have confirmed that they are late in issuing approximately 500,000 self assessment statements of account. HMRC stated it was due to a higher than anticipated number of statements required.

With effect from 9 August 2011 HMRC’s bank accounts have changed. It will no longer be possible to use the Bank of England accounts and therefore any payments directed to the Bank of England accounts after this date will be rejected automatically by the banking system and returned to your bank.

Frightening isn’t it!

That’s how much on average someone earning £25,000 a year pays in taxes over their lifetime.

The UK has reached an agreement with Switzerland as part of its crackdown on tax evasion. A powerful new provision will allow HMRC to discover whether an individual UK taxpayer has an account in Switzerland. The aim of this agreement is to prevent the abuse of Swiss banking secrecy by those who seek to conceal the proceeds of tax evasion.

As January is fast approaching and we are nearing the time when tax returns need to be submitted and tax bills paid, it is appropriate to issue a reminder about two practical issues which will apply this year, namely the new penalty regime for late tax returns and HMRC changing their bank account.

As from 16 December 2011 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are able to accept payments made using the Faster Payments Service. This allows you to make faster electronic payments, typically via internet or telephone banking, enabling them to be processed on the same or next day.

Many directors of small companies draw money from their company’s using a tax efficient mixture of salaries and dividends. Since 6 April 2012 personal allowances have increased, and therefore so has the amount that can be taken from a company as salary without incurring any national insurance.