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The standard rate for VAT will increase in the New Year - What do you need to do about it...

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...

From 6th April 2011 there will be changes to Employer Supported Childcare that will affect employers who operate a childcare voucher scheme and/or directly contracted childcare.

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.

"Can I split my business into separate entities to avoid registering for VAT, therefore charging less than my competitors?"

This question is commonly asked when clients approach the turnover threshold for VAT registration, or (as now) when there is an increase in the VAT rates....

Following a recent decision in the Europeans courts, HMRC have published a new brief which clarifies the rules on when businesses can give away samples of their products VAT free.

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.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announced recently that they may be unable to issue all the PAYE Payment booklets for the tax year 2011-12 to employers in time for the first payment to be made by 19 or 22 May.

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.

A question which we get asked fairly frequently is one of whether an employer needs to disclose on a P11d as a benefit in kind a car which is provided to an employee or director for purely business purposes. Employers often believe that such cars are pool cars and therefore there is no benefit in kind. The answer is not as straight forward as you think.

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.

The date for Value Added Tax (VAT) on a sales invoice is declared on the VAT return period in which the invoice is issued and VAT on purchases can be claimed in the VAT return period in which you receive the purchase invoice, this is called VAT Invoice Accounting.

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.

HM Revenue & Customs announced this month that a number of people will be receiving a tax refund (or worse a tax demand) as a result of HMRC now having the computer technology to tidy up the back log of cases it has been dealing with. Naturally this received a lot of publicity. We would all like to be one of the people who received a tax refund, but actually what this means is that these people were paying too much tax for a period of time. Indeed HMRC have recently disclosed that up to 6 million people paid too much tax through the pay as you earn (PAYE) between 2003/4 and 2007/08. What, as an employer can you do to ensure that employee PAYE information is correct?

The rules regarding the tax relief on pension payments changed in April of this year. Now, tax relief is only available for contributions up to £50,000 per annum. This limit however only applies to individuals and for shareholder/directors there can, in the right circumstances, be quite a tax advantage in using the company to pay the premium on your behalf.

Next April, important changes are being brought in which may have a serious impact for owners of Commercial Property. It is possible that current owners of commercial property have unclaimed capital allowances on certain fixtures and fittings imbedded within the property. Under current legislation, property owners are able to make a claim for fixtures purchased at any time, and still receive tax relief for the last two years. The new rules will require businesses to pool their expenditure on fixtures in a building, within a short period of acquiring the building, in order to qualify for capital allowances. It is possible that the new rules will prevent claims being made for fixtures in property purchased or built in the past.

Since 1 November Junior ISA’s have been available. Each eligible child ISA account has an annual savings limit of £3600. The new accounts offer parents a simple and tax free way to save for their child’s future.

As part of its commitment to tackle tax evasion HM Revenue & Customs have announced that they are setting up specialised teams of tax investigators to target individuals with property abroad. In particular they are searching for those individuals who either are not declaring the correct income and / or gains from the properties or those who do not appear to be able to legitimately afford the property.

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.

In April 2012 a pilot will begin with volunteer employers and software developers providing Real Time Information (RTI) of tax and national insurance contributions made on behalf of employees at the same time they are paid.

A tax case has recently been published in which a tax payer claimed that the reason he had paid his tax late, and as a result incurred a late payment surcharge, was due to the fact that his bank had failed to transfer the funds as requested. The taxpayer was attempting to have the surcharge removed by using the “reasonable excuse” provisions, claiming that he had adequate funds to pay the tax, but due to the bank’s failure he was unable to make the payment within the time limit.

A new tax scheme – the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) – applies from 6 April 2012. It is focused on smaller new businesses or start ups in a qualifying trade. The scheme will make available tax relief to investors who subscribe for shares and have a stake of less than 30 per cent in the company.

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.

Electricians are the latest group of people to be tackled by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as part of their campaign to get people to put their tax affairs in order voluntarily. HMRC currently have two 'live' campaigns; an e-marketplaces campaign and the electrician’s campaign.