With company cars becoming increasingly targeted by the government these are becoming less of a benefit except to higher mileage business users. For users who may need a van or the load space that is would provide this may well be a viable option
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A client just emailed to query his payments on account “I am a little confused as to the payment on account bit…I thought I was due the tax payment now and 50% of this payment in advance of next years tax by july? Am I having to pay 2 lots of advance payments being 100% of my tax figure…I’m sure I have missed something here..” read more
Do you need to protect yourself so that any fees which you may incur in answering an enquiry are covered? With the shortfall in tax revenues to repay government debt HMRC are being funded to collect more tax and taking a more targeted approach. The latest claims figures from the AW Accounting underwriter quite clearly show HMRC activity has increased greatly.
CLAIMS NUMBERS
You may have heard about HMRC targeting people carrying on a business on Ebay, or bootsales. HMRC are always keen to collect additional tax read more
While everyone will have heard about the increases in NI coming up, there have been other changes which may mean you pay less tax and NI next year. read more
Associated Company rules
Small companies benefit from paying a lower rate of corporation tax on profits upto £300k so there is a danger that a wily director could set up a number of companies under his control to make the maximum benefit from this tax band. For this reason the associated company rules were introduced to block this loophole read more
Following on from some advice given by Traditional painter on their website about choosing a contractor and what questions to ask, we have added some tips which may save you some money on VAT
VAT registration is not obligatory until a company turns over more than £70,000 in a year (the 2010 threshold).
A VAT number is definitely a sign of credibility, but many top craftsmen work alone, and don’t need to register.
Be suspicious if a VAT registered company offers to do a job cheaper by not charging VAT. Not being alarmist, but the VAT man is omniscient and has great powers to act against both parties acting fraudulently!
AW Accounting http://awaccs.co.uk/tax-advice/vat-tips-for-building-projects have provided some tips relating to VAT on building work: read more
This post will be of interest to anyone likely to pay capital gains tax (CGT) as a result of a sale of an asset in the 2010/11 tax year. The June Budget introduced an overnight change to the CGT regime and HMRC have produced a fairly readable Budget Note 20 and a copy of the Example 1 from that release is reproduced at the foot of this article. The example uses a taxpayer whose income is taxed at the basic rate but in adding capital gains the inclusive income will be in the higher rate band. read more
We have been complimented on the updates posted on Twitter live during the Budget and hope to continue this by summarising the main points of interest to small business owners and individuals in the street.
The Chancellor George Osborne started by painting the picture of the poor state of the economy and among various political comments stated that due a cautious approach fiscal goals would be met one year earlier than expected in 2014. The inflation target will remain at 2% which has already been exceeded, this will peak at 2.7% later in the year and then reduce. In terms of the approach to the deficit a lower spending rather than higher tax route is being taken, read more
I was speaking to a client yesterday regarding the options of having a company car and coming from a carbon reduction background he was keen to have a low emission car and wanted to know the tax effect. This is an area where the government are encouraging growth using the taxation system as a carrot, to encourage lower emissions, the arguments regarding the costs and environmental impact of battery materials and technology we will leave to other forums. read more