Yearly Archives: 2017

Many companies have adopted the end of March each year as their accounting year end date. Corporation tax is payable by most smaller companies nine months and one day after the end of their accounts year end. Accordingly, companies that have adopted a 31 March date will need to pay any corporation tax liability for…

One of the few remaining options to carry back tax allowable payments to a previous tax year is the facility to set off certain charitable donations made after 5 April 2017, to the tax year 2016-17. Allowable donations have the effect of extending the amount of income you can earn at the basic rate of…

If you file your 2016-17 self-assessment tax return on or before 30 December 2017, you can elect to spread the repayment of any underpayment of tax for 2016-17 to the tax year 2018-19. This is done by amending your tax code for 2018-19 such that any arrears are repaid by increasing your tax payments each…

The government are considering plans to offer people with serious debt issues time to consider their options. They are seeking views to develop a way to provide individuals in debt with up to six weeks free from further interest, charges and enforcement action. This period would give those affected time to act by seeking financial…

If one party to a marriage or civil partnership has earnings below the personal tax allowance (£11,500 for 2017-18) and their spouse does not pay tax at the higher 40% rate, then they should be claiming the Marriage Allowance. For 2017-18 this tax break is worth £230 in cash terms. The allowance was introduced from…

Choosing an accountant is an important decision which should be considered carefully. Here are our top ten questions to help you navigate and decide which firm is right for you : What specialisms do they have that could help you? How responsive are they to answering your questions ? Is the accountant qualified to work…

The government seems to be taking steps to streamline the process of buying and selling your home. In particular, they are seeking views on ending the practice known as gazumping: where an offer can be accepted and then disregarded when a higher offer is received. In many countries this is illegal, once an offer is…

According to HMRC you don’t have to pay tax or NIC on a benefit provided to an employee if: it costs you £50 or less to provide (or the average cost per employee if a benefit is provided to a group of employees and it is impracticable to work out the exact cost per person)…

There is a whole raft of legislation that seeks to penalise directors and shareholders if they borrow money from their company. These regulations include possible benefit in kind charges for the director/shareholder, and additional corporation tax payments of 32.5% for the company. In effect, the tax system discourages directors from using their company as a…

Smaller business owners, those with annual turnover below the current VAT registration threshold (£85,000 for 2017-18), will be relieved to know that the impending digitisation of tax by HMRC will not be a requirement when the process starts for business tax from April 2019. You can register on a voluntary basis, but many smaller businesses…