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High street retailers will be interested in the recent publication of an early-stage consultation that explores the argument for and against an Online Sales Tax. It is argued by the retail sector that business rates discriminate against the high street. The idea is to use any revenue from this tax to fund reductions in business…

1 March 2022 - Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 May 2021. 2 March 2022 – Normally Self-Assessment tax for 2020-21 would need to be paid by 2 March or a 5% surcharge would be incurred. This year HMRC is giving taxpayers more time to pay and no surcharge will…

You usually need the agreement of your company’s directors and shareholders to close a limited company. The way you close the company depends on whether or not it can pay its bills. If the company can pay its bills (it is ‘solvent’) You can either: apply to get the company struck off the Register of…

You and each member of your family is entitled to make tax-free capital gains of up to £12,300 in the 2021-22 tax year. If you have made no disposals that would trigger a capital gain in 2021-22, consider the following: If you have assets, shares for example, that you are thinking of selling, you may…

Now that the majority of COVID-19 restrictions are being eased, or removed completely, can we assume that normality can return in place of the unremitting uncertainty of the past two years? Whilst this may seem to be a welcome prospect, business owners badly affected by this disruption will have two issues holding them back: A…

HMRC recently published a reminder targeted at married couples with an unused personal tax allowance. They said: Marriage Allowance allows married couples or those in civil partnerships to share their personal tax allowances if one partner earns an income under their Personal Allowance threshold of £12,570, and the other is a basic rate taxpayer. Eligible…

More challenges to our financial plans last week as the Russian incursion into Ukraine has boosted the price of oil and gas and adds a new layer of uncertainty to global economic activity in the coming year. How will this affect our current business plans? There is a tendency to see a business plan as…

EMI Scheme Most share option schemes, with an eye to tax benefits, use the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme. For qualifying arrangements, there are tax incentives for the employer and employee. The point to emphasise with EMI arrangements is that they can only be made by employers with their employees. Unapproved option scheme Unapproved share…

The UK tax system does not allow families to spread the impact of taxation where there is one significant income earner providing for other family members. For example, if one parent was earning £100,000, they will be paying income tax at 40% rates on almost £50,000 of their income when their partner and teenage children…

In a recent press release the Competition and Marketing Authority issued details of a poll of over 2,000 UK adults. According to the results of the poll: 7 out of 10 had experienced misleading online practices 85% believed businesses using them were being dishonest with their customers And 83% were less likely to buy from…