The new tax year means it is time for owner managed companies to consider tax efficient profit extraction. For many years accountants and tax advisors have suggested that director/shareholders should extract profit by paying themselves a low salary with the remainder of their income being extracted in the form of dividends. Dividends are not deductible in arriving at the company’s …
Tax Saving ideas by 5th April 2018
There are several tax saving steps, to help mitigate your tax liabilities for the tax year 5th April 2018. However, you should act now before the end of the tax year for many of the suggestions below. Individuals – Income Tax Bring forward income to use up your Personal Allowance £11,500 (17/18). Investing into a pension scheme. Paying £80 into …
What are Trivial Benefits?
Employees and Office holders can be provided with trivial benefits. These are not subject to Income Tax or National Insurance on the employee, whilst the employer can also obtain tax relief and reclaim (if registered) any VAT on the items purchased. In order for an expense to be able to be classed as a trivial benefit it must meet the …
How to get a Tax Rebate from your 2017 Tax Return
DID YOU GET A BIG TAX BILL AND NOW WANT SOME BACK? Many of you will have just paid your 2016/17 tax bill before the 31 January 2018 deadline, and some of you will also have paid 50% of next year’s tax on account. Here are a couple of tax planning ideas that can help you obtain a tax rebate. …
The Budget – small business update
Notable changes for small businesses are listed below: Although there is no change to the rate of corporation tax, maintained at 19%, HMRC is to freeze indexation allowance on corporate capital gains for disposals after 1 January 2018. From April 2018, business rate rates will rise by any increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Prices Index …
The Budget – personal tax considerations
The budget announcement included several personal tax considerations. Notable changes are listed below: First-time buyers will pay no stamp duty on homes costing no more than £300,000. First-time buyers of homes worth between £300,000 and £500,000 will not pay stamp duty on the first £300,000. They will pay the normal rates of stamp duty on the price above that. This …
What is the Criminal Finances Act 2017?
In the past, the directors of larger organisations have been able to avoid personal responsibility for the tax evasion acts of their employees and other associates if they can plead ignorance of the act. This “turning a blind eye” excuse has irritated legislators and as a result, we now have the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (CFA). From 30 September 2017, …
What is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?
The GDPR is the new data protection regulation that becomes a legal obligation from 25 May 2018. Every business will have its own specific challenges regarding implementation of changes to internal systems to ensure compliance with the GDPR. Theory is fine, but business owners, particularly smaller concerns, will no doubt want clear advice – what needs to be done to …
Private pension tax relief
There was much speculation prior to the budget last month, that the tax relief for higher rate tax payers was going to be scrapped, or reduced. Many pundits were expecting a flat-rate tax deduction of 33% rather than tax relief for higher rate taxpayers of 40%. Fortunately, for those who may have been affected by a reduction, this change was …
Company capital gains relief is frozen
Before the Autumn Budget, the capital gains tax (CGT) calculations of companies included a relief called the indexation allowance. Basically, this allowed a company to increase the acquisition cost of an asset by the annual rate of inflation. Without this relief, any CGT payable on the sale of the asset would increase. Instead of deducting the cost plus the inflation …