Although the tax legislation contains an exemption to prevent employees from suffering a benefit-in-kind tax charge on the staff Christmas party, the exemption is limited in scope and application. It is unwise to assume that there will be no tax to pay – without proper planning, an unwanted tax charge may accompany the post-party hangover.…
The start date for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT is fast approaching – from the start of your first VAT accounting period beginning on or after 1 April 2019, if you are a VAT registered business with VATable turnover over the VAT registration threshold of £85,000, you will need to comply with MTD for…
The option to pay employees flat rate subsistence expenses tax-free can be an attractive one; the employees are clear on what expenses will be paid, and the employer is saved the work involved in reimbursing the actual amounts incurred. The rates HMRC set benchmark scale rates which can be used to make subsistence payments to…
There are various exemptions, and potential exemptions, which make it possible to make gifts free of inheritance tax. Making tax-free gifts is a useful way to reduce the value of your estate – and ultimately the inheritance tax that may be payable on gifts. What counts as a gift? For inheritance tax purposes, a gift…
Rent-a-room relief offers the opportunity to enjoy rental income of up to £7,500 tax-free from letting out a room in your own home. It does not matter whether you own or rent your home; what is important is that the let is of furnished accommodation in your own home. How the relief works The relief…
Inheritance Tax and potentially exempt transfers It is possible to make gifts during your lifetime free of Inheritance Tax (IHT), as long as you live for more than seven years after making the gift. Most lifetime transfers are ‘potentially exempt transfers’ (PETs). This is to say, they have the potential to be free of IHT…
There are various reasons why you may have paid more tax than you needed to for a tax year. For example, if you only worked at the start of the year, you may not have received all of your personal allowance. Alternatively, if your tax code was incorrect, maybe reflecting historic rather than current benefits…
The taxation of dividend income was reformed from 6 April 2016. Since that date, dividends are paid gross – there is no longer any associated tax credit – and all taxpayers receive a dividend allowance. Dividends not sheltered by the dividend allowance, or any available personal allowance, are taxed at the appropriate dividend rate of…
Lettings relief potentially shelters some of the gain from capital gains tax on the disposal of a property which has been an only or main residence at some point during the period of ownership and which has also been let out. Where a residence has been occupied as an only or main home, private residence…
The VAT capital goods scheme affects input tax recovery in relation to high value capital assets by partially exempt traders and businesses where assets are used for both business and non-business purposes. The scheme aims to correct the amount of VAT recovered when the use of the asset in later years varies from that in…
