Blog

One of my pet peeves is when people use the term self-employed to describe the status of people who run their own limited company.  It leads to confusion in terms of how income is taxed and, when considering eligibility for the COVID19 relief schemes, has caused lots of arguments...

When you buy assets and keep them for use in your business, you don’t necessarily get tax relief immediately.  In your accounts, these are recognised in the balance sheet as fixed assets analysed by asset type e.g. motor vehicles.  This is in contrast to when you purchase a...

PAYE tax codes are not easy to understand and yet HMRC considers it the responsibility of individual taxpayers to check that their own code is right and to inform HMRC if it is not. In our experience, it is extremely hit and miss whether taxpayers even receive a copy of their...

Making Tax Digital – Income Tax “Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs.”  Discuss. It sounds like an exam question for the most boring subject of all...

VAT is not for the fainthearted.  I was once asked during a networking meeting at what point should you have an accountant.  Of course I think that all but the smallest of businesses should have one.  Firstly because you should actually be able to earn more than you might save in...

With effect from 6th April 2017, new rules came into force regarding how tax is calculated on your property income profits.  If you have a furnished holiday let or run your property business through a limited company, these rules won’t apply to you.  If you are an...

A WORD OF CAUTION REGARDING DIVIDENDS As we all know, dividends can only be paid to a company’s shareholders when there are sufficient distributable reserves available for payment of a dividend, otherwise the dividends may have to be repaid. We have often seen situations where...

PERSONAL TAX CHANGES FROM 6 APRIL 2018 Personal allowance increased from £11,500 to £11,850 Basic rate band (taxed at 20%) increased from £33,500 to £34,500 Income over £46,350 to be taxed at 40% Income over £150,000 to be taxed at 45% Dividend allowances to be reduced fro...

Are you thinking of buying a property to rent out as a holiday home?  Because if you are, the taxman treats holiday homes quite differently to standard buy-to-lets. If your property qualifies as a Furnished Holiday Letting (FHL) there are special tax rules for the rental income...