Rather than allocating specific cars to particular employees, some employers find it preferable to operate a carpool and have a number of cars available for use by employees when they need to undertake a business journey. From a tax perspective,...
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Tax-Free Childcare Update
HMRC have recently run a campaign to remind people that they could be missing out on up to £2,000 per child, per year, towards the cost of childcare. Working parents and guardians may be eligible to receive government top-ups of £2...
A Day At The Races
Alextra Accountants are always looking for continued efforts to help support the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, based in Crewe. The charity makes a fantastic difference to patients, their families and staff and through fundraising aims to enhance the...
Using A SIPP To Save For Retirement
A SIPP is a self-invested personal pension which is set up by an insurance company or specialist SIPP provider. It is attractive to those who wish to manage their own investments. Contribution to a SIPP may be made by both...
Closing A Business – When A Member’s Voluntary Liquidation Is Beneficial
Although it is possible to strike off a company and for distributions made prior to dissolution to be treated as capital rather than as a dividend, this is not an option where the amount of the distributions exceeds £25,000. Where the...
Inheritance Tax And Spouses And Civil Partners
Special rules apply for inheritance tax purposes to married couples and civil partners. To ensure valuable tax reliefs are not lost, it is beneficial to consider the combined position, rather than dealing with each individual separately. Married couples and civil...
Government Childcare Scheme – Tax-Free Top-Up
Working parents can receive a tax-free top up from the Government to help with their childcare costs. The top up is worth £500 every three months (£2,000 a year). A higher top-up of £4,000 a year (£1,000 every three months)...
Optimising Tax-Free Benefits In Family Companies
Making use of statutory exemptions for certain benefits-in-kind offers an opportunity to extract funds from a family company without triggering a tax charge. The essential point to note is that to make the tax saving, the benefit itself, rather than the...
Are Low Emission Cars Tax Efficient?
Significant changes are being made from 2020-21 to the company car tax benefits-in-kind bands affecting ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs). The taxable benefit arising on a car is calculated using the car’s full manufacturer’s published UK list price, including the full value...
Final Salary Pensions And Private Pensions – Taking Income And Making Pension Contributions
We have a number of clients with either current or (more commonly) frozen Final Salary Pension Schemes as well as personal pensions or new employer workplace pension plans. When going through working life ‘collecting’ pensions it can be tricky and...