On 11 March 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first Budget in the House of Commons. Just before the Budget announcement, Mark Carney from the Bank of England announced a reduction in UK interest rates from 0.75%...
Accounting News
IT Consultant Held Contract For Services
HMRC’s application of the IR35 rules remains ambiguous after an IT contractor successfully appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) against a tax charge arising under the intermediaries' legislation. In RALC Consulting Ltd v HMRC [2019] TC 07474, the FTT allowed...
Allowable Finance Costs
Although the way in which landlords obtain relief for finance costs on residential properties is changing, there is no change to the type finance costs that are eligible for relief. What Qualifies For Relief The basic rule is that relief is available...
Does The High-Income Child Benefit Charge Apply?
The high-income child benefit charge (HICBC) applies to claw back child benefit from either the claimant or his or her partner where at least one of them has income of £50,000 or more. The charge is perhaps one of the...
Make Use Of The Capital Gains Tax Inter-Spouse Exemption
There are a number of tax concessions available to married couples and civil partners which recognise that their financial affairs may be interlinked. One of these concessions relates the transfer of assets between spouse and civil partner for capital gains...
Utilising The 2019/20 Dividend Allowance
The dividend allowance is quite unusual in that it is available to everyone and everyone has the same allowance. For 2019/20 the allowance is set at £2,000. In common with many allowances, it is a case of use it or...
VAT Registration – Sooner Or Later?
Once a business is up and running, the next major administrative area to be faced often concerns the subject of VAT. At first glance, it looks complicated - not to mention time-consuming - particularly for small businesses. However, taken one...
Private Residence Relief And The Final Period Exemption
From a capital gains tax perspective, there are significant tax savings to be had if a property has been the owner’s only or main residence. The main gains are where the property has been the only or main residence throughout...
Director’s Loan Accounts – Avoiding The Risks
HMRC produce a series of toolkits which set out common errors that they find in returns. The hope is that by being familiar with the mistakes that are routinely made, steps can be taken to avoid them. Although the toolkits...
When Is A Car A Pool Car?
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,...