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...
Accounting News
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,...
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...
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...