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Blog

Tax deductible mobile phones for employees

September 9, 2019

Q. I am the director of a family-owned company. My wife and my two children are employed by the company. If the company provides a mobile phone to each of us, what will the tax implication be? A. No tax charge arises where an employer provides an employee with a mobile phone, irrespective of the level of…Read More

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Flat Rate VAT and Rental Income

September 6, 2019

Q. I am a VAT-registered trader and use the flat rate scheme for working out my VAT payments. I receive a small amount of rental income each month which I include in turnover to calculate the VAT due to HMRC. The rental income is managed by a letting agent. Should I include the gross or net…Read More

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Bare Trusts – Income tax and Capital Gains tax

August 21, 2019

I am looking at gifting my child a sum of money. What are the income tax consequences if I use a bare trust to do so? There is no definition of a bare trust in the income tax legislation. Put simply, a bare trust is one where the beneficiary has the absolute right to the…Read More

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Tax-efficient charitable giving

August 7, 2019

Tax relief on personal giving via Gift Aid is given partly by deducting basic rate tax from the payment and partly by giving relief under self-assessment. That makes it hard to work out the true cost of personal giving. Assume that you want to give £100 out of your post-tax income to charity: in other…Read More

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Claiming tax relief on expenses during a company closure

July 17, 2019

My clients have inquired about the possibility of claiming relief for expenses incurred in connection with closing down their company.  In particular, they would like to know whether they could get tax relief for professional advice that they have taken and whether they can arrange for the company to make pension contributions on behalf of…Read More

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Employee Jury Service

July 3, 2019

My client has been informed by an employee that they have been summoned to attend jury service.  What are the rules around this?  The chances are that a lot of smaller employers may be less familiar with handling requests for time off to attend jury service. However, it is important that your client has an…Read More

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Claiming of Pre-trading expenditure when using the Flat Rate Scheme

June 13, 2019

My client is about to register for VAT and wants to use the flat rate scheme as she meets the conditions and it would be beneficial to her. However, her intention is to register for normal VAT initially, in order to recover pre-registration input tax, and then after the first return has been filed, switch…Read More

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Tax on inherited property subsequently sold

June 5, 2019

I inherited my late father’s house in March 2018, which I subsequently sold in December the same year. I have never lived in the house. The total value of my father’s estate is less than £175,000. Will I have to pay tax on the proceeds of the sale? For tax purposes you will inherit the…Read More

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Claiming back VAT on costs prior to registration

May 16, 2019

I have been running my own business for several years and my turnover has recently exceeded the VAT registration threshold. I have registered with HMRC and am waiting for my VAT number and certificate. Can I claim back VAT on purchases made by the business before the registration date? A. There is a time limit for…Read More

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Changes to the rules for payslips

May 10, 2019

 I have some permanent employees and I also pay temporary workers as and when I need extra help. I understand that changes have recently been made to the rules concerning payslips. Could you please provide some clarification? Prior to April 2019, employers were only obliged to give payslips to employees. From April 2019, all workers…Read More

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Tax on sales of properties rented out

April 24, 2019

I bought a property several years ago to rent out. Over the last five years its value has risen from £120,000 to £220,000. I understand that if I sell it now, I would be liable to pay capital gains tax on a gain of £100,000. If I sell this property and re-invest the proceeds in…Read More

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VAT on new cars

April 12, 2019

I run my own business, which is registered for VAT. If I purchase a new car for business use, can I reclaim the VAT I pay on it? If you only use the car for business purposes, you may be able to reclaim all the VAT paid on the purchase price. However, the car must…Read More

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Tax on interest-free employer loans

March 21, 2019

My employer has offered to give me an interest-free loan to purchase an annual rail fare ticket costing £3,500. Will I have to pay tax on the loan? Strictly, the taxable benefit on cheap or interest-free loans is the difference between any interest paid and the interest payable at the ‘official rate’ (currently 2.50%). However,…Read More

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The ‘Section 455 Charge’

March 7, 2019

For accounting purposes, cash transactions between a director and a personal or family company are recorded through the director’s loan account. At the end of an accounting period, if the director owes the company money (i.e. the account is considered overdrawn), and the company is close (broadly, one that is controlled by five or fewer…Read More

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