HMRC have recently announced changes to the way the intermediaries legislation (known as the ‘IR35 rules’) will be applied to off-payroll working in the public sector. In particular, contractors who provide their services to a public authority through an intermediary will need to be aware for the changes, which take effect from 6 April 2017.

Broadly, from 6 April 2017, responsibility for deciding whether the legislation should be applied will move from the worker’s intermediary to the public authority the worker is supplying their services to.

Where the rules apply, the fee-payer…

More and more people – particularly in Wales – are self-employed, but according to recent figures* only eight percent of self-employed workers aged 25 to 34 are saving into a private pension.

This is compared with 59 percent of employees in the same age group who are contributing to their pension pot.

This is a worrying state of affairs, since UK-wide figures show self-employment has grown by 46 percent since 2000 and if this upward trend continues the self-employed could outnumber public sector workers by 2020.

While many enjoy the…

Q. Due to unforeseen circumstances I have recently had to sell my house and down-size to a smaller property. I sold the house for £20,000 less than I paid for it. Can I offset this loss against income from my business and reduce my income tax liability for this year?

A. Unfortunately the tax law does not permit you to do this. I am assuming that you are not trading in properties and the house was either your main residence or an investment asset. Losses on the sale of…

Shortly before Christmas, the Scottish draft budget contained an announcement that Scottish taxpayers will start paying the 40p higher rate of income tax at a lower point than taxpayers elsewhere in the UK. This announcement means that businesses across the UK, not just in Scotland, will need to review their payroll systems to ensure that the proposed change can be accommodated.

Scotland’s Finance Secretary Derek Mackay confirmed that the Scottish Government intends to restrict increases in the rate at which people start paying the higher rate of income tax…

Back in January 2016 we talked about the Government’s Making Tax Digital initiative – the £1.3 billion overhaul of HMRC to transform it into one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world by 2020.

It was intended that by April 2016 each individual and small business would have access to their own secure digital tax account allowing them to interact with HMRC digitally and begin digital reporting for income tax and National Insurance.

So far, so 21^st century.

However, as Shakespeare almost said, the course of simpler…