Morgan Hemp Blog

Child Benefit, Tax Penalty Ticking Time Bomb

Friday, September 26, 2014

Government changes to child benefit claims for households where at least one person earns over £50,000 can lead to surprise Self-Assessment penalties, if there is a failure to register for Self-Assessment prior to the 5th October 2014 and your circumstances have changed.

Less than two weeks away!

Consider these two scenario’s

1. You or your partner have received a pay increase in the past year taking your employment income in excess of £50,000, and you continue to receive child benefit. You must…

Tax Tracking App Launched

Monday, September 22, 2014

Morgan Hemp is proud to announce the launch of its ground-breaking smartphone app.

The app, allows individuals and businesses to log their expenses, keep on top of important dates in the annual tax calendar — and in light of recent changes to the VAT system — to accurately log business mileage.

The free app uses the smartphone inbuilt GPS system to allow users to generate a report at the end of each month that can be sent directly on…

Travel Question

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

If you contract through your own personal service company (PSC), you will be an employee of that company and you have to obey the strict tax rules that apply to employees’ travel deductions when claiming expenses from your PSC.

The first rule is that the cost of ordinary commuting cannot be claimed. This is defined as travel to a permanent workplace, which is somewhere attended regularly to perform the duties of the employment. Travel costs to a temporary workplace can be claimed, but the conditions that make a workplace…

VAT On Multi-products

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Most products and services are subject to standard rate VAT at 20%, but some products are zero-rated (VAT applied at 0%), while others, e.g. rent for certain buildings, are exempt from VAT. There is a limited range of products and services that attract 5% VAT.

If you supply a package which is made up of products and services which carry different rates of VAT, you need to be sure of the split to charge the right amount of VAT to your customers. The VAT man may insist that you…

Redress Payments

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Was your business mis-sold an interest rate hedging product (IRHP) by its bank? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has required the banks concerned to make redress payments to the wronged businesses, and some of those payments are coming through now.

If you receive an IRHP redress payment it will be made up of:

– consequential losses and basic redress; and
– interest is paid at 8%.

The bank may deduct tax at 20% from the interest element, where it is paid to an unincorporated business. Look out for such tax deductions declared…

Late Filing Penalties

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

From 6 October 2014 the HMRC computer will automatically issue you with a penalty if you submit your full payment submission (FPS) under RTI “late”, or don’t submit it at all for a month in which you paid your employees.

So what makes the FPS “late”? HMRC say the FPS must be submitted on or before the day the employer pays the employees (the “payment date”). But is that the day the funds leave the employer’s bank account or the day the employee receives the money?

In fact the “payment…

Auto-Enrolment – time to take action

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

All small businesses will need to be aware of what Auto-Enrolment means for their business, and what their obligations are. Follow these easy steps to create an action plan.

Find out your business staging date
This depends on the number of employees in your PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012. Find out your exact staging date on The Pensions Regulator website, http://tinyurl.com/d946fkd, all you need is your business PAYE reference. This is the most crucial step to understand when you need to…

Well done Wales! Junior Touch Rugby Team Crowned Champions of Europe

Thursday, August 7, 2014

We’re delighted to be able to congratulate the Wales Under 18s Touch Rugby team on becoming European Junior Touch Rugby Champions.

Following a string of matches against fellow European teams, the Welsh squad faced England in the final of the first ever Junior European Championships and beat them 6-3.

Morgan Hemp is proud to have been able to support the team and thoroughly enjoyed attending the Championships and watching the squad as they deservedly took the title.

Speaking of Welsh victory, Martin Hudson, Director at Morgan Hemp said: “We are delighted…

Commission Refunds

Friday, August 1, 2014

If you invest through a firm of financial advisers, you may well receive a repayment of commission from that firm each year. In previous years any refunded commission was rolled into the earnings from your investments or set against charges, so you may not have been aware of it. However, from 6 April 2013 the financial adviser must deduct interest from any refunded commission and show the amounts paid and deducted separately on your annual statement .

You should look out for these refunded amounts on your investment statement…

Accelerated Payments

Friday, August 1, 2014

The Taxman now has the power to demand tax from you if you have used a registered tax avoidance scheme, or if he thinks the tax scheme you have used is similar to one that has been judged to fail by a Court or Tribunal.

For some years most tax avoidance schemes have been registered under the Disclosure Of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS) rules. Each scheme was issued with a DOTAS reference number, known as a “DOTAS number” or SRN, which had to be shown on tax returns of…