Archive:September 2019

Please find below all the articles from September 2019.

Tax-free expenses for home-workers

Monday, September 30, 2019

Providing certain conditions are met, no tax liability will arise if an employer makes payments to employees for reasonable additional household expenses, which the employee incurs in carrying out duties of their employment at home under ‘homeworking arrangements’.

‘Homeworking arrangements’ are arrangements between the employee and the employer under which the employee regularly performs some or all of the duties of the employment at home. There is no requirement for any part of the employee’s home to be used exclusively for the purposes of the employment.

HMRC will accept that…

HMRC win IR35 case

Monday, September 30, 2019

Following a series of defeats, HMRC have won a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) case concerning the employment status of three BBC presenters who used personal service companies (PSCs).

The case concerned the working arrangements for presenters Joanna Gosling, David Eades and Tim Willcox. Unusually, the judges disagreed about the IR35 status of the presenters, although they were unanimous that the ‘imbalance of bargaining power’ between the presenters and the BBC was a significant factor in the case, saying "The BBC were in a unique position and used it to…

Delay in implementation of domestic reverse charge VAT for construction services

Monday, September 30, 2019

HMRC have published Brief 10 (2019), which explains that the introduction of the domestic reverse charge for construction services will be delayed for a period of 12 months until 1 October 2020.

A domestic reverse charge is an anti-fraud provision, which means that the UK customer who receives supplies of construction services must account for the VAT due on these supplies on their VAT return, rather than the UK supplier.

To allow for potential cash-flow and administrative impacts the change could have on businesses, there has been a long…

HMRC publish Agent Update: Brexit Special

Monday, September 30, 2019

HMRC have published a Brexit edition of their Agent Update publication, which contains some useful information on changes to various procedures after Brexit.

In particular, articles are included on the following topics:

Grants for businesses completing customs declarations: £16m in new government funding is now available to help businesses train staff in making customs declarations, and to help businesses who support others who trade goods to invest in IT. This will ensure that trade with the EU continues as smoothly as possible after Brexit on 31 October.

Customs agents currently help…

Employers must plan ahead for EA restriction

Monday, September 2, 2019

The Employment Allowance (EA) is a valuable relief, particularly for small businesses as it potentially cuts the business’s national insurance contributions (NIC) bill by allowing a pre-set annual amount to be offset against PAYE NIC costs. The current limit is £3,000, and it is widely available to most employers. However, from April 2020 the allowance is being restricted to smaller businesses with an NIC bill of less than £100,000 in the previous tax year.

Current claims

Most employers with a liability to pay employer (secondary) NIC are eligible to claim…

Tax cuts coming for zero emissions vehicles

Monday, September 2, 2019

Significant changes to the tax rules governing zero emissions company cars will take effect from 6 April 2020, potentially making an electric car a more attractive option.

The tax rules for calculating the taxable benefit arising on a car are not changing – this will still be calculated (broadly) using the car’s full manufacturer’s published UK list price multiplied by the ‘appropriate percentage’, which can be found by reference to the car’s CO2 emissions level. This calculation gives the taxable value of the…

Parking for rent?

Monday, September 2, 2019

Finding a parking space in a town centre or near to the station is often frustratingly limited. So, if you have a driveway, field or land that can be utilised for parking, you may well have an excellent opportunity to earn some extra tax-free income.

Two new allowances – each set at £1,000 – were introduced from 6 April 2017, one for trading income and one for property income. The allowances are available in addition to the personal allowance.

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HMRC 2018-19 Annual report published

Monday, September 2, 2019

The National Audit Office has published a report on HMRC’s 2018-19 accounts. The report shows that HMRC raised £627.98bn of tax revenues during 2018-19, an increase of £22.1bn (3.6%) on 2017-18. Of this total, around £250bn was paid in PAYE and National Insurance.

Currently, around 5.7m small businesses represent more than 95% of businesses in the UK. These businesses paid £115bn in corporation tax, VAT and other taxes during 2018-19. Small businesses are defined as having a turnover below £10m and fewer…