Please find below all the articles that have been categorised as 'Accountancy News'.
If you are a contractor in the construction industry it is essential that you deduct the right amount of Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) tax from payments you make to subcontractors.
A common misunderstanding about the CIS is that deductions of CIS tax only have to be made from labour costs. This is not the case, but it may work out like that in practice.
HMRC’s instructions are clear, the contractor must deduct the following cost…
Read MoreCould your creative company benefit from a boost to its cash flow? If it produces computer games, films, high-end TV or animation programmes, it may qualify for a new payable tax credit.
All of these products can qualify for extra tax relief if they can be certified as culturally British, and at least a quarter of the core production costs are incurred in the UK. There are some other conditions:
– only businesses trading as…
Read MoreHMRC has this month launched new specialist taskforces designed to target individuals who have not declared rental income or capital gains on property disposals in the South West and South Wales.
The taskforces are part of the Government’s campaign to tackle tax evasion and fraud. HMRC aims to raise an additional £7bn each year through the various taskforces it has launched since May 2011.
It is important to note that the targeting of sectors is not an amnesty and unlike some…
Read MoreGovernment 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…
Read MoreIf 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…
Read MoreMost 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…
Read MoreWas 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…
Read MoreFrom 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…
Read MoreAll 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…
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…
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