Investors’ Relief (IR) was introduced in April 2016 to complement what was then called entrepreneurs’ relief. IR is intended to encourage outside investment into smaller entrepreneurial companies by those investors who may not wish to get involved with the day-to-day running of the business. Entrepreneurs’ relief, now called Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR), requires the shareholder to be a director or employee of the issuing company. In contrast, IR prohibits the shareholder from being a "relevant employee " (with some exceptions) during the minimum shareholding period – referred…

Due to COVID19, some businesses are experiencing long delays in obtaining a VAT number after submitting the registration form. HMRC acknowledged the delays earlier this year and have asked businesses to be patient whilst the backlog is worked through. However, a business that is new to VAT may be confused about what they need to do in the interim.

Strictly speaking, if a business is registering due to exceeding the historic twelve-month turnover threshold it must start charging VAT from the first day of the second month…

The P11D filing deadline for 2020/21 is 6 July 2021. Usually, this is a routine exercise in most cases. However, due to COVID19, some additional consideration may be required this time round. HMRC have published guidance regarding certain items that need some thought because of the pandemic.

COVID19 testing

Any COVID19 tests provided by the government as part of its national testing scheme, for example for healthcare workers and other frontline staff, are not treated as a benefit in kind.

For other employers, the cost…

Reference is usually made to a VAT-registered business. However, this is not quite correct as it is the person, either real or legal, that is actually registered. For example, where sole trader has a number of different business activities it is not possible to register them separately. Is the sole trader themselves that the VAT number relates to.

In the case of companies, all activities carried out by the company will come under the company’s VAT registration number. However, where there are a number of companies, they will usually…

Since 1 April 2021, any non-UK resident purchasing UK residential property are liable to a 2% surcharge where the property is located in England or Northern Ireland, and cost more than £40,000. This applies to both individuals and companies.

The definition of “non-UK resident” for the purposes of the surcharge has a different meaning than for income tax and CGT, both of which are determined by the statutory residence test (SRT). For SDLT purposes, an individual will be non-UK resident if they were not present in the UK for…