Q. Will I have to pay stamp duty land tax on a property I am about to inherit?

A. Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is generally payable on land transactions. There is a land transaction when land passes to a beneficiary under a will, or by virtue of the law on intestacy. However, the legislation governing SDLT (Finance Act 2003, Schedule 3, para. 3A) provides that the acquisition of property by a person:

– in or towards satisfaction of his entitlement under or in relation to the will of a deceased…

The questions surrounding the issue of how best to extract profits from a company in a tax-efficient manner remain as popular as ever. Despite the introduction of the dividend allowance, and the personal savings allowance, extraction by as remuneration and by way of dividend remain the two most widely used methods. The tax effects of these methods may be broadly contrasted as follows:

– Provided the amount is justifiable, remuneration is generally allowed as a deduction in arriving at the taxable profits of the company. The recipient is taxed…

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…