Richard and Jennifer are in their early 70s. They own and live in their family home which is worth £1.5 million. The sale of the property would realise a significant gain. This would not be a problem because principal private residence (PPR) relief will exempt any gain no matter what happens. Or will it...?
Read Article
If there is one thing worse than paying any form of tax it is having to pay interest and late payment penalties as well.
Read Article
Many people think of Estate Planning as an exercise to so arrange their affairs that the Government can take as little as possible from an estate, leaving as much as possible to their family and chosen beneficiaries. Important as this is, there are other aspects of the matter to be considered and provided for.
Read Article
VAT - the nation’s favourite tax - came into effect on 1 April 1973 and love it or hate it, VAT is still firmly embedded in the UK tax system today.
Read Article
This week the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Spring 2023 Budget.
Read Article
Probate duty was introduced as a British tax on the gross value of a deceased testator as long ago as 1694. It meandered its way along the death tax floodplain, altering its course and name from time to time but retaining its basic substance and function.
Read Article
The Government has provided an extended window for individuals to make good missed contribution years to ensure they have a full complement when it comes to state pension entitlement. What are the rules? What can be done?
Read Article
Making tax digital for income tax self-assessment (MTD for ITSA) all started as a sprint in 2015 when George Osborne announced the abolition of annual tax returns in favour of "a revolutionary simplification of tax collection. Starting next year."
Read Article
As the value of land increases, more and more homeowners are becoming involved in projects affecting their residences and gardens in the expectation of achieving a significant gain. Consider the case of Mr and Mrs Lee which was reported a couple of months ago...
Read Article
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax self-assessment will be on us very shortly. The official start date is 6 April 2024 - approximately 16 months away - but a lot of key decisions need to be made well before that date. Ideally landlords should accept the discipline of quarterly reporting in the year commencing 6 April 2023 so as to be quite ready for the real thing a year on.
Read Article
The TRS machine has been rumbling along for some years now. It was introduced to counter concerns that money and other assets can be hidden inside legal vehicles such as trusts and companies. The scope of TRS has been broadened during its journey and it is now a formidable system, underpinned by significant penalties for non-compliance. Trustees who choose to ignore the requirements do so at their own peril.
Read Article
Most of us would remember entrepreneurs’ relief (ER) and the challenges presented in getting the spelling correct and the apostrophe in the right place! In March 2020 HMRC moved in and rebranded the relief, just to keep us on our toes. It is now known as “business asset disposal relief” or by its acronym “BADR”. There was no alteration to the underlying mechanism of the relief but there was one very important change introduced in the announcement…
Read Article
With the current changes in the political scene, there is a tax scheme that may be taking advantage of before it is removed.
Read Article
Many clients are currently receiving letters of approval for the annual employment allowance which was first introduced in 2014 and has steadily increased from £2,000 up to £5,000 for 2022/23.
Read Article
It is not uncommon for moderately well-off parents to help their children with loans (particularly in connection with the acquisition of property) which later on in life they proceed to convert to gifts when their own circumstances are assured. What documentation is necessary? Do you really need to bother?
Read ArticleMany clients sensibly set up a direct debit for payment of VAT which not only gives a few days extra to pay VAT but also ensures HMRC receive your payment on time, we at C&H Stedman always recommend this.
Read Article
It is not very often that an elderly lady manages to put in place an arrangement the effect of which is to clarify and even extend an inheritance tax relief. This is precisely what Mrs Bennett did - with the help of her solicitor, senior counsel and Mr Justice Lightman - although sadly she did not live to see her name above the tax case Bennett & Others v IRC (1995). This is what happened…
Read Article
There is currently a lot of activity and hype about the 130% super-deduction for companies that ends on 31 March 2023, you may be being encouraged to take advantage of it while it is there or thinking of bringing capital expenditure forward to take advantage of it.
Read Article.jpg)
A few weeks ago all the indications from the Treasury suggested that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would have little or nothing to say about tax on 23rd March. However the Chancellor himself turned this around, making it clear that he wants to be remembered as a tax-cutting Chancellor.
Read Article
Since the financial year 2015 the UK corporate tax rate has been at a single rate, and that rate for the years 2017-2022 has been 19%. This has made life very simple and a good time has been had by all. But changes will be cutting in for the financial year 2023 which commences on 1 April 2023 and which is little more than 12 months away
Read Article
Traditionally advice has been that it is more tax efficient for business owners to hold cars in their own names rather than that of their companies. The electric car revolution has changed all this...
Read Article
According to HMRC some 12.2 million people were expected to file a 2020/21 tax return by 31st January 2022, the official filing date. One week before this date there were still 4 million returns outstanding – nearly a third of them!
Read Article.jpg)
Once in a while there’s a telephone call from someone wanting some cheap advice. “I’ve just been made redundant,” is how it starts. “I’m getting a termination payment,” is how it continues. And then the inevitable question … “It’s all tax-free if it’s under £30,000, isn’t it?”
Read Article%20with%20text.jpg)
Not many people pay capital gains tax and still fewer would be in a position to claim rollover relief, That said, it is a valuable relief and certainly one that business owners should know about…
Read Article
Plastic packaging tax is a brand-new tax with a brand-new acronym (PPT) and a brand-new set of rules and regulations. It kicks in on April Fool’s Day 2022, but businesses affected need to be preparing now…
Read Article
The corporation tax clock is ticking steadily. For many years the main rate has been held at 19% with prospects of an even lower rate. This highly competitive rate internationally is set to increase following the Government’s huge outlay since Coronavirus struck in March 2020. After all someone has got to pick up the bill and companies don’t vote…!
Read Article.jpg)
Oswald was a delightful uncle to have. He had plenty of ideas and plenty of money. He was just the sort of person to turn to in the event of a family problem… Jane, one of Oswald’s nieces, was a young widow and was attempting to run a small business. Jane desperately needed some cash, so Oswald came up with a proposal. He would acquire a half interest in Jane’s house for £200,000 cash, which was a fair deal. If the business picked up, as it was expected to do, then Jane could buy back Oswald’s half share whenever she was ready. The deal was done, and all legal ends were tied up – Oswald was always very particular with this sort of thing.
Read Article.jpg)
Here are a few interesting facts about the consequences of understating the true worth of a death estate for the purposes of calculating inheritance tax (IHT)
Read Article.jpg)
Here’s an interesting one. An elderly couple are about to downsize. In the de-cluttering exercise their daughter - let’s call her Jane - has discovered stamp and coin collections acquired by her father in his youth. Most of the coins are British but are pre--decimalisation, with some very old ones indeed. Initial enquiries suggest that both collections could be very valuable. What should she do with them? And what are the tax implications?
Read ArticleThe chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced his budget to the House of Commons on 27th October 2021. Read on to see our overview, or to get a PDF of our full budget summary.
Read Article.jpg)
The government has just announced some important postponements in its efforts to fully digitalise and streamline the UK tax system. A parliamentary statement was presented to the House of Commons by Lucy Frazer, the new Financial Secretary to the Treasury, on 23 September 2021. So what is on hold and for how long?
Read Article.jpg)
Part of the government’s Covid measures include relief for unincorporated businesses that incurred losses as a result of the pandemic. Note this only applies to the self employed and to partnerships for the two years 2020/21 and 2021/22. No one likes losses. The best one can do is find a way in which these can be relieved against other profits and/or other income. But the path is narrow and requires careful attention.
Read Article.jpg)
George & Mary bought their family home in 1996. It costs them £265,000. The property and the separate garage stand in a plot which is just within the “permitted area”. This is normally taken as 0.5 hectares which in broad terms corresponds to 1.235 acres. George & Mary have looked after the property and as it stands today it would probably fetch £1.4m. But George & Mary have other ideas...
Read Article.jpg)
Now that furlough has drawn to a close, businesses should brace for a significant flood of letters from HMRC as the government looks to recoup a suspected £7bn of fraudulent or erroneous coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) claims.
Read Article.jpg)
The Finance Act 2021 introduced the capital allowance “super-deduction” and special rate first year allowance as a temporary measure. These provide relief for companies on qualifying expenditure on new plant or machinery from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2023. They are valuable reliefs, but the date of expenditure is important for the asset to qualify.
Read Article.jpg)
The recently announced health and social care tax (or the national insurance and dividend tax hike) are covered in more detail
Read Article.jpg)
Thinking to make a capital loss on disposal to a connected person in view of reducing other capital gains? The rules are different and may catch you out if you're not careful...
Read Article
While many of us like to hold onto our money, there comes a stage when it is beneficial to give it away to protect your family from inheritance tax. The question is how much can you legitimately pass on?
Read Article
Pensions have long been shrouded in mystery. Current rules introduced on 6 April 2015 have made them much more intelligible and attractive.
Read Article
Another change in the assessment of business profits is on its way…
Read Article
While the prime object in most Estate Planning exercises is to avoid payment of IHT altogether the fact remains that an increasing number of estates will be chargeable. This could be your estate or one for which you will be responsible as an Executor. It is useful to know that certain types of property qualify for payment of tax by instalment.
Read Article
The Government has recognised the fact that where employees are required to work from home on a regular basis for whatever reason then some tax relief should be available.
Read Article
In general the value of any benefit provided by an employer to an employee constitutes part of the employee’s employment income and is fully taxable. In addition the employer has to pay class 1A NIC on many such benefits. It is very sad.
Read Article
In recent years pensions have become a lot more attractive and with care can be an effective planning tool. It’s a specialist subject and the rules are constantly changing. But successive governments have been keen to encourage pension provision in the knowledge that the state scheme is proving increasingly inadequate.
Read Article
The following is an actual case reported in Taxation recently and considered at some length by a contributing barrister.
Read Article
This note revisits the UK capital taxes scene where there is growing conviction that significant changes are imminent.
Read Article
The SEISS has provided significant support to many self-employed individuals since it was first launched in March 2020. At 31 December 2020 more than 6.8 million grants had been claimed totalling some £18.9 billion of support.
Read Article
23rd March 2021 was going to be the tax day of days. It had been announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself and given the background of a rather thin Budget on 3rd March this event was going to make all the difference. The media hyped it up no end and produced a whole string of likely changes which the Chancellor was considering in an effort to stabilise the UK economy. But it wasn’t to be.
Read Article
There was a time when everyone was entitled to a full personal allowance. Then George Osborne introduced a change in the Finance Act 2014. From 6 April 2015 the allowance was progressively withdrawn where “adjusted net income” exceeds £100,000.
Read Article
Something that did not receive a mention in the Budget speech but is likely to have an impact on most of us sooner or later is the new regime for late return and late tax payment penalties.
Read Article
Mr Sunak has not found this Budget at all easy. He is convinced that thanks to the vaccines the UK economy is on its way to a swift and sustained recovery. He has had to pick his way through conflicting demands very carefully. Somehow he has to hold the economy together, do all he can to keep people in employment, help those without jobs, assist specific industries and sectors which have been particularly affected by the pandemic, check future borrowing, start repaying debt - the list is endless.
Read Article
50 years ago this month the UK finally adopted decimal currency. Despite the fact that the pound sterling was (and is) the oldest national currency in use the UK was one of the last countries to decimalise.
Read Article
If you miss paying your personal tax payment, HMRC are quick to issue penalties. How much could you be charged?
Read Article
The Government’s original support package in March 2020 included specific help in connection with VAT. Registered businesses could defer payment of their VAT liabilities arising in the period 20 March 2020 to 30 June 2020 until 31 March 2021. This day of reckoning is only a few weeks away…
Read Article
It had to come! It was announced in 2016 and HMRC is not backing off. Indeed the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the fact that HMRC needs to be in real time.
Read Article
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is an interesting tax and a relatively new one as well. It was introduced in 1965 by the Labour Chancellor, James Callaghan, who went on to replace...
Read Article
This is a relatively new allowance which first became available in the year 2015/16. Unlike other reliefs it is a transfer of excess allowances from one spouse to another.
Read Article
These letters have been part of HMRC’s armoury for about 10 years and are definitely here to stay.
Read Article
Details of the new CJRS arrangement have just been published. The scheme is being extended to 31 March which provides significant relief to employers and employees alike. But what’s in the fine print? Are there any catches?
Read Article
The tax legislation makes provision for staff or director remuneration to be paid up to nine months after the accounting year end but allowed as a deduction in the accounts of the earlier year. What are the implications?
Read Article
This basic drill, with a few variations to cater for people with special needs, is all covered by The Wills Act 1837 which tells its own story. For a procedure to have been on the statute book for 183 years is good going. But enter Covid-19 and social distancing…. what happens now?
Read Article
This Register has been around since 2017. It serves a dual purpose:
Read Article
Here’s a recent tax case that underlines some basic tax principles.
Read Article
The following is an extract from a recent guidance note sent to accountants and tax agents giving some “flesh” to the bones of last week’s financial statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Read Article
The Government has just published a report entitled “Building a Trusted Modern Tax Administration System” in which it sets out its roadmap for making tax digital (MTD) in the context of a broader 10-year plan to modernise the tax system which is appropriate to the present decade.
Read Article
Successive UK governments have positively encouraged charitable giving in recent years by providing generous income tax and corporation tax relief to donors, donees and sometimes both. After all the public is taking on financial responsibility some of which the government should be bearing…
Read Article
The Chancellor has gone public this week along with the Prime Minister in an effort to assure Conservative party colleagues that his over-riding concern is to drive the economy forward, protect employment and achieve a sustainable level of public finances
Read Article
The self-employed including members of partnerships who have been adversely affected by Covid-19 can now apply for a further (and final) grant.
Read Article
We are all familiar with the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) which was announced on 20th March 2020 with the aim of protecting UK jobs during the global coronavirus pandemic
Read Article
Here’s the latest on the HMRC van case, a long running saga between Coca-Cola European Partners GB Ltd and The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
Read Article
It is becoming fashionable when making a Will to instruct a solicitor or agent to make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) at the same time. What are they? What is their function? Do we all need one?
Read Article
The government has announced a stamp duty land tax holiday until 31st March 2021 in an attempt to kickstart the residential housing market.
Read Article
Examples of some common traps with inheritance tax.
Read Article
HM Treasury has revised its benefit-in-kind (BIK) rates for 2020/21 forward.
Read Article
Most of us have heard about the High-Income Child Benefit tax charge. If you or your spouse has income over £60,000 all the child benefit is clawed back as a tax charge. If income is between £50,000 and £60,000 a proportion is clawed back.
Read Article
We are a small but growing family accounting practice, passionate about being trusted advisors to family businesses like our own.
