Up to 5 April 2018, certain payments in lieu of notice were not taxable, primarily, those not contractually required to be made. This is no longer the case. Employers will now need to pay Income Tax and Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) on an element of all termination payments from 6 April 2018, whether or not they are contractual payments. The element...
Who qualifies for the minimum wage
As you would expect there are a range of conditions that affect the answer to this question. We have reproduced below a summary of the main conditions to be observed. Workers must be at least school leaving age to get the National Minimum Wage. They must be 25 or over to get the National Living Wage. Contracts for payments below the minimum...
Why tax credit payments can change
If you are claiming tax credits make sure that you keep an eye on changes that may affect the amount you receive. Your payments can go up if: your income goes down by more than £2,500 your benefits stop or go down you start getting personal independence payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or other disability benefits for yourself or a child you have a...
Tax Diary May/June 2018
1 May 2018 - Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 July 2017. 19 May 2018 - PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2018. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2018) 19 May 2018 - Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May...
When child benefit becomes a liability
A typical two parent, two child family can claim £34.40 per week in Child Benefit (CB). In a tax year this would amount to £1,789. Often, this becomes part of the family housekeeping and is spent. Consider Mary and John and their two children. John collects the CB, it is paid into his current account and used to fund the household budget....
Cheques to clear in one day
Legislation has been introduced to reduce the present maximum six-day clearance process, to just one day. Banks presently send the payer’s cheque to the clearing banks to facilitate clearance. Under new rules, that will apply from October 2018, this will be reduced to one-day by sending a digital image of the cheque for clearance. To do this, banks will use a...
Protect your home address at Companies House
For those of us who are reluctant to see our home address on publicly available websites such as that provided by Companies House, they will be pleased by a recent change to data suppression laws. This should help you remove your home address from publicly available company documents in certain cases. Companies House have announced: The law has been changed to make...
HMRC plea to tackle online VAT fraud
According to government sources HMRC are asking online market places to sign an “agreement” to keep their users the right side of the law. In a recent announcement HMRC said: “… the agreement will help online market place platforms meet their responsibility to ensure their sellers understand the tax rules, and prevent fraud taking place on their watch.” We assume that the...
Muras Matters: Cash Basis for Landlords
Cash Basis for Landlords Background Following the less than favourable recent changes for landlords regarding finance cost relief, there is some silver lining to H M Revenue & Customs’ consultations about landlords and their taxes. Since 6th April 2017, the default accounting principle for landlords with a gross turnover of below £150,000 is the “cash basis”, so taxpayers looking at their 2017/18...
Do not forget to claim these if they apply
When you complete your tax return for 2017-18, make sure you consider the following expenses. Sometimes they are overlooked. Approved subscriptions you are required to pay to professional organisations. You must have membership to do your job or it’s helpful for your work. You can’t claim tax back on fees or subscriptions you’ve paid to professional organisations not approved by HMRC...