Company Cars Changes to Advisory Fuel Rates This Bulletin is aimed at company car drivers (and their employers) who are not provided with fuel for private mileage HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have changed their advisory fuel rates for company cars with effect from 1 September 2017. The rates are intended to give guidance to employers about what is an acceptable fuel...
Muras Matters: National Minimum Wage : Common Errors
National Minimum Wage : Common Errors Background The latest list of employers that have failed to comply with national minimum wage legislation has recently been published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”), comprising of 233 employers and affecting around 13,000 employees, with retailer Argos topping the “name and shame” list. Argos is believed to have failed to calculate some...
When is a replacement an improvement
We are often asked by landlord clients to clarify the difference between a replacement item of furniture, furnishing, household appliances or kitchen ware, and a purchase that may be considered an improvement. The difference is critical, as from April 2016, the 10% wear and tear allowance was scrapped and the new Domestic Items Relief (DIR) introduced. To qualify for the...
Tax free dividend squeeze confirmed
The government reintroduced the remainder of the March budget last week, it’s the part that was held-over to accommodate the May 2017 general election. It confirms two items that will be of interest to smaller business owners. Firstly, that businesses with turnover below the current VAT registration threshold (£85,000 for 2017-18) will not be required to keep digital records – although they...
30 hours free childcare for working parents
The Department for Education released the following press release last week regarding the new childcare support offer that commences from 1 September 2017. They said: Parents of three and four-year olds who have registered for a place will join the 15,000 families benefitting in the 12 areas of the country that introduced the offer early. The offer should save families around £5,000...
Beware self employed contributions trap
To qualify for the full, new State Pension you will need to have 35 years of contributions. At present, the self-employed pay Class 2 (a fixed weekly amount of £2.85) and Class 4 contributions (9% of profits between £8,164 and £45,000, and 2% of profits over £45,000), but only the Class 2 payments contribute towards your 35 years. From April 2018,...
Common misconceptions about tax and letting property
HMRC has published a list of popular misconceptions that taxpayers have about letting property. We have listed below a summary of situations where you will need to declare rental earnings to HMRC: If you inherit property and let it out. If you buy a property as an investment and let it out. Divorcing partners, who decide to let out their jointly owned property,...
VAT bad debt relief
If you use standard VAT accounting – pay VAT on sales when invoiced and claim back VAT on purchases when invoiced – you may have availed yourself of the six months claim for bad debt relief on unpaid invoices. This would have allowed you to claw back VAT paid to HMRC on invoices that are more than six months old...
Claiming back professional subscriptions
If your employment requires that you obtain and maintain membership of a professional organisation, you can make a claim to set the cost against your taxable earnings for income tax purposes. As you would expect there are a few hoops you will need to jump through to claim this relief. They are: You must have the professional membership to do your...
Evidence of earning for mortgage purposes
If you are a client, and registered to submit a Self Assessment tax return, we can provide you with a statement that you can use as evidence of earnings for mortgage purposes. If you are not a client, there are many ways you can obtain this data direct from employers and other sources. For example, you could use the following as...