Directors have a responsibility to maintain, preserve and deliver up records that are adequate to explain the financial position of their company. If they fail to do so, they run the risk of being disqualified from acting as a director. In a recent Insolvency Service investigation, a director was banned for seven years. His transgressions are illuminating. They included: He was unable...
Considering investing in plant or equipment
Business owners may be considering their options for investment in new equipment especially if their trading year end is March, as is often the case. There are a number of considerations: Cash flow, can the business afford the cost or fund loan or other financing arrangements? Will the new equipment make a positive impact to the bottom line? What are the tax breaks? Points...
Beware internet phishers
The end of January, self-assessment filing deadline, and the approaching tax year end seem to stimulate fraudulent activity focussing on tax issues. In particular, increasingly convincing attempts are made to get tax payers to part with their personal bank details or other personal information for nefarious purposes. HMRC will never ask for your personal details, particularly your bank or credit card information,...
Tax Diary February/March 2017
1 February 2017 - Due date for corporation tax payable for the year ended 30 April 2016. 19 February 2017 - PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 February 2017. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 February 2017) 19 February 2017 - Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 February...
Tax planning options 2016-17
There are just two months left before the end of the 2016-17 tax year. Those tax payers who have income from business or property sources, and have not yet considered their tax planning options for 2016-17, should do so as soon as possible. Most tax planning options expire at the end of the tax year. You may lose an opportunity to...
Muras Matters: HM Revenue & Customs and ‘Phishing’ Emails
HM Revenue & Customs And ‘Phishing’ Emails Phishing HM Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”) have recently warned again of ‘phishing’ emails being sent out by fraudsters in the run up to the Self Assessment deadline tomorrow. At this time of year many taxpayers in the Self Assessment regime are expecting to receive refunds and therefore don’t always recognise such emails, purporting to be...
Gifts and Inheritance Tax reliefs and exemptions
There’s usually no Inheritance Tax to pay on small gifts you make out of your normal income, such as Christmas or birthday presents. These are known as ‘exempted gifts’. There’s also no Inheritance Tax to pay on gifts between spouses or civil partners. You can give them as much as you like during your lifetime - as long as they live...
New Lifetime ISA available from April 2017
The Lifetime ISA will be available for young adults from April 2017 as the Savings (Government Contributions) Bill receives Royal Assent. The Help to Save scheme to help people on low incomes will be available from 2018. The Lifetime ISA, available from 6 April 2017, can be accessed to put towards a first home or once the account holder turns 60....
Muras Matters: Auto Enrolment
Auto Enrolment Background Auto Enrolment (“AE”) is a mandatory process, introduced in law in 2012, to enrol all eligible employees into a pension scheme. The introduction of Auto Enrolment is staggered according to the size of a business, and many employers (businesses with over 30 employees) will have applied the auto enrolment rules some time ago. Under the this regime all employers will...
Reminders of significant tax changes from April 2017
The first thing you can count on, is that taxation is here to stay. The second thing you can count on is that the tax rules will continue to change to meet the changing needs of our government to recover funds from the economy and restart the cycle of public expenditure that maintain services and oil the wheels of government. Apart...