Struggling to pay tax – What should you do?
The January self-assessment payment deadline is not well timed, falling as it does in a month when people may be already struggling to pay their Christmas credit card bills. However unpalatable the 31 January tax deadline is, it is not one that should be ignored. Taxpayers who are within self-assessment will need to pay any…
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New reduced rate of VAT for hospitality and leisure
The hospitality and leisure industry were particularly hard hit by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. To help the industry recover they benefitted from a reduced rate of VAT of 5% from 15 July 2020 until 30 September 2021. As a temporary measure, a new reduced rate of VAT of 12.5% applies…
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Understanding how dividends are taxed
Dividends have their own tax rules and their own rates of tax. The rules and the rates apply in the same way regardless of whether the dividends are paid from your personal or family company as part of a profit extraction strategy, or whether they represent investment income on shares. As part of the Government’s…
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Disposing of an asset on which capital allowances have been claimed
Capital allowances are the tax equivalent of depreciation, and the mechanism of providing tax relief for certain items of capital expenditure. However, with the exception of cars, capital allowances are not available where accounts are prepared under the cash basis; instead relief may be available as a deduction in computing profits under the cash basis…
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Do I need to register for VAT?
You must register your business for VAT if your VAT taxable turnover exceeds the registration threshold. This is currently £85,000. You must register if: at the end of any month, the value of your VAT taxable supplies in the previous 12 months or less is more than £85,000; or at any time if you expect…
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Claim tax relief for additional costs of working from home
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the advice was ‘work from home if you can’. As a result, millions of employees found themselves working at home, often at very short notice. Many still have not returned to the workplace, and homeworking (whether fully or flexibly) is here to stay. Employees will generally incur additional costs as a…
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