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...

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;...

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...

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...

Special rules apply to company directors when it comes to calculating their Class 1 National Insurance liabilities. Why the rules Directors, particularly of personal and family companies, can control how and when they are paid and, in the absence of special rules,...

If you operate through a limited company, for example as a personal or family company, you will need to extract funds from your company in order to use them to meet your personal bills. There are various ways of doing this. However, a popular and tax efficient...

As lockdown restrictions are eased, businesses may need help to re-open and to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Depending on the nature of the business, they may be eligible for a Restart Grant or a Recovery Loan. Restart Grants The Restart Grant Scheme...

The Employment Allowance is a National Insurance allowance that enables eligible employers to reduce their employers’ (secondary) Class 1 National Insurance bill by up to £4,000. However, not all employers can benefit – there are some important exclusions. Eligible...

The financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented and borrowing levels in 2020/21 of 16.9% of GDP represent the highest level of peacetime borrowing. To meet some of this cost, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced in the 2021 Budget that various...

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has provided grant support for self-employed individuals whose business has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. An extension to the scheme was announced at the time of the 2021 Budget. As a result, it...

On 3 March 2021, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, submitted his budget for 2021 with the following highlights: Extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme till September Until the ninth month of the year 2021, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will remain...

Private residence relief removes the charge to capital gains tax on the taxpayer’s only or main residence. For the purposes of the relief, a taxpayer can generally only have one residence qualifying for the relief at any one time, subject to the final period exemption...

Those looking to buy an investment property may wish to consider a holiday let. Not only do the second and subsequent homes benefit from SDLT savings as a result of the temporary increase in the SDLT threshold, they can also benefit from the favourable tax regime for...

In June 2020, the Government announced that it was making funding available to customs intermediaries and businesses to help increase their capacity to make customs declarations. Broadly, businesses need to prepare ahead of new procedures coming into play in 2021...

Employees, can you claim tax relief for expenses of working from home? The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that more employees worked from home than ever before. This trend looks set to continue following the Government’s latest advice to continue to work from home where...

The National Insurance employment allowance enables eligible employers to reduce the amount of employer’s National Insurance that they pay over to HMRC. The allowance, which is set at £4,000 for 2020/21, is available to most employers whose Class 1 National Insurance...

The annual investment allowance (AIA) was increased from its usual level of £200,000 to £1 million for the two-year period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020. As this period draws to a close, it may be prudent to review planned capital expenditure, particularly...

At the start of lockdown, the Government announced a number of measures to help businesses weather the pandemic. One of those measures was the option for VAT-registered businesses to defer VAT payments that fell due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020. This window...

The ACQ5 annual awards program recognizes organizations that have achieved beyond exceptional commercial success in their designated area of expertise. Since 2005, the ACQ has acknowledged organizations worldwide, celebrating their achievements, milestones and...

As the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme draws to a close, employers may face the difficult decision to make some employees redundant. Legislation was introduced at the end of July to protect furloughed employees. Entitlement An employee is entitled to statutory...

Where a property qualifies in full for private residence relief, it is perhaps academic, from a tax perspective at least, whether a couple own it jointly or it is the one name only. In either case, the relief shelters any gain that arises and there is no tax to pay....