Category Archives: News

Cornwall, and we expect many holiday locations, are seeing an increase in landlords switching from domestic letting to holiday lets. Aside from the increased rents they can obtain, should they be successful in making this transition, there are tax as well as commercial advantages.

It all comes down to occupancy.

What are the tax advantages?

There are a number of tax incentives if you own and let a furnished holiday lets property (FHL). They include:

• Claiming Capital Gains Tax reliefs for traders (Business Asset Rollover Relief, Business Asset Disposal Relief, relief for gifts of business assets and relief for loans to traders),
• Entitlement to claim capital allowance deductions for items such as furniture, equipment and fixtures, and
• Profits earned from holiday...

If we lived in a world where the factors that affected trade and other commercial activity were unchanging, then plans drawn up for extended periods, say a year, would be a reliable benchmark to measure actual results against in the same period.

Unfortunately, change is a common occurrence these days. Plans drawn up will become unreliable if, as recent experience with the impact of COVID has proved, significant changes in the background economy occur.

UK businesses are spinning multiple plates at present. Inflation – rising to 10% or more – Brexit issues, supply chain problems, a world shortage of computer chips, the rising cost of utilities – gas, oil and electricity – and there is always the...

The new Financial Services and Markets Bill, announced during the recent Queen’s Speech at the state opening of parliament, will support consumers by protecting access to cash. It will ensure the continued availability of withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK, and that the country’s cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.

The Bill will also enable the Payment Systems Regulator to require banks to reimburse authorised push payment (APP) scam losses, totalling hundreds of millions of pounds each year. This will ensure victims are not left paying for fraud through no fault of their own.

This protection from fraudsters is welcomed and for those readers who have not encountered APPs, they are payments taken from...

The more draconian government interventions introduced to control the COVID outbreak have challenged all of us, businesses and individuals, to consider the notion that we can no longer rely on our jobs or businesses to effortlessly produce the income we need.

Many businesses in the hospitality and entertainment sectors had their ability to trade quashed. Lockdown meant closedown, no income. Government did step up and provide furlough grants, to support staff retention, and various other financial funding to keep businesses afloat.

What did we learn?

That COVID had two impacts, on our health and finances, and that we needed to consider the consequences of future events, even those presently unknown.

One way that we can act is to save...