Category Archives: News

For some time now, HMRC have had the power to claw back some or all of the Child Benefits you receive if either parent’s income exceeds £50,000.

The benefit is recovered by the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC). This states that if either parent had income over £50,000 and:

• either partner received Child Benefit, or
• someone else received Child Benefit for a child living with you and they contribute at least an equal amount towards the child’s upkeep.

Then part or all of the Child Benefit received may need to be paid back to HMRC. It doesn’t matter if the child living with you is not your own child.

You may not have considered the HICBC before if your...

Everyone in business that handles personal data must register for data protection purposes with the Information Commissioners Office.

Most business will need to pay an annual fee of £40 or £60 but this can rise to £2,900. Some organisations only pay £40 regardless of their size and turnover. These are: charities and small occupational pension schemes.

If you need to register, there is an online process you can use at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-fee/self-assessment/.

What is personal data?

Understanding whether you are processing personal data is critical to understanding whether the UK GDPR applies to your activities. Generally speaking, personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. The following additional definitions are reproduced from the ICO website:

• What...

A new Recovery Loan Scheme was launched 6 April 2021, to provide much needed liquidity to businesses affected by COVID lockdown measures. Under the scheme, loans of up to £10m are available. The minimum facility sizes vary, starting at £1,000 for asset and invoice finance, and £25,001 for term loans and overdrafts.
Potentially, these loans will be attractive to businesses in retail and hospitality that are gradually being allowed to reopen.
As with the Bounce-Back Loans, the government is providing lenders – the high street banks – with a measure of guarantee to underwrite their risks.
In a recent press release government confirmed:
The scheme, which was announced at budget and runs until 31 December...

One or more charities can set up a subsidiary trading company to trade on their behalf. This may be a useful strategy if your charity:

• makes profits on trading that is not linked to its primary purpose
• makes a profit that comes close to or is higher than the small trading tax exemption limit
• wants to protect its assets from any trading losses
• wants to have a separate organisation to carry out all its trading activities

VAT considerations

A charity’s trading company will not have to pay VAT on:

• profits it makes from donated good sales (as long as it gives these profits to the parent charity)
• fundraising events it runs for its parent charity

Other types of VAT relief that charities get are...