Category Archives: News

Are you self-employed? If you are, you may need to make your second payment on account for 2016-17, due date for payment is 31 July 2017.

This second payment on account will have been based on 50% of your combined Self Assessment tax and Class 4 NIC liability for 2015-16. Which raises an interesting question.

What if your actual Self Assessment liability for 2016-17 is higher or lower than the liability for 2015-16? From a cash flow perspective, the outcome is win-win in both cases. Let’s consider the two options in more detail:

2016-17 liability is higher than 2015-16

In this case your taxable profits will have increased, year on year, and after your January and July 2017 payments...

Apparently, over 4 million tax payers are eligible to claim the new marriage allowance, but only 2 million have done so. If our math is correct, this add up to £1.3bn in unclaimed tax refunds.

The allowance has been available since 6 April 2015 and is worth £212 for 2015-16, £220 for 2016-17 and £230 for 2017-18; a cumulative tax rebate of £662. The allowance is only available to the following couples:

• Couples must be married or in a formal civil partnership, living together does not qualify.
• One spouse/partner needs to be a non-tax payer. i.e. their income must be below the personal tax allowance. (£10,600 for 2015-16, £11,000 for 2016-17, and £11,500 for 2017-18).
• The other spouse/partner needs...

Businesses are required to register for VAT purposes when their annual taxable turnover exceeds £85,000 (this limit applies from 1 April 2017). You will not have to account for VAT on your taxable sales up to the date you are required to register, but interestingly, you may be able to claim back VAT you have paid out on purchases of goods, services and equipment, prior to the VAT registration date.

Accordingly, if you started a new business and were not required to register for VAT straight away, the first thing you should do when you do register is to explore the possibility that you can recover VAT you have paid on past purchases.

There’s a time limit...

Many employees use their own cars to undertake journeys for their employers. In most cases, employers will pay for this. Generally, they will pay a rate per mile.

HMRC consider this type of mileage payment as tax exempt as long as the rate per mile paid does not exceed a certain amount. Currently, the tax-free rates for cars are:

• 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, and
• 25p per mile for any additional miles in excess of 10,000.

The same rates per mile apply if you use your own van for business travel.

It is also possible to claim up to 24p per mile for the use of a motorbike and 20p per mile...