Month: April 2019

  • Personal tax planning – What you need to know for 2019/20.

    With the Brexit process rumbling on, Making Tax Digital finally coming into force, and Easter around the corner, now is the time to put your financial plans in place for 2019/20.

  • Making Tax Digital – it’s here………

    MTD zero-hour is here. The moment has come: if your business has a taxable turnover above the VAT-registration threshold, which is currently £85,000, you’re now obliged to keep records in digital form and to file your VAT returns using HMRC-approved software. You probably got a bit fed up of being reminded about the deadline for…

  • Apprenticeship ‘starts’ fall by a quarter

    The number of people starting apprenticeships has fallen by 26% since the Government’s reforms to the apprenticeship system, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO). In April 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced several changes to the apprenticeships scheme, including a levy on large employers and a co-funding requirement from smaller…

  • IHT and the probate charge

    Affluent families in England and Wales face paying probate charges of up to £6,000 from this month after ministers confirmed it as a fee rather than a tax. Families have been used to paying flat fees of up to £215 to obtain the grant of probate needed in England and Wales to administer estates worth…

  • Thousands face huge tax avoidance bills

    Contractors whose employers paid them through loans from offshore trusts are being urged to speak to HMRC as soon as possible or risk receiving massive tax bills. Up to 50,000 contractors in the UK are believed to have benefitted from the lower income tax rates applied under loan advances, instead of being paid salaries. Those…

  • Stamp duty surcharge for the oversea buyer

    The Government is considering introducing a new stamp duty surcharge, which is designed to clamp down on overseas wealth being used to buy homes in England. Ministers have expressed concerns that affluent foreign investors, particularly those buying properties in London, have been driving up house prices for domestic buyers. Figures from the Land Registry showed…