Newsletter Spring 2013

The end of last year saw HMRC take ‘a new approach to Business Records Checks’ and our article ‘ BRC are now up and running’ explains the latest position and what action to take should you receive a letter.

More Taskforces!

As widely reported in the press the Government have made an investment in HMRC of over £900m to crack down on tax avoidance, evasion and fraud with the aim of raising an additional £7bn each year by 2014/15...

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BRC are now up and running

On 1 November 2012, HMRC started a ‘new approach to Business Records Checks’ (BRCs). The target audience of these checks are small and medium sized businesses...

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Capital complexity

The biggest surprise in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was the tenfold increase in the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) only months after it was reduced. However, the way the increase is being introduced is not necessarily straightforward...

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Running your business as a company - time to reconsider?

For many people running a business through the medium of a limited company makes sense due to the income tax and National Insurance savings that can be made...

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Enterprising employees

On 8 October 2012 the Government announced its intention to introduce a new ‘employee shareholder’ employment status. Individuals adopting the status will receive between £2,000 and £50,000 of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exempt shares. They will have to give up certain employment rights in exchange for shares in the employer company...

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And more enterprising incentives!

The Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme is an approved statutory share option scheme. A qualifying share option scheme offers employees (known as ‘granting the option’) the opportunity to purchase shares at a later date, generally at the market value prevailing at the date of the original offer...

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Family pension plans

An individual has an annual pension contributions limit for tax relief purposes. The limit applies to contributions whether made by the individual or by another person such as an employer. From 2011/12 this allowance was reduced from £255,000 to £50,000 and will reduce to £40,000 from 2014/15 onwards...

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Simpler tax for the smaller business?

The Chancellor is to proceed with proposals to make the tax system simpler for the small unincorporated business with an optional simplified cash basis. The scheme is not available to companies but is available to general partnerships...

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Boxing with National Insurance

A recent case concerning the structure of a motor expense policy demonstrates the importance of understanding how the tax and National Insurance (NI) law is constructed when considering alternative expense and other remuneration strategies...

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