Archives for 2019

1 May 2019 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 30 July 2018.

19 May 2019 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2019. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2019)

19 May 2019 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May 2019.

19 May 2019 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 May 2019 is payable by today.

31 May 2019 – Ensure all employees have been given their P60s for the 2018-19 tax year.

1 June 2019 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 August 2018.

19 June 2019 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 June 2019. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 June 2019)

19 June 2019 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 June 2019.

19 June 2019 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 June 2019 is payable by today.

If you are an employer, you have a statutory duty to provide your employees with a copy of their P60 (pay and tax details for 2018-19) on or before the end of May 2019.

If you distribute P60s and then discover that changes need to be made you will need to give employees a replacement P60 – a paper or electronic version – or a letter confirming the change.

This requirement is additional to your other filing deadlines related to your payroll and later in the year you will need to deal with the reporting of expenses and benefits to HMRC.

If we take care of your payroll for you, these matters can be dealt with in a timely manner. If we don’t take care of your payroll, and you would like to be relieved of this tiresome chore, please call so we can discuss your needs.

On the face of it, this sounds implausible. How can you change your will if you have died?

In reality, as long as any beneficiaries left worse off after any change, agree, you can change a person’s will after their death.

Any change must be completed within two years of the death.

The circumstances that such a change can be agreed are to:

• Reduce the amount of Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax payable,
• Provide for someone who was left out of the will,
• Move the deceased’s assets into a trust,
• Clear up any uncertainty over the will.

Executors will need to make a variation to the will to accomplish the above, this will involve:

• Preparing a variation document that satisfies certain legal requirements, and
• If there is more Inheritance Tax to pay, a copy of the variation must be sent to HMRC within six months of making it. This condition does not apply if the variation does not change the amount of Inheritance Tax payable.

This ability to change a will after death can often resolve family disputes if the affected beneficiaries agree. However, the process is best managed by a professional advisor to ensure that all the formalities are dealt with correctly.

You will pay Scottish Income Tax if you live in Scotland, Income Tax if you live in England or Northern Ireland and the Welsh Income Tax if you live in Wales.

At present, the only regional variations under the control of the Scottish or Welsh governments are the rates of Income Tax charged.

For 2019-20, the rates set by the Welsh Government are the same as those in England and Northern Ireland. Scottish Income Tax rates have more bands and the higher and top rate are 1% higher than the rest of the UK.

These differences do open up planning opportunities if you live and work in the border areas between England and Scotland.

As you pay tax at Scottish or other UK rates based on where you live, you could choose to live in England and work in Scotland if you pay tax at the higher rates. Obviously, there are many other factors that you will want to consider when choosing where you set up home, but if the regional Income Tax rate differentials start to widen, the ability to reduce your Income Tax burden may become more of a deciding issue.

The expenses you claim against your property income will need to follow the usual HMRC ruling that the costs must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of renting out the property.

An example set out on the Gov.uk website illustrates the point:

If you buy a new vacuum cleaner for your own home, and also use it to clean your rental property between tenants, you can’t claim the cost of the vacuum cleaner as an expense against your rental income. However, you could claim the cost of any cleaning products you bought specifically for cleaning the rental property.

Where costs are incurred partly for your rental business and partly for some other purpose you may be able to claim a proportion of that cost if that part can be separately identified as being incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the property rental business.

Expenses you can and can’t claim are summarised below.

Expenses you can claim include:

• Mortgage interest – a proportion of this cost is now limited to basic rate Income Tax relief,
• General maintenance and repairs to the property, but not improvements (such as replacing a laminate kitchen worktop with a granite worktop)
• Water rates, council tax, gas and electricity
• Insurance, such as landlords’ policies for buildings, contents and public liability
• Costs of services, including the wages of gardeners and cleaners
• Letting agent fees and management fees
• Legal fees for lets of a year or less, or for renewing a lease for less than 50 years
• Accountant’s fees
• Rents (if you’re sub-letting), ground rents and service charges
• Direct costs such as phone calls, stationery and advertising for new tenants
• Vehicle running costs (only the proportion used for your rental business) including mileage rate deductions for business motoring costs

Expenses you can’t claim a deduction for include:

• The full amount of your mortgage payment – only the interest element of your mortgage payment can be offset against your income,
• Private telephone calls – you can only claim for the cost of calls relating to your property rental business,
• Clothing – for example if you bought a suit to wear to a meeting relating to your property rental business, you can’t claim for the cost as wearing the suit is partly for your rental business and partly to keep you warm – no identifiable part is for your property rental business,
• Personal expenses – you can’t claim for any expense that was not incurred solely for your property rental business.

Making tax digital – Download our helpsheets:

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Digital record keeping click here

Detailed digital record keeping requirements click here

Presentation click here

1 April 2019 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 30 June 2018.
19 April 2019 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 April 2019. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 April 2019)
19 April 2019 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 April 2019.
19 April 2019 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 April 2019 is payable by today.
30 April 2019 – 2017-18 tax returns filed after this date will be subject to an additional £10 per day late filing penalty.
1 May 2018 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 30 July 2017.
19 May 2019 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2019. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2019)
19 May 2019 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May 2019.
19 May 2019 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 May 2019 is payable by today.
31 May 2019 – Ensure all employees have been given their P60s for the 2018-19 tax year.

Sole traders
If you are self-employed, and obliged to submit a self-assessment tax return, you must keep your tax records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. For example, if you submit your 2018-19 tax return online on or before 31 January 2020, you must keep your records until at least the end of January 2025. Records for this purpose include those relating to personal income etc.
If you send your tax return more than four years after the deadline, you will need to keep your records for fifteen months after you submit your tax return.
If you keep your tax records on a computer, make sure you have sufficient backups of your data to meet these requirements. If you change software during the record retention period, you may need to print relevant reports if you are unable to maintain access to data backups.
Limited companies
If you run your business as a limited company you must keep records for six years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer if:
• they show a transaction that covers more than one of the company’s accounting periods,
• the company has bought something that it expects to last more than six years, like equipment or machinery,
• you sent your Company Tax return late, or
• HMRC has started a compliance check into your Company Tax return.
If you are not in business, the minimum period is 22 months after the 31 January filing deadline and at least 15 months after filing if later.
GDPR
The new data protection regulations require that you don’t keep the personal data of your customers, staff or other contacts beyond the date required by law that they be retained.
Keeping this data online or in dusty boxes indefinitely is no longer an option, you risk heavy fines if you do.
Most online document management systems now have a filter process that will help you manage this search and destroy requirement. As for the storage boxes, you will have to resort to a more hands on approach.

A reminder that HMRC may consider extended options for settling your outstanding tax bill. The key is to contact HMRC, explain why you can’t pay on time, and discuss how you can settle any outstanding liabilities.
If you can’t pay before the deadline, call the Business Payment Support Service. Anyone can use this service, not just businesses.
Business Payment Support Service
Telephone: 0300 200 3835
Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm
Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 4pm
Nominated partners in business partnerships can negotiate time to pay with HMRC on behalf of the partnership or individual partners.
If you’ve missed your payment date
If you’ve received a payment demand, like a tax bill or a letter threatening you with legal action, call the HMRC office that sent you the letter.
Call the Business Payment Support Service if you haven’t received a bill or letter about payment yet.
Self-Assessment
Call the Self-Assessment helpline if you’ve missed your payment date.
Telephone: 0300 200 3822
Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm
Saturday, 8am to 4pm

The following comments were written on the 13th March 2019 immediately following Philip Hammond’s presentation of the 2019 Spring Statement to Parliament. In theory, the government uses the Spring Statement to respond to the most recent forecasts made by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).
However, what follows is a short summary of the points Philip Hammond did raise.
Employment
• Since 2010 there are more than 3.5m more people in work.
• Employment is forecasted to increase by a further 600,000 by 2023.
Public finances
• Debt fell last year and is forecast to fall continuously to 2023-24.
Tech and the new economy
• In response to a government sponsored consultation, moves are afoot to update competition rules and increase competition in the digital economy.
• The tech market place will be encouraged to allow smaller firms to participate.
• Regulation may be introduced to make users’ personal data portable. For example, transfer lists of friends to new platforms and search engine histories to new search engines.
Border access
• From June 2019, citizens of a number of non-EU countries will be able to use e-gates at UK airports and border crossing points.
• The process of abolishing landing cards will also commence from June 2019.
Clean growth
• Government is to explore schemes to encourage energy efficiencies for smaller businesses.
• Developers will need to build in increases in biodiversity.
• The decarbonisation of gas supplies is to be increased by using green gas suppliers.
• From 2025 new homes will need to meet new low energy standards.
Housing and infrastructure
• The government is on track to increase housing supply to its highest level since 1970 by the end of this parliament with an average of 300,000 properties a year.
• A number of new steps were set out in the Spring Statement including the use of the Housing Infrastructure Fund and the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme to help the supply of more new homes across the country.
National Living and National Minimum Wage changes
• The government has tasked the Low Pay Commission to make recommendations for changes to these rates to apply from April 2020. A response is required by October 2019.