Under present legislation any transfer of assets between couples who are separating, or divorcing are free of any Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability as long as the assets are transferred during the year of separation/divorce.
This places undue pressure on couples to complete these transfers in time to qualify for the CGT exemption. Based on recommendations from the Office for Tax Simplification, the Finance Bill 2022-23 aims to correct this by enacting the following changes:
If these changes are confirmed, they will apply to disposals that occur on or after 6 April 2023. |
Archives for 2022
Tax Diary August/September 2022
1 August 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 October 2021.
19 August 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2022) 19 August 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2022. 19 August 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2022 is payable by today. 1 September 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 November 2021. 19 September 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 September 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 September 2022) 19 September 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 September 2022. 19 September 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 September 2022 is payable by today. |
Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA)
If you are locked into an IVA and are concerned that recent increases in the cost of living are creating severe financial pressures, you can ask your IVA supervisor to review your income and expenses to see if you are eligible for a reduction in payments or a payment break.
You will be required to provide evidence of your income and expenditure to support a change to your contributions. This could include providing payslips, statement of benefits or utility bills. Any amendments to your contributions into your IVAs would need to be agreed with your creditors. Your supervisor has been provided with the latest guidance on adjustments to payments, via the IVA Standing Committee, and they will also be aware of alternative solutions to help you resolve your debt issues and can help you find further information where appropriate. |
Up to £2,000 tax free
Since 2017, there is no tax to pay on trading income or earnings from land and property as long as the income from each source does not exceed £1,000.
Trading allowance
The trading allowance is a tax exemption of up to £1,000 a year for individuals with trading income from:
- self-employment.
- casual services, for example, babysitting or gardening.
- hiring personal equipment, for example, power tools.
This allowance does not apply to trading income from a partnership.
Property allowance
The property allowance is a tax exemption of up to £1,000 a year for individuals with income from land or property.
If you own a property jointly with others, you are each eligible for the £1,000 allowance against your share of the gross rental income.
If you have two businesses and claim the property allowance in one business, you may not claim actual expenses in respect of the other business.
You cannot use this allowance on income from letting a room in your own home under the Rent a Room Scheme.
There are various provisions to make sure that these allowances are not exploited. If you want to take advantage of either or both these allowances read the fine print on the gov.uk website.
Tax when selling personal possessions
There are certain circumstances when you will pay Capital Gains Tax when selling personal possessions.
You may have to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a profit (‘gain’) when you sell (or ‘dispose of’) a personal possession for £6,000 or more. For example, you may need to pay tax on sale of personally owned jewellery, paintings, antiques, coins and stamps, or sets of things, e.g., matching vases or chessmen. You will need to work out your gain to find out whether you need to pay tax. In most cases, you do not need to pay tax on gifts to your husband, wife, civil partner or a charity. Also, you do not pay Capital Gains Tax when you sell your car – unless you have used it for business, or anything with a limited lifespan, e.g., clocks – unless used for business purposes. You are also exempt from paying tax on the first £6,000 of your share if you own a possession with other people. |
Tax Diary July/August 2022
1 July 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 September 2021.
6 July 2022 – Complete and submit forms P11D return of benefits and expenses and P11D(b) return of Class 1A NICs. 19 July 2022 – Pay Class 1A NICs (by the 22 July 2022 if paid electronically). 19 July 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 July 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 July 2022). 19 July 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 July 2022. 19 July 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 July 2022 is payable by today. 1 August 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 October 2021. 19 August 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2022) 19 August 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2022. 19 August 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2022 is payable by today. |
New protection for tenants
The government has announced their intention to radically overhaul the rights of tenants. The changes announced include:
For tenants
For landlords
According to government sources, these reforms will help to ease the cost-of-living pressures renters are facing, saving families from unnecessarily moving from one privately rented home to another and thereby saving hundreds of pounds in moving costs. |
Loss of personal allowance
If your taxable income exceeds £100,000 you will suffer a reduction in your personal tax allowance.
For every £2 that your income exceeds £100,000, £1 will be knocked off your allowance. The reduction is progressive and means that once your income exceeds £125,140 your personal allowance of £12,570 will be reduced to zero. As Income Taxpayers with income in the range, £100,000 to £125,140, are paying tax at 40%, the gradual loss of the personal tax allowance means that the effective rate of tax in this range is 60% not 40%. Accordingly, if you are affected by this process, tax planning to reduce your income below the £100,000 threshold would be cost effective. This may involve consideration of pension top-ups, deferring income, sacrificing salary for additional holidays, or other planning options that may be available to you. Please call so we can help you consider your options. |
What is goodwill?
In a business context, goodwill could be defined as the amount that a buyer would be prepared to pay for your business over and above the valuation of the business net assets.
Very often, it is the relationships that you have built with your customer base that is the most valuable asset. Buyers will be keen to acquire these relationships and will place greater reliance on this “asset” than any equipment or other on-balance sheet item you may be selling. How is goodwill valued There is no fixed formula for valuing goodwill. Its value is finalised by negotiation between buyers and sellers. There are formulaic methods for including goodwill based on the ability of the buyer to recover their investment, from the business purchased, over a fixed term, say three to five years. Unsurprisingly, buyers of higher risk businesses will want a faster pay-back. Annual valuations Although your valuation of your business may be higher or lower than the amount a buyer is prepared to pay there is value on using a consistent process to produce an annual valuation. In this way you can monitor the growth of your business and work at developing those characteristics that will secure a higher price when you come to sell, for example, building an independent management team. |
Not so trivial benefits
The trivial benefits exemption allows you to provide benefits to employees without your employee suffering a tax charge on the benefit. Likewise, there is no Class 1A National Insurance for you, the employer, to pay.
To count as ‘trivial’ for the purposes of the exemption, the benefit must meet all of the following conditions:
• the cost of providing the benefit is £50 or less.
• the benefit is not cash or a cash voucher.
• your employee is not contractually entitled to the benefit.
• the benefit is not provided in recognition of particular services.
Unless your company is a close company (generally a small company) and trivial benefits are provided to a director or other office holder, there is no limit on the number of trivial benefits that you can give to a particular employee in the tax year.
However, the cumulative provision of trivial benefits to directors or other office holders of close companies is capped at £300 for each tax year.
If you provide the benefit to a number of your employees and it is impracticable to work out the actual cost of each individual benefit provided to each individual employee, you can work out the average cost instead. As long as this does not exceed £50 the cost condition will be met.