Students should be advised that they will pay tax and NIC if:

• they earn more than £1,048 a month on average, and
• pay NIC if they earn more than £190 a week from 6 April 2022 to 5 July 2022 and more than £242 from 6 July 2022 to 5 April 2023.

Students can also apply for a possible tax refund if they work for part of a tax year.

Students who normally live and study in the UK but work abroad during the holidays will need to pay:

• UK tax on anything they earn above their Personal Allowance, currently £12,570, and
• National Insurance if they work for a UK employer.

If students work for a foreign employer, they do not need to pay National Insurance in the UK, but may have to pay contributions in the country they are working in.

Ideally, stock levels should be kept to a minimum such that hard won cash reserves are not tied up unnecessarily. You will need to manage stocks to cover current production needs and consider supply issues – how long will it take to replace stock.

Innovation can throw a spanner in the best laid stock management plans. You may be left with redundant stock.

When prices are falling – in deflationary times – you will not want to hold excess stocks that could be replaced by lower cost items.

Alternatively, when prices are rising – in inflationary times – the opposite applies. You might benefit from investing in increasing stocks if prices for materials are rising, subject to redundancy issues. For example, if lower cost alternatives enter the market, you may be left with redundant stock or suffer reductions in your profit margins.

Maintaining stock levels is a constant play-off between working capital and profitability. Unfortunately, external factors – currently, inflation and supply delays – are playing havoc with stock management.

If your business is required to hold significant levels of stock and you are unsure how best to maximise the effective use of resources, please call. We can help you consider your options.

• Claiming Capital Gains Tax reliefs for traders (Business Asset Rollover Relief, Business Asset Disposal Relief, relief for gifts of business assets and relief for loans to traders),
• Entitlement to claim capital allowance deductions for items such as furniture, equipment and fixtures, and
• Profits earned from holiday lets count as earnings for pension purposes.

You will need to account for your holiday lets properties separately from any other rental properties and you will need to comply with the various FHL rules. They include:

• The property must be in the UK or in the European Economic Area (EEA) – the EEA includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway;
• The property must be furnished. This means that there must be sufficient furniture provided for normal occupation and your visitors must be entitled to use the furniture provided;
• The property must be commercially let (you must intend to make a profit). If you let the property out of season to cover costs, but did not make a profit, the letting will still be treated as commercial;
• All your FHLs in the UK are taxed as a single UK FHL business and all FHLs in other EEA states are taxed as a single EEA FHL business. You will need to keep separate records for each FHL business because the losses from one FHL business cannot be used against profits of the other.

There are also strict rules on occupancy. To secure the FHL tax benefits you will need to let your FHL for a certain, minimum number of days each year. The occupancy rules, set on a tax year basis, are:

• Your property must be available for letting as furnished holiday accommodation letting for at least 210 days in the year.
• You must let the property commercially as furnished holiday accommodation to the public for at least 105 days in the year.

Do not count any days when you let the property to friends or relatives at zero or reduced rates as this is not a commercial let.

Do not count longer-term lets of more than 31 days, unless the 31 days is exceeded because something unforeseen happens. For example, if the holidaymaker either: falls ill or has an accident and cannot leave on time or has to extend their holiday due to a delayed flight.

If you do not let your property for at least 105 days, you have two options (known as elections) that can help you reach the occupancy threshold.

As you can see, there are a few hoops to climb through to achieve FHL status, but the tax rewards for doing so are significant.

19 May 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2022).

19 May 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May 2022.

19 May 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 May 2022 is payable by today.

31 May 2022 – Ensure all employees have been given their P60s for the 2021/22 tax year.

1 June 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 August 2021.

19 June 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 June 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 June 2022)

19 June 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 June 2022.

19 June 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 June 2022 is payable by today.

Ofcom, the regulator, will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to ten per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites. Crucially, the laws have strong measures to safeguard children from harmful content.

Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, the government is launching the next phase of its Online Media Literacy Strategy. It aims to help vulnerable and ‘hard-to-reach’ people, such as those who are digitally excluded or from lower socio-economic backgrounds, navigate the internet safely and teach them to spot falsities online.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will spend £2.5 million to advance the plan through the next year including on training, research and providing expert advice. This includes a new Media Literacy Taskforce featuring experts from a range of disciplines and a boost to the Media Literacy Fund, which gives teachers and local service providers the skills they need to teach people to improve their critical thinking of what they see online.

The present agreed rates per mile are:

• Cars and vans – 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and then 25p per mile.
• Motorcycles – 24p per mile.
• Bikes – 20p per mile.

What if you are paid more than these rates?

If your employer pays you more than these rates the excess paid over the agreed rates will be taxed as a benefit in kind.

Employers would need to declare these benefits at the tax year end on form P11D.

What if you are paid less than these rates?

If employers pay less than these rates employees can claim for the shortfall as an expense against their taxable income.

19 April 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 April 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 April 2022).

19 April 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 April 2022.

19 April 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 April 2022 is payable by today.

30 April 2022 – 2020-21 tax returns filed after this date will be subject to an additional £10 per day late filing penalty for a maximum of 90 days.

1 May 2022 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 July 2021.

19 May 2022 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2022. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2022).

19 May 2022 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May 2022.

19 May 2022 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 May 2022 is payable by today.

31 May 2022 – Ensure all employees have been given their P60s for the 2021/22 tax year.

From April 2024, HMRC’s Making Tax Digital program is being expanded to include self-employed individuals and landlords with business or rental income in excess of £10,000. This is described as MTD for ITSA (Income Tax Self-Assessment)

From April 2025, all other individuals subject to Self-Assessment will be drawn into the MTD for ITSA net.

Two points to consider:

Firstly, MTD directs that affected taxpayers will need to upload data to HMRC’s servers on a quarterly basis. This effectively increases the present, single reporting requirement to four separate filing events during each tax year.

Secondly, in order to upload data, taxpayers will need to keep their records in a digital format that has been programmed to synchronise with HMRC’s servers.

We would encourage all taxpayers who have not yet considered these changes to contact us as soon as possible. Although 2024 may seem to be some time away there is much to do to ensure you stay compliant.