Charity sponsorship payments are different from donations because your company gets something related to your business in return. Typically, your business brand would be promoted by the charity in some way.
You can deduct sponsorship payments from your business profits before you pay tax by treating them as business expenses.
Payments qualify as business expenses if the charity:
• officially supports your products or services,
• allows you to use their logo in your own printed material,
• allows you to sell your goods or services at their event or premises,
• links from their website to yours.
If you are unsure whether a charity payment qualifies as a sponsorship payment or a donation, contact the HMRC charities helpline, 0300 123 1073.

Expenditure on business entertainment is not allowable as a deduction against profits. Nor may a deduction be made for any expenditure which is incidental to business entertainment.
The meaning of ‘incidental’ is not defined by HMRC but should be interpreted to mean any expenditure that is incurred directly or indirectly in connection with the provision of entertainment.
This might include payments to a third party for the organisation of entertainment or the costs of issuing invitations to customers. It will also include the cost of maintaining assets, such as yachts, which are used for business entertainment purposes.
Traders may obtain entertainment through barter arrangements in which their own goods or services are exchanged for hospitality. The amount to be disallowed is the larger of:
• the value at which the transaction is recognised in the profit and loss account, and
• the cost of the goods or services exchanged for business entertainment.

1 July 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 30 September 2020. 6 July 2021 – Complete and submit forms P11D return of benefits and expenses and P11D(b) return of Class 1A NICs. 19 July 2021 – Pay Class 1A NICs (by the 22 July 2021 if paid electronically). 19 July 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 July 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 July 2021). 19 July 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 July 2021. 19 July 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 July 2021 is payable by today. 1 August 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 October 2020. 19 August 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2021) 19 August 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2021. 19 August 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2021 is payable by today.

You must declare goods that you take with you to sell outside the UK – for example if they are in your baggage or in a private vehicle. There is a different process if you take goods abroad temporarily (for example samples for a trade fair) or use a courier or freight forwarder. Most countries have a limit on the value of goods you can bring in duty free. If you are taking goods to another country temporarily for business reasons and you think you’ll be over the duty free limit, you can usually get an ATA Carnet to avoid paying duty. This includes things like: samples to show at trade fairs or sales meetings publicity materials recorded film and audio equipment you need for work like laptops, cameras or sound equipment goods for educational, scientific or cultural purposes personal effects and sports goods If you are taking a vehicle, get a CPD Carnet instead. If your goods have a total value of £1,500 or less, you may be able to make any customs declaration required online. Otherwise, you will need to make a full export declaration. You will need to show customs your declaration before you can leave and if you are taking restricted goods, take the licence or certificate with you.

Tax credits applicants should be vigilant and alert to potential scams, HMRC has warned. In the 12 months to 30 April 2021, HMRC responded to more than 1,154,300 referrals of suspicious contact from the public. More than 576,960 of these offered bogus tax rebates. In the same period, HMRC has worked with telecoms companies and Ofcom to remove more than 3,000 malicious telephone numbers, and with internet service providers to take down over 15,700 malicious web pages. HMRC responded to 443,033 reports of phone scams in total, up 135% on the previous year. Anyone doing their tax credits renewal who has received a tax or benefits scam email or text might be tricked into thinking it was from HMRC and share their personal details with criminals, or even transfer money for a bogus overpayment. HMRC’s Cyber Security Operations identifies and closes down scams every day. The department has pioneered the use in government of technical controls to stop its helpline numbers being spoofed, so that fraudsters can no longer make it appear that they are calling from those HMRC numbers.

If an individual dies and for whatever reason executors or the Treasury Solicitor’s department are unable to track down beneficiaries, the unclaimed estate falls under the care of the Bona Vacantia and Government Legal Department. The Division publishes a list of unclaimed estates which have been recently referred, but not yet administered, and historic cases which have been administered but not yet been claimed within the time limits for doing so. You can view the unclaimed estates list by following the download link at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unclaimed-estates-list. In a recent announcement, government sources provided the following advice on this process: Some people have experienced an intermittent problem downloading the Unclaimed estates list. We are investigating the cause of the issue. The list is published in a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format. This acts like a spreadsheet and although it can be opened in any text editor it is best viewed in a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Docs or OpenOffice Calc. If you are looking for a particular estate you can search by using Ctrl-F in your browser, text editor or spreadsheet application. The list is updated every working day and newly advertised estates appear at the top of the list. After one day of publication, new estates drop into the rest of the list in alphabetical order. Any estates where the Bona Vacantia division (BVD) no longer has an interest, for example, when a claim to an estate has been admitted, will be removed daily. Estates where the 30-year time limit from the date of death has expired are also removed.

1 June 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 August 2020.
19 June 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 June 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 June 2021)
19 June 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 June 2021.
19 June 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 June 2021 is payable by today.
1 July 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 30 September 2020.
6 July 2021 – Complete and submit forms P11D return of benefits and expenses and P11D(b) return of Class 1A NICs.
19 July 2021 – Pay Class 1A NICs (by the 22 July 2021 if paid electronically).
19 July 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 July 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 July 2021)
19 July 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 July 2021.
19 July 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 July 2021 is payable by today.

If you are new to the import process the following check list will provide you with a rough guide to what you need to do:
• You need an EORI number that starts with GB to import goods into England, Wales or Scotland. You will need a new one if you have an EORI that does not start with GB.
• The business sending you the goods may need to make an export declaration in their country or secure licences or certificates to send goods to the UK.
• You can hire someone to deal with customs and transport the goods for you, or you can do it yourself. Most businesses that import goods use a transporter or customs agent.
• If the UK has a trade agreement with the country you are importing from, you may be able to pay less duty or no duty on the goods (known as a ‘preferential rate’).
• If you have appointed someone to deal with UK customs for you, they will make the declaration and get your goods through the UK border.
Unless you have experience dealing with cross-border transactions appointing a customs agent or similar organisation would seem to be a sensible option unless the value and frequency of imports is unlikely to be significant.
More detailed information is available free of charge on the GOV.UK website.

Next month, as you will see from the Tax Diary notes for July, employers that provide any form of taxable benefit to clients will need to prepare and file P11D returns to HMRC. The deadline to file is 6 July 2021.
You will also need to provide employees affected with a copy of their P11D form by the same date. They will need this to check their tax account or to include on their tax return.
Unfortunately, there is one further chore to complete this annual process.
Employers are obliged to pay employers’ National Insurance contributions on the aggregate value of benefits provided to all employees. The way to do this is to complete a P11D(b) return; and again, this needs to be filed by 6 July 2021. NIC class 1A contributions are payable at 13.8% of the total benefits returned and are payable by 22 July 2021 if paid electronically or by 19 July 2021 if you pay by cheque.
If we prepare your payroll, we may undertake this work for you.
If not, do not miss the filing and payment deadlines otherwise you may trigger late filing penalties and interest charges.
Any Class 1A NIC paid is an allowable deduction for tax purposes.

There are still a significant number of UK employees that are furloughed. Unfortunately, this scheme is scheduled to end 30 September 2021.
Businesses that are struggling to re-establish themselves following the downside effects of repeated lockdown, may be faced with difficult decisions as this deadline approaches. The pundits are expecting a significant rise in the unemployment numbers.
If you have concerns that you may be faced with laying off furloughed staff when the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme closes, and are unsure how to plan for any changes, we can help.
The key is to create a forecast of business activity – based on current estimates – that highlights profitability, solvency and cash flow. Armed with this information, it will then be possible to try out different what-if scenarios and consider the options this process opens.
It is better to plan for these changes before they happen than to react when the changes have occurred.