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The P85 form should be completed by individuals or their agents to advise HMRC that have left the UK to live or are going to work abroad for at least one full tax year. The completion of the P85 form will ensure that an individual leaving the UK can claim any tax refund they are entitled to and will also help HMRC decide how an individual should be treated for the purposes of UK tax. The P85 form can be ...
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Most age related tax allowances have been phased out. However, the Married Couple's Allowance (MCA) is available to elderly married couples or those in a civil partnership where at least one member of the couple were born before 6 April 1935. The allowance provides for tax relief by deducting 10% of the allowance from the amount of tax due on taxable income.The MCA can reduce a tax bill to zero but cannot result in a refund of tax. For the ...
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Donations to charity over the course of a tax year can add up and taxpayers must ensure they keep a proper record of all donations to backup tax return entries. Donations that are made through the Gift Aid scheme allow for the recipient charity to claim 25p worth of tax relief on every pound donated. Higher rate and additional rate taxpayers are eligible to claim relief on the difference between the basic rate and their highest rate of tax.For example:If ...
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If you or your partner are a low earner or not working, then you may be eligible for the marriage allowance. The marriage allowance allows lower earning couples to share part of their personal tax-free allowance. The marriage allowance (MA) is available to married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner doesn’t pay tax or who has an income below the personal allowance (for 2018-19 this amounts to £11,850).The MA allows the lower earning ...
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Taxpayers are usually required to pay their Income Tax liabilities in three instalments each year. The first two payments are due on:

• 31 January during the tax year e.g. for 2018-19 the first payment on account is due on 31 January 2019.
• 31 July following the tax year e.g. for 2018-19 the second payment on account is due on 31 July 2019.

These payments on account are based on 50% of the previous year’s net Income Tax liability. In addition, the third (or ...
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You can use the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) to claim a very generous 100% first year tax relief for qualifying expenditure on plant and machinery. The allowance is available for most assets purchased by a business but does not apply to cars.The AIA was set at £200,000 per calendar year for all qualifying expenditure on or after 1 January 2016. However, there is a new temporary increase in the allowance that came into effect from 1 January 2019 to £1 ...
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HMRC has issued an updated version of their online guidance on Genuine HMRC contact and recognising phishing emails and texts. The guidance provides a current list of genuine messages from HMRC. This includes: email messages, text messages and telephone contacts from HMRC. The latest updates on the list include information on a research project being carried out to see how businesses are preparing for Brexit. HMRC has confirmed that Ipsos MORI are carrying out this research and you may receive ...
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The cash basis scheme helps sole traders and other unincorporated businesses benefit from a simpler way of managing their financial affairs. The scheme was extended to landlords from April 2017. The scheme is not open to limited companies and limited liability partnerships. The entry threshold for the cash basis scheme is £150,000 and you can stay in the scheme until your business turnover reaches £300,000.Unlike other taxpayers that need to opt-in to use the scheme, the legislation assumes that landlords ...
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There are special VAT rules that allow businesses to standard rate the supply of most non-residential and commercial land and buildings (known as the option to tax). This means that subsequent supplies by the person making the option to tax will be subject to VAT at the standard rate.The ability to convert the treatment of VAT exempt land and buildings to taxable can have many benefits. The main benefit, is that the person making the option to tax will be ...
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A new one-stop service to register a company and register for tax at the same time has been used by more than 200,000 businesses since it was introduced. The introduction of the Streamlined Company Registration Service was announced as part of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 to help reduce administrative burdens and came into effect last year. However, there remain many new companies who have not used this service.A business cannot operate as a limited company until ...
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The Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) rules, allow holiday lettings of properties that meet certain conditions to be treated as a trade for some specific tax purposes.In order to qualify as a furnished holiday letting, the following criteria need to be met:

• The property must be let on a commercial basis with a view to the realisation of profits. Second homes or properties that are only let occasionally or to family and friends do not qualify.
• The property must be located in the ...
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HM Treasury has confirmed that the £1 coin will be going global. This announcement means that the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will be able to design and mint their own versions of the 12-sided £1 coin replacing the older coins. The coins are expected to feature images celebrating the heritage of these territories, with their history and culture pictured on the reverse side.The new £1 coin was introduced in 2017. The coin was introduced partly to help combat ...
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The government has confirmed that they are to examine a number of different approaches to help encourage the self-employed to save for their retirement. The success of automatic enrolment for pension savings for the employed has helped highlight that pension savings for the self-employed are lagging behind those achieved for the employed. In fact, government research has shown that only around 14% of self-employed people were saving into a pension in 2016-17.The government has now decided that it is high ...
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New legislation comes into force from 6 April 2019 which requires all employers to provide an itemised payslip to all workers, i.e. not just to employees, and to show hours on payslips where the pay varies by the amount of time worked.The government has now published guidance to help employers with the new rules on showing the hours on payslips, which includes several useful example case studies. The guidance is non-statutory and has no legal effect on the interpretation of ...
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The government’s recently published “Good Work Plan” included a commitment to establish a naming and shaming scheme for those employers who fail to pay employment tribunal awards. Immediately following publication of the Good Work Plan, the government introduced the scheme and published guidance on how it operates. The names of employers, together with the amount of the employment tribunal award that they have failed to pay, will be set out in press releases published on a quarterly basis on the ...
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Following the recent publication of its “Good Work Plan”, the government has now laid before Parliament three statutory instruments to implement certain aspects of that Plan.The Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 and the draft Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 will both come into force for the most part on 6 April 2020. They amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 by extending the right to receive a written statement of employment particulars to workers ...
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Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rollover relief is a valuable relief that allows for a delay in the payment of CGT on gains when you sell or dispose of certain assets and use all or part of the proceeds to buy new assets. The relief means that the tax on the gain of the old asset is postponed. The amount of the gain is effectively rolled over into the cost of the new asset and any CGT liability is deferred until ...
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HMRC offers an online service to check a National Insurance record. In order to use the service you will need to have a Government Gateway account. If you don't have an account, you can apply to set one up online.By signing in to the 'Check your National Insurance record' service you will also activate your personal tax account if you haven’t already done so. The personal tax account can be used to complete a variety of tasks, from updating an ...
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There are special customs requirements for commercial goods or samples which are imported or exported by passengers in their accompanied baggage (hand carried). This is known as Merchandise In Baggage or MIB.MIB goods include the following:

• goods acquired for company use
• goods for sale
• spare parts
• trade samples

whether or not they are:

• permanently imported/exported
• temporarily imported/exported
• in transit
• liable to customs charges

These goods must be declared electronically to CHIEF or exceptionally a paper C88/ESS form may be completed. If you are taking ...
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The government published Finance (No.3) Bill 2017-19 on Wednesday, 7 November 2018. The Bill is so named as it is the third Finance Bill in the current special two-year session of Parliament. The Bill, colloquially known as Finance Bill 2018-19 will become Finance Act 2019 after Royal Assent is received which is expected in March 2019 before the Brexit deadline.The progress of the Bill through parliament was delayed as a result of the extensive Brexit debate that took place before ...
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