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Following an extensive investigation, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced that it has issued a notice of its intention to fine British Airways (BA) £183.39 million for infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If imposed, the fine will be a record amount in the UK for breach of data protection laws. The infringements relate to an incident in summer 2018 when cyber attackers gained access to the personal data of around 500,000 BA customers, due to poor ...
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Families and individuals that receive tax credits should ensure that they renew their tax credit claims by 31 July 2019. Claimants who do not renew on-time may have their payments stopped. HMRC has sent tax credits renewal packs to tax credit claimants and is encouraging recipients to renew their tax credits claim online. All renewal packs should have been received by the end of June. A renewal is required if the pack has a red line across the first page ...
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The Government has published the draft legislation for Finance Bill 2019-20, along with accompanying explanatory notes, tax information and impact notes, responses to consultations and other supporting documents. The Bill will contain the legislation for some of the tax measures that were announced by the Government at Autumn Budget 2018 many of which have since been the subject of further consultation. The publication of the Finance Bill is in line with the approach to tax policy making set out in ...
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Under current rules up to 100% of chargeable gains can be set against carried-forward capital losses. For accounting periods ending on or after 1 April 2020, large companies and unincorporated associations who accrue chargeable capital gains will only be able to offset up to 50% of those gains using carried-forward allowable (capital) losses. The measure is subject to anti-avoidance rules that took effect from 29 October 2018. There will be an allowance that means the first £5 million of profits ...
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The rules for individuals providing services to the public sector via an intermediary such as a Personal Service Company (PSC) changed from April 2017. The new rules shifted the responsibility for deciding whether the intermediaries’ legislation applies, known as IR35, from the intermediary itself to the public sector receiving the service. In the Autumn Budget 2017 the government announced plans looking to extend these rules to off-payroll working in the private sector. A consultation on the proposed changes was published ...
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The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) was established in July 2010 to provide advice to the Chancellor on simplifying the UK tax system. The OTS has recently published a new document setting out the scope of a project looking at simplifying tax reporting and payment arrangements for the self-employed and for landlords of private residential property. The OTS will initially:

• Aim to secure the maximum level of direct input from a wide range of taxpayers, agents, businesses, platforms and ...
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For high earning taxpayers the personal allowance is gradually reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000 irrespective of age. This means that any taxable receipt that takes income over £100,000 will result in a reduction in personal tax allowances. Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances, less certain tax reliefs such as trading losses and certain charitable donations and pension contributions. This means that for the current tax year ...
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The High Income Child Benefit charge applies to taxpayers whose income exceeds £50,000 in a tax year and who are in receipt of Child Benefit. The charge claws back the financial benefit of receiving Child Benefit either by reducing or removing the benefit entirely. If you or your partner have exceeded the £50,000 threshold for the first time during the last tax year (2018-19) then you must take action. Where both partners have an income that exceeds £50,000, the charge ...
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VAT registered businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold, need to be ready to keep digital records for VAT purposes using Making Tax Digital (MTD). This means that businesses must keep their records digitally (for VAT purposes only) and provide their VAT return information to HMRC through MTD functional compatible software. Many of the 1.2 million businesses affected by the MTD rules, will be required to submit their first quarterly VAT return to HMRC using software by the 7 ...
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It was announced as part of the Autumn Budget 2018 measures that access to the Employment Allowance was to be restricted. From 6 April 2020, the £3,000 NIC Employment Allowance will only be available to employers with employer NIC liabilities of under £100,000 in the previous tax year. Connected employers will have their contributions aggregated for this purpose. The draft legislation necessary to put this change in place has recently been published and is open for comment until 20 August ...
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Under qualifying circumstances, Corporation Tax (CT) relief is available where your company makes a trading loss. The trading loss can be used by offsetting the loss against other gains or profits of your business in the same or previous accounting period. The loss can also be set against future qualifying trading income. However, there are restrictions on ‘loss-buying’. This describes the situation where a person buys a trading company wholly or partly for its unused trading losses rather than solely ...
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The Optional Remuneration Arrangements (OpRA) legislation was introduced with effect from 6 April 2017. The legislation counters the tax and NIC advantages of benefits where an employee gives up the right to an amount of earnings in return for a benefit. This includes flexible benefit packages with a cash option, cash allowances and salary sacrifice. The taxable value is now the higher of the cash foregone or the taxable value under the normal BiK rules. A benefit is deemed to ...
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The First-Tier Tribunal (FTT), in the case of Villar v Revenue and Customs examined whether the disposal of goodwill was capital or income in nature. The taxpayer in this case was a renowned orthopaedic surgeon specialising in hip arthroscopic procedures. The taxpayer sold his business in return for a payment of £1m, this payment was treated as capital in nature and a claim was made for Entrepreneur’s Relief. HMRC opened an enquiry into the relevant tax return and eventually issued ...
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For most fully taxable businesses, VAT can be reclaimed on goods and services used in the business. This means that businesses must consider where there is any personal or private use of goods or services purchased for the business as the business can only reclaim the business proportion of the VAT. For example, VAT is recoverable on all the costs of mobile phones provided to employees where no personal use is allowed. Where businesses allow private calls to be made ...
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First Year Allowances (FYA’s) are available for expenditure on new unused electric vehicles and other cars within the threshold for low CO2 emissions. Businesses can claim FYA of 100% in the year they purchase qualifying low emissions or electrically propelled cars. These measures were put in place to help encourage the use of low emission and zero emission vehicles. The FYA’s for businesses purchasing low emission cars are available until 31 March 2021. The emission threshold below which cars are ...
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Whilst there is usually no tax relief for ordinary commuting - home to work - there are a number of exceptions. The term 'ordinary commuting' is defined to mean travel between a permanent workplace and home, or any other place that is not a workplace. Case law has established the principle that travelling between your home and a permanent workplace is not a travel expense related to the performance of your duties. The rules are different for temporary workplaces where ...
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The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published new guidance on the use of cookies and similar technologies, as well as an associated blog. The guidance looks at cookies and similar technologies in detail and it is relevant to any organisations operating online services such as websites or mobile apps. It covers:

• What cookies and similar technologies are
• What the rules are on cookies and similar technologies
• How the cookie rules relate to the GDPR
• How to comply with the ...
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HMRC imposes a VAT default surcharge on businesses that submit late VAT returns. VAT registered businesses are required by law to submit their return and make sure that payment of the VAT due has cleared to HMRC’s bank account by the due date. The normal deadline for submission of a VAT return and making payment is one calendar month and seven days after the end of the relevant VAT quarter. There is no penalty for a first offence, however a ...
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Business rates are a tax on non-domestic premises, including most commercial properties such as shops, offices, pubs, warehouses and factories. The money raised through business rates is used to help fund local services like the police, fire and rescue services. Business rates are generally calculated by multiplying the rateable value of commercial premises by the business rates multiplier before any eligible reliefs are deducted. Business rates are treated differently in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the rates relief ...
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As the school holidays fast approach, many parents face having to organise extra school holiday childcare over the summer months. HMRC is reminding parents that the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme can help if you have children aged 0-11 years old. The TFC scheme helps support working families with their childcare costs and can be used to pay for regulated holiday clubs during the school holidays. More than 68,000 registered childcare providers including school, football, art and tennis clubs have signed ...
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