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The rent-a-room scheme is a set of special rules designed to help homeowners who rent-a-room in their home. The current tax-free threshold of £7,500 per year has been in place since 6 April 2016. Homeowners using this scheme should ensure that rents received from lodgers during the tax year do not exceed £7,500. The tax exemption is automatic if you earn less than £7,500 from qualifying rentals. The relief applies only to the letting of furnished accommodation and applies when ...
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HMRC publishes a list of income streams that are excluded from a UK property business. The list includes fishing concerns, hotels and guest houses, tied premises, caravan sites, lodgers and tenants in your own home, extra services to tenants and letting surplus trade accommodation. In most cases the income from these activities will be taxed as income of a trade and not as property income. In addition, there are certain receipts that can arise out of the use of land, ...
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There are a number of reliefs available that can reduce liability to IHT if you inherit the estate of someone who has died. One of these reliefs is known as Business Relief and is a valuable tax relief for taxpayers with business interests, offering either 50% or 100% relief from IHT on the value of the business assets if certain conditions are met.

• 100% Business Relief can be claimed on a business or interest in a business or on ...
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Public Health England has published a new guide for employers on COVID-19 vaccination. The guide encourages employers to support the government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme and it covers the following subjects:

• why supporting vaccination of employees against COVID-19 is important
• what employers can do to support the vaccination of their workforce
• resources to help employers promote vaccination to their workforce.

In particular, the guide links to the previously published employer toolkit (which has now been updated) on supporting employees ...
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With England having moved to step 4 of the roadmap out of lockdown from 19 July 2021, the government has published updated guidance on working safely during coronavirus. The guidance, which is to be kept under review, has been re-categorised into the following six sector-specific guides:

• construction and outdoor work
• events and attractions
• hotels and guest accommodation
• offices, factories and labs
• restaurants, pubs, bars, nightclubs and takeaway services
• shops, branches and close contact services.

There is also a ...
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HMRC sets out specific guidance regarding the application of VAT if you are in the taxi and private hire car trade. VAT Notice 700/25 - How VAT applies to taxis and private hire cars - applies. Private hire cars include mini-cabs. The notice is relevant if you are:

• a driver who owns or rents a vehicle (an owner driver)
• the owner of a business which operates a number of vehicles
• operating a taxi association

The fares a driver ...
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If you are a couple that is getting separated or divorced, apart from the emotional stress, there are also tax issues that can have significant implications. Whilst this is unlikely to be uppermost in your mind it is important that the tax consequences of the break-up are carefully considered. Whilst Income Tax does not automatically cause an issue for separating couples as it is an individually assessed tax, there are other taxes that need to be considered. For example, when ...
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We would like to remind any students and seasonal staff that work part time, for example in a summer job, to ensure they are being paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW). All workers are legally entitled to be paid the NMW. This includes temporary seasonal staff, who often work short-term contracts in bars, hotels, shops and warehouses over the summer. HMRC helped some 155,000 people recover more than £16 million in pay which was due to them. HMRC is reminding ...
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VISA have issued information regarding changes to card processing security from September 2021. The idea is to reduce online fraud. The changes will apply across Europe. A key part of the new security arrangements is the requirement for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). This means you may be asked to provide additional information when making some purchases. In their update VISA said: Banks are introducing these new security measures for Visa cardholders who shop online or make contactless payments. This will ...
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A trust is an obligation that binds a trustee, an individual or a company, to deal with the assets such as land, money and shares which form part of the trust. The person who places assets into a trust is known as a settlor and the trust is for the benefit of one or more 'beneficiaries'. The act of transferring an asset - such as money, land or buildings - into a trust is often known as ‘making a settlement’ ...
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As announced in the Budget earlier this year there will be two rates of Corporation Tax from 1 April 2023. When the new rules take effect, taxable profits up £50,000 will continue to be taxed at 19% under the new Small Business Profits Rate. Taxable profits more than £250,000 will be taxed at 25%. The introduction of the two new rates will once again make the issue of associated companies important to consider. Under the new rates, profits between £50,000 ...
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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 report titled ‘Making better use of third-party data: a vision for the future’. The report sets out proposals for making better use of data held by third parties, such as reporting interest on savings and investments from banks directly to HMRC. Commenting on the report, the OTS Tax Director said: ...
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Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is normally charged at a simple flat rate of 20% and this applies to most chargeable gains made by individuals. If taxpayers only pay basic rate tax and make a small capital gain, they may only be subject to a reduced rate of 10%. Once the total of taxable income and gains exceed the higher rate threshold, the excess will be subject to 20% CGT. A higher rate of CGT applies to gains on the disposal ...
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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 personal or private use of goods or services bought for the business and can usually 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 at no ...
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The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, spoke to the nation and confirmed that the vaccines have significantly weakened the link between coronavirus cases and hospitalisations and deaths. This has allowed the government to confirm that many COVID restrictions will be lifted in England on 19 July, known as Freedom Day. The main changes will see an end to social distancing, facemasks will no longer be mandatory, and the opening of all venues currently closed with no capacity limits. The Prime Minister ...
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The Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reporting and payment date for UK residents that sell a residential property changed with effect from 6 April 2020. This change means that any CGT due on the sale of a residential property now needs to be reported and a payment on account of any CGT due made within 30 days of the completion of the transaction. In practice, this change only applies to the sale of a residential property that does not qualify for ...
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Income Tax is generally payable on taxable income received by individuals including earnings from employment, earnings from self-employment, pensions income, interest on most savings, dividend income, rental income and trust income. The tax rules for foreign income can be complex. However, if you are resident in the UK you will need to pay UK Income Tax on your foreign income, such as:

• wages if you work abroad
• foreign investments and savings interest
• rental income on overseas property
• income from ...
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The VAT domestic reverse charge accounting mechanism was put in place to help prevent criminal attacks on the UK VAT system by means of sophisticated fraud. The domestic reverse charge procedure applies to the supply and purchase of the certain specified goods and services. The specified goods that the reverse charge applies to are:

• mobile phones
• computer chips
• wholesale gas
• wholesale electricity

The specified services are:

• emission allowances
• wholesale telecommunications
• renewable ...
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There have been significant changes to the EU VAT rules for the sale of goods for businesses selling goods to consumers (B2C) located in the EU from 1 July 2021. The changes mean that EU VAT must be applied on all goods that are sold online in the EU regardless of price including those through online marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay. Whilst the UK has officially left the EU, these changes will have effect on UK trade. They will ...
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The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) commonly known as the furlough scheme is open to all UK employers to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis. The end date for CJRS has been extended multiple times since the scheme was launched and in the Spring Budget 2021, the Chancellor announced a final extension until 30 September 2021. Employees can receive up to 80% of their ...
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