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As with the Spring Budget 2021, much of the detail for the Autumn Budget had been leaked to the press prior to the official report to parliament, 27th October 2021. But we now have all the details and, as usual, there is much to consider. The following Budget summary is split into two sections:

1. Taxation changes
2. Other announcements

Please call if you need to discuss how these changes may affect your business or tax affairs in the coming ...
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Any assets or rights (but not liabilities) remaining in a company at the date of dissolution will pass to the Crown as ownerless property. This happens under what is known as 'bona vacantia' which literally means vacant goods. The bodies that deal with bona vacantia claims vary across the United Kingdom, but they all ultimately represent the Crown. The final step in bringing a company to a legal end is when the company is dissolved. Payments received after a company ...
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An interesting case has seen a haulage company based in the West Midlands have their operator licence revoked. This followed a public inquiry into the company by the traffic commissioner for the West Midlands. The traffic commissioner found that almost all the company’s financial resources had been provided by a £50,000 Bounce Back loan in May 2020. The Bounce Back Loans scheme was launched in May 2020 to provide financial support to businesses across the UK that were losing revenue, ...
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The VAT bad debt relief rules allow businesses to claim bad debt relief and reclaim the VAT they have paid to HMRC. This can happen when an invoice has been issued to a customer and no payment has been received after an extended period (usually 6 months after the due date) has elapsed. Under the normal VAT accounting rules, a business supplying goods or services usually accounts for VAT at the time an invoice is raised irrespective of whether payment ...
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The government has announced plans to introduce a temporary extension to road haulage cabotage rules to alleviate pressures with the supply chain due to lorry driver shortages and other global supply issues. The term cabotage in this context refers to specific restrictions on foreign lorry drivers on the amount of work they can do within the UK over a set period. Under the current rights, the UK allows EU heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers to undertake 2 cabotage journeys within ...
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Tariff quotas are a special mechanism for importing limited supplies of specific goods at a lower rate of customs duty than would normally apply. The quotas usually apply to imports from specific countries. Most tariff quotas operate on a first come first serve basis and when the quota runs out, the duty rate returns to normal. There is no requirement to claim a tariff quota if there is a lower option or if the same rate of duty available under: ...
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The 2020-21 tax return deadline for submitting your paper Self-Assessment returns is 31 October 2021. The tax deadline for submitting online returns is 31 January 2022. Late submission of a Self-Assessment return will become liable to a £100 late filing penalty. The penalty usually applies even if there is no liability or if any tax due is paid in full by 31 January 2022. If you are still submitting paper tax returns, we would recommend that you consider the benefits ...
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In the Spring Budget earlier this year, the chancellor announced that eight Freeport locations would be created in England. The Freeports will be in the East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe and Harwich, the Humber region, Liverpool City Region, Plymouth, the Solent, the Thames, and Teesside. Freeports are a special kind of port where normal tax and customs rules do not apply rather there are simplified customs procedures and duty suspensions on goods. This will allow firms to import components and other ...
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The Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) is a tax payable by certain Non-Natural Persons (NNPs) that own interests in dwellings valued at more than £500,000. These provisions affect certain companies, partnerships with company members and managers of collective investment schemes described in the legislation as NNPs. To value a property, you can use a professional valuer or determine your own valuation. The valuation of the property must be in pounds sterling. Valuations must be on an open-market willing buyer, ...
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There are a few VAT margin schemes. The margin schemes work by allowing qualifying businesses to account for VAT on their profit margin i.e., on the difference between the cost of acquiring an item and its sale price rather than on the full selling price. Without the margin scheme the business would have to account for VAT on the full selling price of each item. If an item is sold for less than was paid for it, then no VAT ...
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If you are entitled to the marriage allowance and have not yet applied, then you could receive a payment of up to £1,220 from HMRC. The marriage allowance is available to qualifying married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner is a non-taxpayer i.e., has an income below their personal allowance (currently £12,570). The allowance works by permitting the lower earning partner to transfer up to £1,260 of their personal tax-free allowance to their ...
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HMRC is responsible for the money laundering supervision of certain businesses including letting agencies. Businesses that HMRC is responsible for supervising should be aware of the requirement to register with HMRC and the penalties for failing to register. It is a criminal offence to trade as a letting agency business (as defined within the Regulations) without being registered for money laundering supervision. You may need to register with HMRC if your business operates as a letting agency business. A letting ...
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Young persons who turned 18 on or after 1 September 2020 may have cash waiting in a dormant Child Trust Fund (CTF) account. This could be as much as or more than £1,000. The actual amount on deposit depends on certain factors. Children born after 31 August 2002 and before 3 January 2011 were entitled to a CTF account provided they met the necessary conditions. These funds were invested in long-term saving accounts for newly born children. HMRC has confirmed ...
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The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced a £500 million expansion of the Plan for Jobs as part of his speech delivered to the party faithful at the Tory annual conference in Manchester. The money will be used to help hundreds of thousands of people leaving the furlough scheme as well as the unemployed over the age of 50 to get back to work. It was also announced that there will be more help for those earning the lowest wages with ...
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The tax treatment of termination payments has changed significantly over recent years. The changes have aligned the rules for tax and secondary National Insurance contributions (employer (NICs)) by making an employer liable to pay NICs on termination payments they make to their employees. An employer is required to pay NICs on any part of a termination payment that exceeds the £30,000 threshold. In addition, all payments in lieu of notice (PILONs) are both taxable and subject to Class 1 NICs ...
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Most COVID support grants are treated as taxable income in the same way as other taxable receipts and need to be reported to HMRC. The grants are treated as income where the business is within the scope of either Income Tax or Corporation Tax. This treatment extends to support measures including the following:

• the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
• test and trace or self-isolation payments
• the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
• Eat Out to Help Out
• Coronavirus Statutory ...
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The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) has been designed to increase investment in the early development of high potential growth businesses. Companies seeking EIS investment are typically more developed than those looking for funding using the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the investment limits and tax reliefs available reflect this. The maximum amount of funds that a company can raise through investments qualifying for the EIS is £5M in any 12 months with a maximum of £12m over the company’s ...
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The temporary reduced rate of 5% for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions that came into effect in July 2020 ended on 30 September 2021. However, the government had previously decided that reverting to the standard rate would be too much for many businesses and had announced a further step before reverting the rate back to the standard rate. This means that we now have a new reduced rate of 12.5% from 1 October 2021 that will be in effect until ...
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The government has launched a new £500 million package of support for vulnerable households. The new Household Support Fund will be used to help those most in need with essentials over the coming months as the country continues its recovery from the pandemic. The fund will be used to help support millions of households in England and monies will be distributed by councils. This means that local councils will also be able to use the funding to provide discretionary support ...
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HMRC’s guidance on how to complete and submit a One Stop Shop (OSS) VAT Return from 1 October 2021 has been updated. The special VAT return should only be completed by businesses registered for the OSS Union scheme. The OSS Union scheme can be used by businesses selling goods from Northern Ireland to consumers in the EU under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol. In order to use the scheme, sales must be above the distance selling limit of ...
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