Tax Tips

The appelant’s grounds of appeal were that she was unaware that she needed to file a tax return as she thought her boss would be doing this, and she understood from her contract that her employer would be doing her taxes. The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) found that neither the Return Summary printout nor a witness […]

A panel set up to review the future development of charity reporting and accounting has published its final report making a number of recommendations under five key themes. These recommendations are that:   The needs of the wider public and beneficiaries require a refocusing of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) and greater simplification of […]

Welcome to a new weekly tips section for growing your business! 1. The Four Basics The ideas each week will ultimately revolve around four basic insights about growing a business. You can: Increase the number of customers Increase the number of times each one does business with you Increase the average value of each transaction […]

HMRC is utilising its sophisticated AI tools alongside its £80m Connect database when investigating taxpayers. Connect collects data from numerous sources, including offshore taxpayer’s information, under the Common Reporting Standard. HMRC then cross-reference this against tax returns and other sources to flag up individuals and business for investigation.

All of our clients and friends in the Oxford area might consider trying the widely publicised packaging free shopping at Waitrose on the Botley Road (of course, only if you like that kind of thing!) The trial runs at least until 18 August 2019. If you do give it a try, you can get more […]

We upload your employees’ payslips to PayDashboard each month. Your employees will be able to view their payslips on your payment date and be able to have access to these at any time. This provides a convenient and secure method for your employees to receive their payslips.   To set up your PayDashboard account you […]

We deliver our payroll service in a way that ensures the employees personal data is protected and can be sent to and from us security. This procedure is outlined below. Sending the monthly pay information to Green Accountancy We provide a template spreadsheet for you to complete each month. Once completed you can upload this […]

Post-employment notice pay (PENP) is a concept that was introduced in legislation from 6 April 2018.  This effects whether payments at the end of an employment fall within the £30,000 tax free amount.  Prior to these new rule payments in lieu of notice (PILONs) could be tax free if non contractual.  Now, any element that […]

Budget 2018 changes to capital gains tax could trigger a higher capital gains tax bill for properties sold on or after 1 April 2020. From 1 April 2020, the final 18 months deemed occupation period reduces to nine months. Some details are yet to be published by government but generally speaking if you are selling […]

For some years the corporation tax rate for small companies was 20%. The corporation tax rate was reduced to 19% from 1 April 2017. The corporation tax rate is set to reduce to 17% from 1 April 2020.

We’ve long argued that better public services require better funding, which in turn requires more income for public bodies to spend….i.e. more tax of some description. Good to see mainstream media raising this issue:  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/06/raise-tax-british-political-disease-public-services One way to address this would be to allow Government to continue to set all tax laws, reliefs, calculations, but […]

Up the workers.  Minimum wage levels from 1 April 2019 will be increased: Current rate Future rate (from April 2019) Increase NLW £7.83 £8.21 4.9% 21-24 rate £7.38 £7.70 4.3% 18-20 rate £5.90 £6.15 4.2% 16-17 rate £4.20 £4.35 3.6% Apprentice rate £3.70 £3.90 5.4% Accommodation offset £7.00 £7.55 7.9%

With immediate effect (29 October 2018) entrepreneurs selling their shares or business will have had to have been a qualifying owner for two years (was one year) to qualify for Entrepreneurs Relief (ER).  ER reduces the capital gains tax rate for higher rate taxpayers from 20% to 10%. Furthermore, from 1 April 2019, the qualifying […]

I’m not the first to notice, but had to comment, £60m on trees and £30,000m on roads. On the same day WFF report is published showing scientific consensus that humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970…the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation. Modern society rejects […]

Government finances are getting worse.  Despite the skewed headlines, the budget figures tell us the deficit is set to continue to INCREASE. Somehow the media are headlining “deficit cuts” despite the Budget 2018 predicting increases in UK debt (i.e. further deficits) of £20 billion to £25 billion per year for the foreseeable future with no […]

The Office of Tax Simplification is asking owners of small businesses to complete a ten minute survey: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ots-business-lifecycle-review-call-for-evidence-and-survey If you complete this, please let us know your feedback.

As much as £20bn of savings could be sitting in over a million so-called ‘lost pension pots’ where savers have lost touch with their providers according to analysis from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which says this underlines the need for the government’s proposed pensions dashboard. Most people have moved jobs or houses at […]

In a recent report Norway ranked as the most secure nation with a war chest built on its publicly held oil wealth.  This is in contrast to the UK which is one of the least financially secure, which allowed private sector companies to extract North Sea oil reserves and has spent the tax revenues.

If the IPCC is even close to being right about its timeline, speeding up the transition from fossil fuels to renewables is vital if we are to prevent passing the “tipping point” unleashing climate chaos. Can that be done? One of the winners of this year’s Nobel prize for economics – William Nordhaus – says […]

The Chancellor has announced that the 2018 Budget will be held on Monday 29 October 2018.

The deadline for registering for Self Assessment is 5 October following the end of the tax year, You must tell HMRC that you need to prepare a tax return if you have any of the following: Self employed income (sole trader, freelancer, partner etc) Made a capital gain. Have employment income not taxed under PAYE. […]