Tax Rates & Allowances 2022/23 2021/22 Income tax rates (non-dividend income) 0% lower rate tax – savings rate only Up to £5,000 Up to £5,000 20% basic rate tax £12,571 to £50,270 £12,571 to £50,000 40% higher rate tax £50,271 to … [Read more...]

Director Loans – Beware of ‘Bed & Breakfasting’ It can make sense financially for directors of personal and family companies to borrow money from the company rather than from a commercial lender. Depending on when in the financial year the director loans are taken out, it is … [Read more...]

Can we deduct entertaining expenses? The tax rules on entertaining expenses are harsh and often misunderstood – the fact that the expenditure is incurred for businesses purposes does not make it deductible. Subject to certain limited exceptions, no deduction is allowed for … [Read more...]

The deadline for filing the self-assessment tax return for 2018/19 is 31 January 2020. This is also the date by which any outstanding tax for 2018/19 must be paid and, where payments need to be made on account, the date by which the first payment on account of the 2019/20 … [Read more...]

Zero charge for zero emission cars From 6 April 2020, the way in which carbon dioxide emissions for cars are measured is changing – moving from the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) (used for cars registered prior to 6 April 2020) to the Worldwide Light Testing Procedure (WLTP) … [Read more...]

Capital gains tax - tax free gains on the sale of assets For capital gains tax purposes, not all chattels are equal. In some cases, it is possible to realise a profit on the disposal of a chattel and enjoy that profit tax free, whereas in other cases, capital gains tax must be … [Read more...]

Calculating the Class 4 National Insurance Contributions liability The self-employed pay two classes of National Insurance contributions – Class 2 and Class 4. Class 2 contributions are weekly flat rate contributions which provide the mechanism by which the self-employed build up … [Read more...]

Directors’ loan accounts – avoiding the risks HMRC produce a series of toolkits which set out common errors that they find in returns. The hope is that by being familiar with the mistakes that are routinely made, steps can be taken to avoid them. Although the toolkits are aimed … [Read more...]

Rather than allocating specific cars to particular employees, some employers find it preferable to operate pool cars and have a number of cars available for use by employees when they need to undertake a business journey. From a tax perspective, provided that certain conditions … [Read more...]

From a payroll perspective, there are various tasks that an employer has to perform when they taking on new starters. For 2019/20 an employer needs to operate PAYE where the employee earns more than £118 per week (the lower earnings limit for National Insurance purposes). … [Read more...]