A Taxing Christmas?
19th December 2018Business owners, like the rest of us, will be all too aware that Christmas is a ‘challenging’ time. A short working month usually means less production, less sales and less payments from customers. Add to this cost of staff Christmas bonuses, various festive jollies and large tax bills just around the corner in January, and you have a yourself a recipe for potential cash flow difficulties. But at least HMRC enter the spirit of the season, gifting some mildly useful tax treatments:
- Gifts to employees (if up to £50 in value)
- Gifts to customers (if up to £50 pa, not food, drink or tobacco and bearing a conspicuous advert for your business)
- The works Christmas party (so long as not exceeding £150 per head pa)
- Staff financial benefit awards (up to £5,000 for suggestions that make or save your business money)
- Gift vouchers to staff (if up to £50 in value)
- Long service awards (up to £1,000)
Don’t despair, that glass of mulled wine really is half full: give yourself a well-earned break, come back with new found enthusiasm for all those projects still on your to-do list and don’t forget HMRC time-to-pay arrangements.
Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.