Latest Blogs

The ‘gifts out of surplus income’ exemption is a powerful, yet often forgotten about, Inheritance Tax (IHT) exemption. As the name suggests lifetime gifts made from surplus income are immediately exempt from IHT, provided that certain conditions are met.   To qualify for this valuable relief, the following conditions need to be satisfied: The gifts…

It’s National Payroll Week and what better way to celebrate, than to let you know about our very own Payroll offering ‘WPB’, here at Whitings LLP!   What is WPB? Whitings Payroll Bureau (WPB) is a long-established payroll arm of Whitings LLP based at the Whitings offices in Bury St Edmunds, Ely, Mildenhall and St…

Capital allowances can be claimed by landlords’ expenditure on “plant and machinery” which can reduce your profits and indeed create losses, the use of such is not covered here, but they can certainly be very beneficial.   The property in question is important and will determine the allowances that can be claimed and at what…

HMRC have delayed the introduction of the claim notification forms and additional information requirements regarding Research & Development (“R&D”) tax claims by a week due to delays in Finance Bill timetabling.   Originally due to come into effect on 1 August 2023, the Relief for R&D Regulations 2023 will now be put into law on…

Sticks and Carrots – No Change Then Over recent years farmers have been incentivised periodically to change their crop choices. We have had ‘yellow years’ as Oilseed Rape coloured our landscape and ‘blue years’ when Linseed was dominant. I suspect that ‘green years’ may be the next favoured colour and I’m not just thinking of…

Currently for 2022/23 Self -Assessment tax returns, when Sole Traders and Partners are taxed on their Self-Employment profits, we use Tax Basis Period rules to decide which tax year the profits are assessed in.   This means your Self-Employment accounts are made up to the year-end date you chose at the commencement of trading, and…

We are seeing a lot of tax calculations (forms P800) and ‘Simple Assessments’ (forms PA302) being issued by HMRC recently.   Many of the tax calculations we have seen are incorrect – either because they only include an estimate of non-PAYE income (i.e. bank interest, life assurance gains, property profits), or they omit non-PAYE income…

The government has launched a web database for organisations to search and apply for government grants:   https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/   There are currently 69 government grants on the database, but it is expected that this will grow over time. Business grants, for this region of the country, that immediately catch my eye, include:   Woodland Creation…

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has confirmed that the Autumn Statement is scheduled for 22 November 2023. This will give the Chancellor the opportunity to set out future tax plans and give some indication of whether there are likely to be any potential tax cuts before the general election, which must be held before the end…

Xero has two versions of reports – and old version and a new version. They are retiring the old version of their reports at 7pm BST on 30 July 2023. At which point, it will be time to switch to their exciting new reports and you will no longer have access to old reports. If…