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In April 2022 we saw Employee’s National Insurance Contributions increase by 1.25% from 12% to 13.25%, as part of the Governments Health and Social Care levy. Employer’s National insurance also increased from 13.8% to 15%. From April 2023, the health and social care levy will be paid separately to National Insurance and become a tax…

We are seeing more and more cases of individuals missing out on claiming higher rate tax relief on their employee pension contributions especially where they are not in self-assessment and required to file tax returns.   Where employers have enrolled their staff to make employees pension contributions via a ‘relief at source’ scheme, the contributions…

A new penalty regime will come into effect for VAT periods starting on or after 1 January 2023. The changes will impact the charges for missing VAT filing and payment deadlines and will be replacing the current surcharge system. These changes place continued importance on being up to date with your VAT returns, aware of…

HMRC Changes to the National Insurance contributions for 2022-2023 tax year, are you confused? Due to the COVID-19 strain on the NHS, the government announced that they would be increasing the National Insurance contributions by 1.25% as a means to increase spending on health and social care. The Health and Social Care Levy was applied…

Back in March 2022, DEFRA quietly published new regulation affecting users of plant protection products (PPPs). All businesses, organisations or sole traders that use professional PPPs (sprays to you and I) need to register to comply with the new regulations by 22nd June 2022. This applies to all farmers, contractors, estates, landlords who use contractors,…

The Trust registration service went live in 2017 and required any express trust with UK liabilities to register whether they were UK or non-UK resident. An express trust is simply a trust deliberately created by a settlor by transferring property to a trustee. Who should register? Recent money laundering directives have extended the definition of…

How the budget affects individuals… Following the Chancellor’s spring statement this afternoon, it appears that the planned 1.25% increase in national insurance will continue to go ahead in April, in order to raise funds for health and social care. However, as part of the government’s Tax Plan, the Chancellor is attempting to take the sting out…

Those businesses with comprehensive commercial insurance cover will possibly be covered for ‘business interruption’. This cover will typically include losses arising from events that close or severely disrupt operations. The COVID pandemic has already led to many claims under this. The insurance industry (as you might expect?) has warned that few policies are likely to…

What was not included in the 2021 Budget was probably more important to private tax clients than what was included – no expected increase in CGT rates and no expected restriction of higher rate income tax relief on pension contributions. Whitings summary and commentary on 2021 Budget. There is a minor administration change that will…

HMRC are now issuing six month late payment penalty notices, as the due date for 2019/20 tax payments was over seven months ago (includes consideration to the additional months extension as a result of the pandemic). Taxpayers facing financial difficulties due to the impact of COVID-19 may have entered into a time to pay arrangement…