Latest Tax Planning

Income Tax Married couples – consider transferring assets between spouses, to ensure income is taxed at the lowest marginal rate, Let properties – if you let property in need of re-decoration, repair, etc, consider bringing forward expenditure to accelerate tax relief, Family businesses – consider employment of spouse or increasing the employed spouse’s earnings, to…

Wed-8-Mar-17: Consider Advance Pension Contributions? Another budget looms, on 8th March. Tax planning would be much easier if we all had the benefit of a crystal ball, but we don’t.   We expect that there will be some announcements in the Budget surrounding Making Tax Digital and the promised review of the R&D regime, but…

Voluntary Payment of Class 2 NIC by Self-Employed: Protect your state pension ? Self-employed individuals and Partners in trading Partnerships now pay class 2 national insurance contributions annually on 31st January following the end of the tax year through their Self-Assessment Return. Prior to 5th April 2015 those on low incomes had to pay Class…

Securing Entitlement to a State Pension ‘Credit’ without actually paying any NIC. Entrepreneurs that trade through a limited company can set how and how much they are remunerated. It is possible to avoid paying any NIC, yet still obtain a ‘credit’ for that particular tax year for future state pension purposes, by paying a salary…

Although the amount of tax ultimately paid on profits will be the same if you obtain CIS gross payment status, improvements in cashflow and reductions in the cost of credit, such as overdraft interest, should easily make the application process worthwhile. To be eligible to gain CIS gross payment status and receive payments from contractors…

Minimising the tax paid on profits is a key aim of most SME businesses. The tax benefits of trading through a limited company, as compared to operating as a sole trader or partnership, soon becomes attractive as profits grow.

MBO: Self-funding £1m deal allows owners to retire. We have successfully advised the business owners of an engineering firm on its £1m buy out by the existing management team. Our team were initially approached by the business owners for exit planning advice. The owners had successfully built up an engineering business over 20 years and…

Gift Aid: Claim your own tax relief… When we make gift aid donations to registered charities, the charity is able to reclaim 20% of what we give from HMRC, provided we have paid sufficient tax to frank the gift made.

Taxation of Termination Payments: ‘All change’ HMRC has, for a while now, been trying to find a way around allowing the £30,000 tax free termination payment to employees. This may, in part, be from the knowledge that there have been occasions where some employers have excluded the inclusion of ‘payments in lieu of notice’ (PILON)…

Transferring Second Property into Joint Names: Beware SDLT trap! We commonly advise married clients who are considering a transfer of rental property from one spouse into joint names. Where the owner spouse is a higher rate taxpayer, there is often a potential to make use of the other spouse’s basic rate tax band. The potential income…