Latest blogs for Services

Tax Investigation Insurance: Premiums for 2017-18 policy year. Prices unchanged from the previous year:   Limited companies with turnover >£20m                    POA Limited companies with turnover £10m to £20m     £540 Limited companies with turnover < £10m                   £185 Partnerships and LLP’s                                                     £155 Sole traders                                                                         £100 Private clients                                                                       £40 Our tax investigation insurance business is…

MTD: Revenue hold firm. HMRC have published their long awaited response to the making tax digital (MTD) consultation documents.  In essence the original timeline as detailed in the consultation documents remains unchanged, with the first taxpayers being affected by MTD from April 2018. Therefore for those businesses with an accounting year end of 5 April and…

MTD: Merging with VAT returns. As part of Making Tax Digital for Business, those unincorporated businesses who are also VAT registered will have to submit their VAT data through a digital software package from April 2019, rather than by using HMRC’s online portal. This will hit those businesses who do not currently use an accounting…

Anglia LEP: Offering £1/2m grants towards business expansion. The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership is calling for local businesses wanting to grow and create new jobs to apply for grants up to £500,000 through the Growing Business Fund. Businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk may apply for a grant of up to 20% of the total cost…

Tactical Asset Allocation: A recipe for disappointment ? If world events over the last year or so are anything to go by, then it probably tells us “to expect the unexpected”. Please see the following chart, produced by Vanguard, which we believe demonstrates how difficult it is to predict the performance of various asset classes.…

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…

DIY Builder VAT Reclaims:  Get the detail right. A recent tax tribunal case highlighted the point of completion of a new build project in relation to DIY builder VAT claims. It noted that it is not necessarily the date on the Certificate of Completion which represents a building project as being finished. The Certificate can…

Pension Contributions: Maximum now restricted by tapered annual allowance. The annual allowance is the maximum value of pensions savings that you, your employer and other third parties can pay into your pensions each year without incurring a tax charge. The standard annual allowance for the 2016/17 tax year is £40,000. If you are a high-income individual…

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…