Latest Private Client Tax

  A number of our clients have been on the receiving end of bogus calls/emails purporting to be from HMRC – either threatening legal action for unpaid taxes or offering refunds. Our experience is that these can be very well drafted and the telephone scams in particular have fooled a couple of our clients, one…

  HMRC have issued an update of their guidance on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact be it via email or text. HMRC also provide advice on what to do if you have received a phishing/bogus email related to HMRC, or you are not sure if it is genuine, you can read about how to…

Since April 2015 non-residents selling UK residential property have been required to report the disposals within a Non-resident Capital Gains Tax return within 30 days of the conveyance.  You can view HMRC’s guidance here The timeframe is very tight – some may think unreasonably so, especially since many individuals are unaware of this requirement until…

As part of the move from Self-Assessment to Making Tax Digital (MTD), HMRC are encouraging taxpayers to set up their ‘Personal Tax Account’. Once MTD is underway, the Personal Tax Account will be populated with taxable income from various sources, including employment/pension income, bank and building society interest, and dividends from quoted companies. The account…

Calculate your own tax… The introduction of the so-called dividend and savings allowances from April 2016 was intended to reduce the tax liability for taxpayers with modest dividend and interest income, possibly removing them from the need to prepare a tax return altogether. For other taxpayers however, the interaction of these changes, together with the…

HMRC’s ongoing scrutiny of private residence relief is in the news again, with another case going before the First Tier Tribunal. Mr & Mrs Ritchie were partially successful in their claim for relief on the sale of their home, which cost them less than £200,000 but which they sold to a developer for £2 million.…

Buy-to-let Mortgages: Tax relief restrictions soon to commence. The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) issued a press release today reminding residential property landlords that the first phase of the restriction of tax relief for mortgage interest commences in April. The change means that finance costs (including mortgage interest) will no longer be deductible in full…

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…

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…