Latest blogs for Specialisms

  The decision has recently been published in a European Court of Justice case, Shields and Sons Partnership v the Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs. The case revolved around the authority of HMRC to remove the partnership from the VAT flat rate scheme for farmers. It is reported that the partnership had benefited over…

  We have recently become aware of an announcement in October 2017 by the Rural Payments Agency regarding Active Farmers Accountant Certificates. This concerns farmers who are in receipt of payments from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2017 and follows a European Union audit requiring the Rural Payments Agency to check the active farmer status…

  In a recent tax tribunal test case, relating to the well-known actor Robert Glenister, HMRC were challenged as to whether the IR35 intermediary tax rules should apply to an actor earning his living through a personal service company.   As is typical with individuals providing their personal services through an intermediary company, Mr Glenister…

  As we approach the end of the first quarter in the run-up to Brexit D-day, we are now beginning to see what practical steps SME businesses are taking in preparation: Businesses with a significant production source or market presence within the rest of the EU are strengthening their presence there. Creating a subsidiary based…

R&D tax relief, to provide government subsidies to those companies that develop innovation products, services or systems, has been with us for 17 years now. The latest HMRC R&D tax relief take-up report, encouragingly, shows that the following recent improvements to the scheme have increased the amount of tax relief claimed by 22% over the…

The government is to introduce new data protection rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which takes effect from 25 May 2018. Under the GDPR businesses will have increased obligations to safeguard the personal information of individuals which is stored by the business. These rules apply to the information of customers, suppliers or employees.…

Companies that are developing innovative new products, services or systems have long understood the generosity of the R&D tax relief rules. These give a notional 130% uplift to eligible costs in the company’s corporation tax computation. Such eligible costs include ‘employee costs’, which hitherto has included all ‘reimbursed expenses’. This has always seemed overly generous…

  A parent with spare funds to invest may like to consider purchasing a property for their student son or daughter to live in whilst at university, in order to save on student accommodation costs.   We recently advised a client that, so long as their son or daughter lives in the property as his…

Whiting & Partners, The Corporate Finance Network’s representative firm in Suffolk, has successfully advised an IT security company on its sale to a larger industry player.   The vendors had originally acquired the business via a Management Buy-Out a few years earlier and had significantly grown the business under their ownership. The company had reached…

  Our Property Investors Group have recently updated our ‘A brief guide to…’ documents which are now ready for you to download on our Property sector webpage.   They give help and support with various property related queries relating to stamp duty land tax, treatment of furnished holiday lets and tax for non-resident landlords, for…