Hello
This time we are looking at the findings from new RTI research, Finance Act 2016, and we also have updates for Personal Service Company owners.
HMRC have conducted some research into the reasons why small businesses are incurring late filing penalties under RTI (Real Time Information Reporting). It will not surprise anyone to know it turns out that people don't understand their filing obligations and they are confused by the different abbreviations...FPS, EPS, EYU etc. I am resisting the urge to LMFAO, so I will just say that it made me LOL. The future is bleak: these poor folk will soon be in the clutches of Making Tax Digital (MAD, oops...MTD).
Seriously, is it any wonder that so many small businesses are not transformational businesses? We are all drowning in 'red tape'. The really, really frustrating thing here is that the National Audit Office pointed this out in its 2007 report 'Reducing the Cost of Complying with Regulations: The Delivery of the Administrative Burdens Reduction Programme'. At the time HMRC promised then to save business £4 billion a year. The financial crisis and now Brexit may have changed a lot of things, but what about a bit of common sense?
With the 191 sections and 25 schedules of this year's Finance Act running to 662 pages, you won't have time to read it all! The team here have picked out their top ten hits of FA 2016 and provided you with excellent summaries of the key new measures.
For PSC (personal service company) contractors we have an update for you: What's new in 2016/17. The short answer is 'even more regulation'. As always we summarise the rules for you and link to our more detailed guides.
Incidently we are now beta testing our new Virtual Tax Partner® technical support portal. More on that next time although if you want to try it now you can find links from our main menu.
Enjoy the guides and updates and the news is below.
Back soon
Nichola Ross Martin FCA Tax Director
Your Virtual Tax Partner®: online PRACTICAL support for accountants & tax advisers BY accountants & tax advisers
Quick news (freeview)
RTI: confusing for small employers
HMRC have published the results of their research into challenges faced by micro-employers in operating RTI.
HMRC updates deliberate tax defaulters list
HMRC have updated their list which names and shames deliberate tax defaulters, detailing their name and industry as well as the tax and penalties.
Withdrawal of concession for theatre angels
HMRC have withdrawn Extra-Statutory Concession ESC A94: Theatre Angels.
Spotlight: Entrepreneurs' Relief tax avoidance scheme
HMRC has issued its latest spotlight "Capital Gains Tax: Entrepreneurs' Relief tax avoidance scheme" warning against a scheme designed to turn contracting income into capital.
Case Update (freeview)
No capital allowances for caravans
In Paul Telfer v HMRC the FTT found that caravans which the taxpayer had to live in to carry out his employment duties did not qualify for capital allowances.
Practical Tax Guides and Updates (subscribers)
Finance Act 2016: Top Ten
The team here have picked out the top ten key measures that every SME owner and adviser should know about as introduced by the Finance Act 2016.
PSC Contractor update 2016/17
What's new for Personal Service Company owners, so far this year?
Contractor company tax planning: does it work?
There have been numerous tax saving strategies designed over the years to assist contractors in avoiding income tax. The UK's tax avoidance market is likely to be adversely affected by new penalty rules from 2017.
Finance Act 2016: Contents
The contents page of the Finance Act with links to our guides.
Consultations (freeview)
Pensions Advice Allowance
Considers allowing a tax-free drawdown from pension schems to cover the cost of financial advice.
Museums & galleries tax relief
Considers a proposed relief for expenditure in connection with fixed or touring exhibitions.
Making Tax Digital
Index to all the consultations, with the questions so you can add your response.
Missed last time's update?
Nichola's SME Tax Update 15 September
Features include:
- Tax planning for directors and family companies
- How to pay a dividend
- VAT: Annual accounting
- VAT: Cars and vans
- Company cars
Come and join our Cloud
Subscribe (and UNLOCK the whole site) A single user annual subscription is £349 (+ VAT).
What do you get?
- We keep YOU up to date in SME tax.
- FULL access to www.rossmartin.co.uk: your firm's personal TAX INTRANET containing over 2,500 actively maintained tax guides, briefings, toolkits and checklists.
- Want to know more? Commission your own articles and checklists.
- Structured CPD: our detailed SME tax updates "for Advisers Only" provide topical summaries and planning notes & our NEW webcasts provide you with structured CPD at your desk.
- Regular client tax briefings: these cover the latest business and employment tax issues and are designed to assist you plan meetings and improve your client services.
- Nichola’s regular SME tax news web-update: we do the reading and cherry pick the best of the taxpress, magazines and websites for you.
- You can also commission guides and checklists for your own practice, post comments and upload your own articles.
- Access to the Virtual Tax Partner ® service provides subscribers with FREE quick calls and a discount of on phone, email and tax support and mentoring.
