Hello
We have an interesting collection of news and updates this week and the fate of the current Finance Bill hangs in the balance.
The decision to send the country back to the polls in June may well mean that the Finance Bill is rushed through parliament. Where this leaves us in terms of Making Tax Digital (MTD) is not so good as the current plan is that HMRC will use secondary legislation to construct the key rules. Parliament could, if it wanted, decide to drop parts of the bill that relate to MTD and leave that for the next Finance Bill of the year. If so then we could have better primary legislation and less of the secondary sort. I support that. Why not write in to your MP and suggest this?
To illustrate why we prefer primary legislation, I am featuring a PAYE-discovery case this week which illustrates what happens when you have too many regulations and rule changes: you get to a stage where everyone, including the tribunals, is confused. The old adage that 'ignorance of the law is not an excuse' is somewhat unfair when it comes to a tax code like ours. It will be amusing to see how taxpayers manage before the tribunals when they are faced with MTD regulations.
Accountex 2017: please come and visit our stand. It's on the 10th and 11th May. If you scroll down you can pre-book a demo of our site, come and try our amazing new MTD Apps for small business or just come and say hello. We promise to have more sweets and chairs than last time.
If you have any tax queries please do try out our Virtual Tax Partner support portal at www.VtaxP.co.uk
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)
The fate of the Finance Bill
Prime Minister Theresa May's snap decision to call an early general election on 8 June 2017 leaves the fate of the Finance (No s) Bill 2016/17 hanging in the balance. It may either be rushed through parliament intact but with little parliamentary scrutiny or the more difficult parts of the bill could be omitted.
Consultation: ‘Non-resident companies chargeable to Income Tax and non-resident CGT’
This explores whether non-resident companies with UK sourced property income or gains should pay corporation tax.
SDLT filing & payment: consultation response
HMRC have published a response to their consultation ‘Stamp duty land tax: changes to the filing and payment process.
Tax Planning for Directors
UPDATE: new guides and updates for directors and shareholders.
Case Update (freeview)
Share issue overturned by High Court
In Power Adhesives Limited v Stephen James Sweeney & Others [2017] EWHC 676 the High Court set aside the decision by a company’s directors to convert a loan into shares as it was in breach of their duties.
Complexity of PAYE regs overturns HMRC discovery
In D.A. Gray v HMRC [2017] TC05754 the FTT blocked a discovery assessment in relation to a termination payment. HMRC was found to be out of time as the taxpayer was not negligent in failing to notify liability, as the employer had done what the PAYE regs' demanded.
Editor's Choice (subscribers)
Penalties: error in a return or document
UPDATE: new proposals may result in higher penalty levels for tax avoidance scheme users.
Wholly and exclusively...update
UPDATED: a collection of recent cases that expand our understanding of the rules for tax deduction.
Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings
UPDATE: don't forget the 30 April filing deadline.
Practical Tax Guides and Updates (subscribers)
Statutory residence day counting toolkit
Whether coming to the UK or leaving, or simply just an international traveller.
SRT planning: click here for our SRT Toolkit
Business Investment Relief
UPDATED: More details on the Finance Bill 2017 changes to extend the scope of this handy relief that allows remittance of funds back to the UK.
VAT
VAT Limited Cost Traders
UPDATE: what's a good and what's a service?
Leaving a VAT Flat Rate Scheme
UPDATE: step by step guide
Making Tax Digital
Accountex 2017
Book in for a demo of the site, or to try out our new Apps for small business, enter to win a £1,000 App...Read more
Making Tax Digital: toolkit for accountants
UPDATE: what's hot and what's not in MTD. Planning for MTD for you and your clients. Sign up for our App.
Making Tax Digital: index
UPDATE: the latest news
Vacancies
Technical tax vacancy
There really is nothing quite like www.rossmartin.co.uk. We are here to look after the firms that look after the SMEs that drive this economy, we have millions of hits per year although our top visitors come HMRC and the top accountancy firms. We are looking for a part-time technical tax professional to join our expanding team. We can do flexible working (or full time) working from home. More...
CPD Webinars
Missed last time's update?
Nichola's SME Tax w-update 13 April 2017
Features:
- Making Tax Digital: penalties.
- HMRC Employer Bulletin.
- Cases on accounting exchange losses, VAT on free services in a group and allocation of VAT payments.
- Self employed: cash or accruals basis?
- Foreign pension tax changes.
- Tax efficient extraction of profits toolkit.
Come and join our Cloud
Subscribe (and UNLOCK the whole site) A single user annual subscription is £365 (+ 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.
