Hello
Another exciting week in the world of tax. We have seen over half the current Finance Bill cut out due to the decision to call an early election. This has left a lot of taxpayers in limbo and it is perplexing that no announcement has been made to offer any comfort to those affected.
HMRC raided some football clubs on Wednesday, presumably in relation to untaxed earnings on transfer fees and 'bung's' made to managers following the undercover investigation that caused Sam Allardyce to resign as England's manager. Tax yield from football investigations is currently running at about £80million a year according to HMRC.
On the topic of tax yield, Making Tax Digital is supposed to be doing something to reduce the £8billion annual 'tax gap'. You may have noted that the MTD clauses were dropped from the Finance Bill. I don't think that this changes anything and we should not get too excited as no measures are due to come in until April 2018 and so the MTD clauses can go into the next bill. I would be guessing that we can expect a mini-budget following the election, this may well allow the non-dom changes to be retrofitted.
My pick of the week in terms of our subscriber content and essential reading is our Private Client update. It was really interesting putting that together. Also, if you have not seen our Employer update then check this out as it contains a handy guide to filing deadlines. We also have some new, really practical guides too.
Accountex 2017: HMRC have had to pull out because of the general election purdah, but for every cloud there is a silver lining! This means that I am doing two extra talks at the show. They are free and count as structured CPD. Accountex is on the 10th and 11th May. If you scroll down you can pre-book a demo of our site, come and try our brilliant new MTD Apps for small business or just come and say hello to us: Stand 672.
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)
Parliament cuts Finance Bill ahead of General Election
More than half of the Finance (No 2) 2017 Bill has been cut: there is unsufficient time to debate the full bill before June's General Election. It also made some amendments and added five new clauses to remaining bill. See the Finance Bill (No 2) 2017 Bill: amended version and who is affected by the changes.
HMRC: no more P60 information over the phone
From 2 May HMRC will no longer provide agents with information on their clients’ pay, tax and employment history over the phone.
HMRC Agent Update April / May 2017
HMRC have issued their Agent Update for April / May 2017: we have summarised the key content for you with links to our detailed guidance on the topics covered.
HMRC tackles football transfer fees
On Wednesday morning HMRC raided football clubs Newcastle United and West Ham United as part of an investigation into tax fraud. It seems likely that this is in relation to PAYE and NIC avoidance on transfer fees.
Fines for unsolicited texts and emails
Think very carefully about data when you engage a marketing firm to send out mass email/texts/App push notices. The Information Commissioner (ICO) has fined a North West financier £40,000 for sending out thousands of unsolicited marketing texts promoting loans.
Case Update (freeview)
Claim that companies are nominees fails
In Stephen Schechter and Lawrence Schechter v HMRC [2017] TC05677 shareholders claimed that their property companies held their respective properties on trust as their nominees so that they could claim loss relief for development losses. The accounts and paperwork told a different story and tribunal did not believe them.
Editor's Choice (subscribers)
Essential reading and CPD
Private Clients: what's On April 2017
NEW: A round up of the latest developments in tax for private clients, covering income tax, CGT and IHT.
Employer's Update: April 2017
UPDATE: key deadlines, new developments and planning points
Practical Tax Guides and Updates (subscribers)
Joint property and legal v beneficial ownership
UPDATE: This practical guide considers the tax rules for joint property and the effect of making joint property elections. It outlines the key differences between legal and beneficial ownership, provides different examples with step by step analysis, considers inheritance tax issues and summarises really useful case decisions.
Transfers of value for IHT
NEW: What is a transfer of value for inheritance tax purposes with planning points and pitfalls.
Rectification of Trustee mistakes
NEW: What actions can taken by Trustees if they make a mistake?
Liquidation / strike off: tax returns
NEW: What are the corporation tax filing requirements when a company is in liquidation or about to be struck off?
VAT
Bad debts: VAT recovery
NEW: When can you recover VAT on a bad debt? How much VAT is payable to HMRC or recoverable from HMRC when only part of an invoice is paid?
Making Tax Digital
Accountex 2017
Book in for a demo of the site, or to try out our new Apps for small business...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.
Making Tax Digital: index
UPDATE: the latest news
Vacancies
Technical tax vacancy
There really is nothing quite like www.rossmartin.co.uk. We are always happy to hear from you if you would like to join us. No agencies please.
CPD Webinars
Missed last time's update?
Nichola's SME Tax w-update 21 April 2017
Features:
- The fate of the Finance Bill.
- Statutory residence test (SRT) toolkits.
- Tax planning for directors.
- Business investment relief
- VAT: limited cost traders and leaving the flat rate scheme.
- ATED: don't forget the 30 April filing deadline.
- Penalties: error in a return or document.
- Wholly and exclusively update.
- Cases on directors' duties and discovery assessment.
- Consultations on SDLT and non-resident companies chargeable to income tax.
Come and join our Cloud
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What do you get?
- We keep YOU up to date in SME tax.
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- 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.
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