Nichola's SME Tax W-update 8 March 2019

Hello

We have lots of practical tips and guides for you this time, however the new consultation 'Off-Payroll working' in the private sector might also catch a lot of attention.

Many people might think, given the publicity, that it is inconceivable that employment agencies are still promoting or enabling contractor loan schemes, however these products are still being mass marketed at an alarming rate by offshore companies. I note that often workers using these schemes are working on outsourced public sector contracts. This is not good, in fact it's awful: the government needs to sort its procurement processes.

Moving the Off-payroll working rules to larger end clients in the private sector is an attempt to grab the low hanging fruit so far as employment taxes go. The new consultation, which is summarised below, is open to all to contribute.

As we count down to Making VAT Digital we still can't make our Agent Service's Account do anything and another client with a number of online payment systems (US and UK) is having no end of trouble setting up cloud accounting software: it's too complicated. Ho hum! I think maybe we need to add bookkeeping to the national curriculum.

I have also discovered the reason why some people's ASA look just like the old version, see Top Tips in the ASA guide below. 

Our pick of interesting cases is as below, including analysis of one of our appeals. There was a critical system failure at all levels: food for thought for all sides. I hope that this analysis might be useful to you all.

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 CTA (Fellow) Tax Director

www.rossmartin.co.uk

Your Virtual Tax Partner®: online PRACTICAL support for accountants, tax advisers BY accountants and tax advisers

Quick news (freeview)

Off-payroll working rules for the private sector: consultation
HMRC have opened a new consultation ‘Off-payroll working rules from April 2020’ about extending the public sector off-payroll working rules to the private sector from 6 April 2020.

The Loan charge: Key dates, case studies and new settlement deadline
HMRC have released details of a letter sent to the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group which includes details of key dates, anonymised case studies and settlement statistics and deadlines.

Brexit no deal: accounting for import VAT
HMRC have released an update on import VAT if there is no deal Brexit. This explains how VAT registered business should account for import VAT and recover input tax.

Making Tax Digital

Making VAT Digital: Top Tips on the Agent Services Account
How to set up and trouble shoot.

Making VAT Digital: who has to join? (freeview)
If you are still unsure whether MVD applies to you our tool should help you decide. We are constantly updating this as HMRC release more guidance.

Making VAT Digital: can I claim exemption?
HMRC has updated its notice at last. The questions for many will be whether it is financially viable to delegate to an agent? If not, whether it is actually possible to learn computer bookkeeping, work out new systems and learn to install and use new software?

Editor's Choice (subscribers)

Entrepreneurs Relief: subscriber guide
UPDATE: our new version updated for the Finance Act 2019

Statutory Review
UPDATE: top tips on making the best of this useful process.

Capital Allowances: Fixtures
UPDATE: own a commercial property? Thinking of buying a commercial property? Think about the fixtures rules as early into the conveyancing process as possible.

Tax Guides and Updates (subscribers)

Tax Returns: 5 April 2019 Deadlines
Last minute planning, what claims and payments have to be made before the end of the tax year?

Directors: tax planning toolkit for 2019/20
NEW: This is the first publication of our 2019/20 directors toolkit. Like all our maintained guides, it is a rolling planner and will be updated throughout the year.

Tax-efficient extraction of profits: toolkit (2019/20)
NEW: This toolkit is designed to help a company and its owner decide how company profits are to be extracted and should be used in conjunction with the Directors tax planning toolkit above.

Will I pay less tax if I trade via an LLP?
UPDATE: New examples added for the 2019/20 tax year.

Disguised Remuneration loan charge
UPDATE: Employers: check your payroll software ahead of 5 April to make sure it can handle the loan charge. If you have paid APN's on loans: you need to contact HMRC to arrange set-off against the loan charge. Our guide explains.

Case Update (freeview)

Capital allowances: fixing the price of fixtures
In Glais House v HMRC [2019] TC6945 the FTT agreed that capital allowances on fixtures in a pre Finance Act 2012 sale/purchase agreement were not limited to the vendor’s disposal value, but to its cost.

Case dismissed: analysis of a tax penalty appeal
Is it possible to review a case AND draft a successful appeal in under two hours? Why did a statutory review fail to spot the errors in HMRC's penalty case?

VAT (subscribers)

VAT & Management Charges
UPDATE: blocked input VAT. When a holding company is not actually carrying on any economic activity.

VAT Groups
UPDATE: to group or not? A handy summary.

CPD & Webinars

Private Client Update - January 2019

NEW: A webinar covering private client news, legislative changes and interesting cases from the past few months.

Budget 2018: subscriber guide & CPD
UPDATE: key announcements at a glance

See CPD for Lunch

Changes to our Terms and Conditions

Important changes to our T and Cs
UPDATED: our terms and conditions are short and we hope transparent. Please do take a minute to read through them.

Missed last time's Web-update?

Nichola's SME tax W-update 1 March 2019

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