Hello

The week: Self Assessment payment on accounts may be being calculated incorrectly, IR35 back in the tribunal, devolved tax penalties trip up, quasi directors and penalties and much more.

The public sector off-payroll working rules were introduced because IR35 can be incredibly difficult to self assess. Many of us have been asked to assist locums in that tricky task and so I was quite keen to analyse the result of a locum IR35 decision this week in some depth. The rules required the tax tribunal to consider two different hospital contracts, and it arrived at a different conclusion for each. I have every sympathy for the poor taxpayer. Can I make a call-out? If anyone has the time to put the decision through HMRC's CEST tool, then do send me the result and we'll publish it for you, that is if you want work and publicity in this area.

Just to remind you of impending key deadlines - 6 July for form P11Ds and the ERS return and 7 July for the VAT return for the last quarter on the old system.

The low points of my week were finding that all attempts at online agent authorisation have failed for new VAT clients: I am merely setting ourselves up as agents for our company. I spent a lot of time on HMRC's technical helpline and was talked through the MTD for VAT authorisation process. It was not easy. There were numerous error messages and switching from PC to laptop so I could access one account whilst looking at the other. Luckily, I recorded the screens and so have made you a summary on the MTD for VAT blog. 

The second low point was in PAYE ERS reporting. The workaround was very low tech: I was advised by HMRC's helpline to log in as my clients and this way I can set myself up as an administrator or assistant on their PAYE online account so I can view it. I had applied to be set up as a delegate for this but when the code arrived I found that the service kept throwing up errors.

People often try to sell me Apps for our website. Some Apps are brilliant (check out our Gift Aid and TaxKeep Apps) and sometimes I can't really see the point of an App when I can access a website which has a mobile site straight off a browser. This has led to the non-tax article below about how to set up a shortcut on your phone. Not exactly rocket science but it is interesting to see what different browsers do on different types of phone. 

If you have tax queries contact the Virtual Tax Partner support portal at www.VtaxP.co.uk.

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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)

Offshore income and gains: there are No Safe Havens
Following this year’s spring statement HMRC published its updated strategy on tackling offshore tax compliance, ‘No Safe Havens 2019’ which extended it’s 2014 aims by targeting offshore avoidance as well as evasion.

2018/19 Payment on account problems
There have been problems with the self-assessment system and payments on account for 2018/19 which may result in some taxpayers facing larger than usual tax bills in January 2020.

Making VAT more Digital

MTD: VAT blog
Work-arounds: this time we include, Step by step: how to authorise a new client on your ASA. What went wrong when I tried to authorise an agent for my business. Excellent feedback and tips from accountants and advisers, do keep them coming.

Editor's Choice (subscribers)

Personal Serice Companies
UPDATE: what's new and what is planned for you

Offpayroll working 
UPDATE: The 'Off-payroll working' rules move the responsibility to assess a worker's employment status and to deduct PAYE and NICs on the worker's fees to engager. They extend to private sector engagers next year.

Virtual Tax Partner © Tax Toolkit© Tax Toolkit
NEW: be a winner with our game-changing tax diagnostics tools: each tool is designed to save you approximately £250-£1,000 in terms of chargeable time.

  • Entrepreneurs' Relief: Sole traders: sale of a business, incorporation, sale of assets
  • Entrepreneurs' Relief: Company owners: rules for sales pre 29 October 2018, sales between 29 October 2018 and 5 April 2019 and after.
  • TAAR: closing your Personal service company? Will your final dividends be taxed as income?
  • Salary or dividend, or a mixture of both. Better to claim the Employers' Allowance?
  • Making Tax Digital for VAT: when do you need to join.

TaxKeep Apps
NEW: these Apps are currently free for subscribers. For a small fee they can be customised with your logo and then distributed to your clients. Complete the form to sign up for your own App. Try out the Gift Aid app.

How to add www.rossmartin.co.uk as a shortcut to your home screen
NEW: we wrote this once we realised that our different phones and browsers all do things differently. It's a lot simpler than creating an App that lets you do the same thing.

Tax Guides & Updates (subscribers)

A-Z index for different trades and professions
UPDATE: What expenses can you claim if you work in a certain type of business?

Accelerated Payments & Follower Notices
UDPATE: Some scheme users are now receiving follower notices following HMRC success at tribunal so we have updated our guide.

Case Update (freeview)

IR35 and the locum different contracts have different outcomes
In George Mantides Ltd v HMRC [2019] TC07202 the FTT reviewed the services of a hospital locum for the purposes IR35 and decided on a different outcome for each of two hospital contracts.

Loan scheme adminstrator was not a promoter
In Curzon Capital Ltd v HMRC [2019] TC 6949 the FTT that although the company was involved in notifiable tax avoidance schemes it was not the promoter.

No daily penalties for Scottish LBTT returns
In Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP v Revenue Scotland [2019] FTSTC 4 the Scottish First tier tribunal allowed an appeal against penalties for a late LBTT return; Revenue Scotland had not met the legal conditions for daily penalties.

Round 2: No daily penalties for Scottish LBTT returns
In Michael Robert Harrison and Sharon Ross v Revenue Scotland [2019] FTSTC 5 the Scottish tribunal again allowed an appeal against daily penalties for late filed LBTT returns; the law on penalties was not complied with.

VAT (subscribers)

Penalties (VAT)
What are the penalties for late filing and payment of VAT or late VAT registration? How can they be mitigated? When can they be transferred to a director or employee?

VAT cases

Payroll services exempted too
In Cheshire Centre for Independent Living v HMRC TC7182 the FTT found that a supply of payroll services to disabled people was so closely linked to the provision of welfare services that payroll charges were VAT exempt.

Employee liable for company VAT penalty
In Mohammed Abdul Malik v HMRC [2019] TC07198 the FTT upheld a personal liability notice for VAT penalties issued to a company employee; he was a manager therefore an officer of the company.

 

CPD for lunch 

Byte sized chunks of CPD for subscribers

Understanding PAYE tax codes
NEW: what, why and how

Structures and Buildings Allowance (SBA)
NEW: Will the SBA prove to be a useful allowance?

Extracting Profits from an Owner-Managed Business
NEW: How can an owner extract profits from a company?

Reasonable Excuse
NEW: What is reasonable when it comes to filing failures?

Missed last time's Web-update?

Nichola's SME tax W-update 28 June 2019

Features:

  • Shares schemes: EMI still the favourite
  • HMRC research shows that agents can do more for non-residents
  • New 'breathing space' and time-to-pay proposals 
  • Blog: Stull trying to sign up to Making Tax Digital for VAT
  • ICAEW receives update from HMRC on MTD for VAT issues
  • Virtual Tax Partner © Toolkit 
  • TaxKeep Apps
  • Tax rebate company: failure to do ID checks
  • Tax authorities share data for residency
  • VAT and EU sales
  • and much more..

Catch up with last month in tax 

May 2019: the month in summary
NEW: a summary of the newswires for the last month

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