Hello, 

This time we have our newly updated and FREEVIEW Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) eligibility checking tool. This takes you step by step over the detailed conditions for eligbility, which is useful if you have been self-employed for some years and not others or have had irregular earnings. Our tool is different to HMRC's checking tool, which basically just tells you yes or no and little more. 

Many agents, and their clients, are annoyed that they will not be able to access the SEISS portal when it opens. You can see why that might be, HMRC has long had problems with fraudulent claims by bulk repayment agents, and this combined with the level of state aid available means that government has to tread very carefully. With social distancing in force it is going to be very hard to talk a non-computer literate client through the claims process. Just registering with HMRC is difficult enough and the ID checking process is arduous. Short of obtaining some Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and asking your client to visit you in person to make a claim, I'm unsure what the answer is. Maybe HMRC has thought all this through, and perhaps postal claims will be accepted. At the end of the day, HMRC is the final arbiter for the SEISS claims and therefore we will have to wait and see what it allows.

There have been many articles on expenses and benefits afforded to homeworking employees in recent weeks; we have brought these all together for you in our guide to 'Benefits and Perks'. These will make useful reading as we have two tax years thus far affected by coronavirus and so we need to consider what that will mean in terms of reporting Income Tax. We have pulled a lot of these together in our Self Assessment Return 2019-20 Toolkit

As we embrace 'the new normal' (it looks as if 'normal' is now extending from lockdown to wearing masks and gearing up for a mega-recession), another bank holiday looks like any other day. Wherever you are, I hope you enjoy it and all the guides below.

Lots of people have been asking questions in relation to the COVID-19 support measures. We are trying to get through these and we are updating the COVID-19: Tracker and the various guides almost on a daily basis. 

If you have any tax-specific queries, please post them up to our sister site, details are here: www.VtaxP.co.uk

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 & guides (freeview)

Tax Agents unable to access SEISS claim portal
HMRC has barred tax agents from making claims on their clients' behalf under its new coronavirus Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) portal.

Trust Registration Service: Online amendments finally available
In April 2020 the Trust Registration Service (TRS) added a new facility to allow online amendments to be made to the trust register, nearly three years after the TRS was first introduced.

Claims and Elections Review: Call for evidence
The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) has launched a new consultation ‘Claims and Elections Review - call for evidence’ to look at ways to simplify claims and elections across different taxes in relation to individuals, businesses and partnerships.

Small Brewer's Relief
Budget 2020 announced a review as to how the Small Brewer’s Relief (SBR) is structured. The outcome of this review was expected to be published in Spring 2020.

Coronavirus Support

COVID-19: Tracker
UPDATE: Start here to track the latest government measures and announcements aimed at supporting businesses and individuals.

COVID-19: Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
UPDATE: The maximum you can claim, is £7,500, assuming that you have average profits of £37,500. New legislation was passed last week which clarifies claims for those paying the loan charge, or claiming averaging, non-residence or remittance basis users.

Coronavirus Self-Employment Income Support Eligibility Check Tool 
Use this to see whether you meet the main qualifying conditions to allow you to claim under the UK government's Coronavirus Self-Employment Income Support scheme. 

COVID-19: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
UPDATE: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: a cash grant that is designed to allow employers to retain staff who would otherwise be laid off.

COVID-19: Company directors & shareholders
Many small companies are run by just one or two directors and have no other employees. What government financial support is available to directors/shareholders during the coronavirus crisis?

COVID 19: Pension tax changes for retired public sector staff returning to work
As part of their response to COVID-19 the government plans to temporarily suspend significant tax charges on pension income for recently retired public sector workers aged between 50 and 55 who are returning to work to assist in providing critical public services. 

Covid-19: Relief on the destruction of beer and cider
HMRC have introduced a temporary measure to help in claims for tax relief on the destruction of spoilt beer, cider or wine during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Editor's Pick (subscribers)

2019/20 Self Assessment Tax Return toolkit
NEW: what has changed since last year and top tips for 2019/20 tax return completion. 

Employee tax-free benefits and perks
UPDATE: what benefits can be paid and reimbursed tax-free? Essential reading for all advisers and their employer clients.  

Focus on Scotland and NI (subscribers)

Northern Ireland Income Tax
UPDATED: What is the rate of Income Tax for Northern Ireland? 

Scottish Income Tax Rates
UPDATED: What is the Scottish rate of Income Tax? 

Tax Guides and Updates (subscribers)

Reporting capital gains: How to
UPDATE: How do you report capital gains? We look at the requirements of the new regime for residential property gains and the different options for amending returns.

Losses: trading and other losses
UPDATE: It is proposed that the corporate loss restriction extends to capital losses from 1 April 2020. These measures primarily affect larger companies and groups.

Losses, trade losses and sideways relief
UPDATE: How can the self-employed utilise their losses? What are the restrictions? 

Losses (sideways): Restriction for uncommercial trades
What are the restrictions to sideways loss relief? When do they apply? What is an uncommercial trade?

VAT

COVID-19: Temporary zero-rating for PPE
The government has announced that sales of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect against COVID-19 will be zero-rated for VAT from 1 May 2020 until 31 July 2020.

Zero-rating of e-publications moved forward to 1 May 2020 
The government has accelerated changes to apply a permanent zero rate of VAT to supplies of certain electronic publications ('e-publications') from 1 May 2020. 

Virtual Tax Partner Toolkits (freeview)

Virtual Tax Partner © Tax Toolkit© Tax Toolkits
NEW: be a winner with our game-changing tax diagnostics tools. Sign up now.

  • 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.

Tax Queries?

Virtual Tax Partner© Support
Have a tax query? Need a second option? Open a ticket and ask a question. A team of tax experts with a very wide range of expertise: covering direct and indirect tax, as well as accounting, R&D claims, reorganisations and much more. 

CPD for lunch 

Byte-sized chunks of CPD for subscribers

More at CPD Index

Missed last time's Web-update?

SME Tax Monthly Summary April 2020
Missed any of our SME Tax Web-updates in April? Here is a summary of the month.

Nichola's SME Tax W-update 30 April 2020

  • COVID-19: Tracker
  • Employer Bulletin: April 2020
  • Spotlight 55: Comparison and broker websites marketing umbrella companies are not always what they seem
  • House of Lords: re-think IR35, Off-Payroll rules and employment status
  • HMRC research: Understanding tax avoidance arrangements used by contractors
  • Independent review of the Loan Charge
  • COVID-19: New timelines for tax policy consultations
  • COVID-19: New timelines for tax policy consultations
  • Welsh Income Tax
  • Welsh Land Transaction Tax
  • No discovery: Unauthorised payment not careless 

More...

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