Hello,

This time’s tax highlights include updates to the government’s COVID-19 support packages, a reminder about PAYE Settlement Agreements (PSAs), and topical updates to many of our most popular guides.

If you are an adviser or director of a Non-Resident Landlord (NRL) company you might like our new checklist to the transition from Income Tax to Corporation Tax. This is included in the NRL guide. We also have a new index to our guides for offshore investors in UK property.

We gather that many people do not realise that they have Child Trust Funds. Nor did we realise that we didn't have a guide to these, so we have made one. Follow the links to find out how to retrieve your account!

The call wait on HMRC's Employer Helpline for this tax agent was 18 minutes today. That, I could cope with, however what really annoyed me was the fact that it took several attempts to get through thanks to the phone's 'chat-bot' which insisted on reading me guidance that was of no relevance to my call. On the third attempt I realised that the best tactic, when the bot asks you to tell it details of why you are calling, is to talk gibberish. This results in the bot transferring you to the queue to wait for human intervention and stops it from constantly misunderstanding what you are saying. It appears to be programmed to misunderstand and then it launches into 'reading' you its script on 'when to register for PAYE' etc. My hunch is that the bot is just there to disguise the call queuing time as it never seems to be learning from its mistakes.

If you have any tax-specific queries, please do post them up to our sister site: 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

COVID-19: Job Support Scheme
NEW: Details of the employee ‘Job Support Scheme’ which replaces the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme (CJRS) in November.

COVID-19: Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension
NEW: The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension applies from November.

PAYE: PSA payments due by 22 October 2020
PAYE Settlement Agreements (PSAs) are statutory agreements with HMRC which allow employers to settle, in a single payment, the income tax and NIC liabilities on minor Benefits In Kind (BIKs) and expenses payments.

Corporate Transparency and Register Reform: BEIS response
A response to the consultation ‘Corporate transparency and register reform’ which sets out a proposed plan of action to enhance the role of Companies House and increase the transparency of companies and other legal entities. 

COVID-19: Second report into economic impact of Coronavirus
The House of Commons Treasury Committee (Treasury Committee) has published its second report which focuses on the medium-term issues that have arisen as the UK has sought to emerge from lockdown.

Editor's Pick

Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
UPDATE: What's new? What is the Construction Industry Scheme? Who does it apply to? How does it work? Can a property investment business be a contractor?

Personal Service Companies & Tax
UPDATE: What's new? What are the current issues for PSC owners? Is the liquidation TAAR a concern? What funding is available for businesses still affected by COVID-19.

Non-resident landlords and offshore investors index (freeview)
A collection of useful guides in respect of non-resident landlords and offshore investors.

Guides and Updates (subscribers)

Non-Resident Landlord Scheme
UPDATE: What's new? We have made a transition to Corporation Tax from 6 April 2020 checklist.

Buy to let ownership: personal v company
What is the most tax efficient option given recent developments, between owning a buy-to-let property personally or via a company? This note considers the income and corporation tax, CGT, IHT, ATED, SDLT, VAT, together with profit extraction and planning points, with case studies links to further guidance.

Tax debts and insolvency
NEW: This Practical Tax Guide looks at the treatment of tax debts to HMRC in insolvency cases.

Child Trust Funds
NEW: The Child Trust Fund (CTF) is a long-term tax-free savings account for children which ran between 2002 and 2011. Existing CTFs can still be used. Do you have one?

Case Update (Freeview)

Mutual Agreement Procedure documents remain confidential
In Kevin McCabe v HMRC [2020] UKUT0266, the Upper Tribunal (UT) upheld the decision of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) that HMRC did not have to disclose documents from a ‘mutual agreement procedure’ to determine tax residency as they were of low relevance to the taxpayer's position.

Expenses of Management: No decisions, no deductions
In Centrica Overseas Holdings Limited v HMRC [2020] TC7683, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) denied Corporation Tax deductions for fees incurred on the disposal of a subsidiary business by an investment company.

VAT

VAT Penalties
When do penalties apply for VAT? What penalties are charged and how can they be mitigated?

VAT cases

Subcontractors worked for main contractor not customer
In Marshalls Bathroom Studio Ltd ('Marshalls') v HMRC [2020] TC07753, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found that output tax was due on payments made by Marshalls' customers directly to sub-contractors because the sub-contractors were working for Marshalls.

No ‘reasonable excuse’ evidence
In Concept Multi-Car Limited (CMC) v HMRC [2020] TC07824, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) upheld a company's VAT default surcharge there was no evidence that CMC attempted to set up a new direct debit instruction.

 

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

NEW

More at CPD Index

Missed last time's Web-update?

Nichola's SME Tax W-update 24 September 2020

  • Winter Economy Plan by Rishi Sunak: At a glance
  • COVID-19: Package to support and enforce self-isolation
  • VAT: Ready to trade with the EU from 1 January 2021
  • Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR)
  • CIS: Construction Industry reverse charge
  • Tax and overvalued goodwill on incorporation
  • CIS: Keep adequate records to support your claims
  • HMRC pay taxpayer's costs despite winning
  • Roof insulation was not energy saving for VAT ...More

 

SME Tax Monthly Summary September 2020

Links to all of September's newswires...More 

Come and join our Cloud

Subscribe (and UNLOCK the whole site) A single user annual subscription is £399 (+ VAT).

What do you get?

  • We keep YOU up to date in SME tax.
  • FULL access to www.rossmartin.co.uk: your firm's favourite TAX INTRANET containing over 3,500 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 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.