Month: May 2012

Do I have to pay tax on my part time job?

Whether or not you pay tax on your part-time job depends on how much you earn, not on the number of hours you work. Everyone receives a certain amount of income in each tax year on which no tax has to be paid. This is called the Personal Allowance (£8,105 in 2012-2013). If your earnings from your part-time job are below this, then you do not have to pay tax on them. If your earnings are more than this, you will pay tax on the difference.

One advantage to having multiple part time jobs is National Insurance, each job has its own allowance which means you end up not paying any NI (and so could your employer). However, there is a risk of aggregation (treated as from one source) if the jobs are related.

Students often work during the holidays and then return to full time education and use form P50 to reclaim their tax withour waiting till the end of the tax year, here is a link to P50

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/p50.pdf

You don’t have to be a student to use P50 it can be used by anyone stopping work or retiring.

steve@bicknells.net

Controlling Persons more IR35 rules planned for 2013

HMRC has issued a consultation paper setting out proposals to tighten IR35 compliance by requiring organisations engaging “controlling persons” through personal services companies to deduct income tax and national insurance from fees paid to their companies.

A controlling person will be defined as someone from the contracting organisation who is able to shape the direction of the engaging organisation during the year. “This would be someone who has managerial control over a significant proportion of the organisation’s employees and/or control over a significant proportion of the budget of the organisation,”

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/deductions-source-planned-controlling-persons/527907

This is a response to the 2000 senior civil servants employed through Personal Services Companies and the consultation period ends on 16th August.

It will interesting to see what tests will be applied and whether all income must be paid in this way or if it only applies to part of the income of the consultant? as its planned for 2013 the government may even change their mind as they did with Pastie Tax and Mobile Homes.

steve@bicknells.net

Is Gold good for your Pension?

Gold has always been about wealth preservation – it does well in a time of crisis.

There are lots of ways to invest in Gold:

  • Gold Bars
  • Gold Funds
  • Gold Shares

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/8635523/How-to-invest-in-gold.html

The chart below shows how Gold Prices have increased over the last 10 years

Gold has been one of the best performing asset classes over the last few years, with annual returns averaging around 17% each year for the last 11 years.

http://www.goldmadesimple.com/

Have you got any in Gold in your pension?

steve@bicknells.net

£30,000 Tax Exempt Ex Gratia Payments

Ex Gratia payments are normally linked to Compromise Agreements, see example

http://www.compromiseagreementslimited.co.uk/templates/template

The use of Ex Gratia payments in relation to terminating employment need to be handled carefully as highlight in this article

http://www.payandbenefitsmagazine.co.uk/pab/article/legal-comment-employers-warned-about-ex-gratia-payments-12322121

Getting the terminology right is critical, Earnings, Wages, Holiday Pay, Bonuses, Payment in Lieu of Notice are likely to be taxable. Ex Gratia payments won’t be, if the following apply:

The first £30,000 of a payment which is paid in connection with the termination of employment is tax free, as long as it is not otherwise taxable as earnings. Any excess over £30,000 is subject to income tax as normal, but is not subject to any NICs. Two or more payments made in respect of the same employment, or different employments with the same employer, are aggregated for the purpose of the £30,000 limit.

Ex gratia payments, made where the employer is under no legal obligation to do so, and awards from the Employment Tribunal in respect of wrongful or unfair dismissal, can fall within the £30,000 exemption as can payments made on redundancy whether statutory, non-contractual or even contractual.

http://www.out-law.com/en/topics/tax/employment-tax/taxation-of-termination-payments/

Compromise Agreements can sometimes be a good alternative to formal Disciplinary or Redundancy processes.

steve@bicknells.net

HMRC Tax Targets and Campaigns

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) campaigns provide opportunities for people to voluntarily put their tax affairs in order. They do this by identifying a group to target and gathering information and intelligence that can be used to encourage and influence that group to come forward. Once a campaign closes, HMRC then uses that same information and intelligence to follow up with action that can include criminal investigations, aimed at those who choose not to pay what they owe.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/campaigns/news.htm

As a result of a recent campaign a Plumber in Ringwood, Hampshire was sentenced to 4 years in prison, follow this link to read the full story

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/hmrc-secures-plumber-conviction/527556

Accountingweb have been tracking the campaigns, so far 77,616 checks have been carried out and £36.3m tax recovered

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/hmrc-task-force-tracker/521073

So which campaigns are coming up in the next few months:

  1. Direct Selling – aimed at those selling products to customers away from retail premises, this includes selling door to door, at parties or to friends and relatives. Sellers are sometimes called ‘Agents’.
  2. Missing Tax Returns – aimed at Individuals who have been requested to provide or should be submitting Self Assessment Returns but haven’t http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/need-tax-return.htm (Company Directors are required to submit returns)
  3. Trade Campaigns – aimed at those working in the Home Improvement, Maintenance and Repair sectors
  4. e Marketplaces – aimed at those who sell on line (such as online auctions) and don’t disclose their income http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/campaigns/emarket.htm

If you are in one of these target groups, now is time to makesure your tax affairs are in order.

steve@bicknells.net

 

Things you should know about Asset Revaluations

It’s a fundamental concept of accounting that the accounts must give a ‘True and Fair’ view of the state of affairs of the company at its year end.

In order to achieve this a company may need to revalue its fixed assets, it could be Plant or Property, larger companies will refer to International Accounting Standards and Financial Reporting Standards but most SME’s use FRSSE http://www.frc.org.uk/documents/pagemanager/asb/FRSSE/FRSSE%20Web%20optimized%20FINAL.pdf

Accounting Explained gives a good summary of the entries related to revaluations http://accountingexplained.com/financial/non-current-assets/revaluation-of-fixed-assets

Here are some things you need to know:

  1. Revaluing Assets does not create a tax liability
  2. Revaluing Assets does not create a profit (it creates a revaluation reserve)
  3. Depreciation Rates may need to be reviewed (as they could be too high if you need to revalue regularly)
  4. Revaluation will increased the Net Worth of your business
  5. The Directors can revalue the assets but the value needs to be carefully worked out as an arms length market value

steve@bicknells.net

Can your business pass the HMRC IR35 Business Entity Tests

The Term “IR35” became established following a Budget press release issued by the Inland Revenue on 23rd September 1999. That press release was called “IR35”. At its simplest, IR35 is the way in which the taxman closed a loophole that was allowing many contractors and freelance professionals to avoid paying large amounts of Tax and National Insurance.

All Freelancers, Consultants and Consultancy Companies need to carefully consider the new HMRC tests released on the 9th May 2012.

Here are the 12 tests, scores shown in()

  1. Business premises (10)
  2. PII (2)
  3. Efficiency (10)
  4. Assistance (35)
  5. Advertising (2)
  6. Previous PAYE (minus 15)
  7. Business plan (1)
  8. Repair at own expense (4)
  9. Client risk (10)
  10. Billing (2)
  11. Right of substitution (2)
  12. Actual substitution (20)

A score less than 10 is high risk and a score more than 20 is low risk. Fail the test and it could cost you a great deal in tax.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ir35/guidance.pdf

steve@bicknells.net

 

How to Issue and Transfer Shares in an SME

When you first form a limited company, the formation agent will arrange the issue of the Subscriber Shares.

Following that you can allocate new shares using Form 88(2)

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/forms/generalForms/882Revised2005.pdf

Before the Companies Act 2006 companies had authorised share capital so before issuing shares:

  1. Check the Memorandum and Articles
  2. Check any Shareholder agreements

As your company grows, the shareholders may need to transfer shares to new shareholders. To do this you need to:

  • Inform Companies House on the next Annual Return (you can only tell companies house who the shareholders are on an annual return so it could be a while before companies house get to know the the shareholders have changed)
  • Your Bank and Professional Advisers will need information on changes to Shareholders

Your shareholders need to be aware that if they give away shares or make a gain from selling shares they may be liable for Capital Gains Tax, however, they may be entitled to tax relief like the Entrepreneurs Tax Relief and that each year there is an exempt amount of capital gains for individuals.

steve@bicknells.net

£12.6 Billion in Unclaimed Tax Relief and Refunds

At a time when HMRC are writing to employees who have underpaid tax because they were on the wrong tax code for 2011/12, it might be worth giving some thought to unclaimed tax reliefs

Here’s the top ten list of our biggest tax wastes:

Area of Tax Wastage Amount of Wastage
Income-related Tax Credits £7.26 billion
Tax relief on pension contributions £2.45 billion
Tax relief on charity donations £997 million
Savings on Inheritance Tax £448 million
Making use of ISAs £403 million
Child Benefit £401 million
Avoiding penalties for late filing of tax return £307 million
Savings on Capital Gains Tax £133 million
Making use of Employee Share Schemes £118 million
Income tax and Personal Allowances  £83 million
Total £12.6 billion

Source: unbiased.co.uk

http://www.lovemoney.com/news/household-bills/tax/11323/six-easy-ways-to-pay-less-tax

£12.6 billion is an incredible amount of money and I am sure many people aren’t even aware that they could be claiming tax relief or refunds, so why not check what you could claim and makesure your tax is right.

steve@bicknells.net

 

 

 

 

Trade away your Overdrawn Directors Loan

For those who haven’t heard of Bartercard.

Bartercard is the World’s largest business to business Trade Exchange servicing over 75,000 trading members across 6 countries with the World’s largest computerised Barter Network

http://www.bartercard.co.uk/about

Basically members exchange goods and services instead of cash and a Trade Pound has the same value as a Pound Sterling.

Bartercard is reported in your accounts in the same way as a Bank Account.

My Bartercard contacts tell me that currently one of the most popular ways to use Bartercard is to repay Directors Loans, the Director sells or auctions personal items, selling via Bartercard is easy and members are always keen to buy, they then use the Trade Pounds to repay the Directors Loan.

I know you might say why don’t you just sell for cash, which you could do, but because some products such as electrical items are in short supply in Bartercard, on the auction site (much like EBay) they will almost certainly be sold for a premium price.

Once you have paid off your directors loan you may be eligible for a Corporation Tax refund. http://stevejbicknell.com/2012/01/02/pay-off-your-directors-loan-and-reclaim-corporation-tax/

steve@bicknells.net