Tag: Tax allowance

It’s good to share and earn a £1,000 tax free

Fotolia_45741373_XS cash

From April 2017, there will be two new tax-free £1,000 allowances – one for selling goods or providing services, and one income from property you own.

People who make up to £1,000 from occasional jobs – such as sharing power tools, providing a lift share or selling goods they have made – will no longer need to pay tax on that income.

In the same way, the first £1,000 of income from property – such as renting a driveway or loft storage – will be tax free.

Under the new allowances, from April next year individuals with property or trading income won’t need to declare or pay tax on the first £1,000 they earn from each source per year. Should they earn more than that amount they will have to declare it, but they can still take advantage of the allowance.

According to http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/21/sharing-economy-1000-tax-free-allowances-ebay-airbnb-micro-entrepreneurs

The Treasury has said that they new relief will be for “self-starters”, from mothers who supplement their income with a bake sale to those who do some trading on eBay.

A spokesman said: “Property income would come about from any income that you make from renting out a residence, home, building, property or land – so you could rent out your driveway as a parking space. You can rent out your home to tourists, which is the Airbnb bit. Or you can rent out your garden space.” He added: “Trading income covers any sale of goods or services. You could do tasks such as cleaning or odd jobs, hiring out your own equipment such as power tools, or selling goods through a website like TaskRabbit, Etsy [or] eBay.” The government claims 700,000 people will benefit from the new tax break, a figure based on self-assessment data from HMRC.

steve@bicknells.net

Are there any tax advantages to HMOs?

Student house

The Official definition of an HMO is….

Your home is a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) if both of the following apply:

  • at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
  • you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants

Your home is a large HMO if all of the following apply:

  • it’s at least 3 storeys high
  • at least 5 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
  • you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants

A household is either a single person or members of the same family who live together. A family includes people who are:

  • married or living together – including people in same-sex relationships
  • relatives or half-relatives, eg grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings
  • step-parents and step-children

Typically your tenants are likely to be:

  • Students
  • Transient and foreign workers
  • LHA claimants (Local Housing Allowance)
  • Low paid workers

Here is really useful guide from The House Crowd (2014)

HMO’s are popular because they have higher yields than other Buy to Let Residential Properties.

Many investors believed they could claim Capital Allowances on HMO’s Plant & Machinery but that isn’t the case.

HMRC’s considered view published in its capital allowances manual is that:

“A dwelling house is a building, or a part of a building; its distinctive characteristic is its ability to afford to those who use it the facilities required for day-to-day private domestic existence.  In most cases there should be little difficulty in deciding whether or not particular premises comprise a dwelling house, but difficult cases may need to be decided on their particular facts. In such cases the question is essentially one of fact … cluster flats or houses in multiple occupation, that provide the facilities necessary for day-to-day private domestic existence (such as bedrooms with en-suite facilities and a shared or communal kitchen/diner and sitting room) are dwelling-houses. Such a flat or house would be a dwelling-house if occupied by a family, a group of friends or key workers, so the fact that it may be occupied by [say] students is, in a sense, incidental.  The common parts (for example the stairs and lifts) of a building which contains two or more dwelling houses will not, however, comprise a dwelling-house.” (CA11520)

So here is quick summary of ways to save tax on residential properties in general….

1. Claim allowable expenses

  • Mortgage or Loan Interest (but not capital)
  • Repairs and maintenance (but not improvements)
  • Decorating
  • Gardening
  • Cleaning
  • Travel costs to and from your properties for lettings or meetings
  • Advertising costs
  • Agents fees
  • Buildings and contents insurance
  • Ground Rent
  • Accountants Fees
  • Rent insurance (if you claim the income will need to be declared)
  • Legal fees relating to eviction

2. If the property is furnished claim for Wear & Tear, you can claim 10% of the rent each year

3. Claim for repair and advertising expenses incurred in getting the property ready for renting

4. Consider how the property is owned for example your partner may pay less tax or if you own it 50/50 you could use their capital gains tax exemption on sale of the property

5. Consider whether owning the property within a limited company might be better, Corporation Tax is 20% for small companies in the UK which can make dividends more tax efficient than personal income.

6. Make sure any borrowings you have are on the Buy to Let so that you can claim tax relief on the interest

7. Claim the Energy Saving allowance  for energy saving work and save £1,500

steve@bicknells.net

10 tax allowances we fail to claim

Tax Money

In 2012 Unbiased.co.uk reported that £12.6 billion was unclaimed by UK tax payers, here is a list with some ideas:

  1. Income Related Tax Credits – Check and find out what you are entitled to – UK Benefits https://www.gov.uk/benefits-adviser
  2. Tax Relief on Pension Contributions – There are estimated to be over 4 million people not paying into a pension, auto enrolment should help to change that, this blogs explains the tax advantages http://stevejbicknell.com/2012/05/02/why-invest-in-a-pension-because-of-tax-relief/
  3. Tax Relief on Charity Donations – Are you using Gift Aid? are you a higher rate tax payer entitled to additional relief?
  4. Saving on Inheritance Tax – Many people don’t have a Will let alone any IHT planning!
  5. Making Use of ISA’s – Why get taxed on the interest on your savings if you could have an ISA? Its easy to get an ISA and you can still have access to your ISA savings if you need it, the current ISA allowance is £11,520 or £5,760 for cash ISA’s
  6. Child Benefit – Use the benefits adviser to check if you can claim – UK Benefits https://www.gov.uk/benefits-adviser
  7. Avoiding tax penalties and late filing – This just requires you to be organised, make sure you know the filing dates http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm and get the information needed in plenty of time
  8. Savings on Capital Gains – The current allowance for 2013/14 is £10,900 (previously £10,600) for an individual many people seem to forget they have this allowance
  9. Making Use of Employee Share Schemes – The government love employees to have shares and this year introduced a new share ownership option http://stevejbicknell.com/2013/08/03/employee-shareholders-will-your-employees-want-shares/
  10. Income Tax and Personal Allowances – Consider who should own assets (and get income from those investments)  – you or your spouse – so that you can minimise your tax liability

Steve@bicknells.net

 

Self Employed Tax Allowances

Basically when you are self employed you spend money on 3 types of expense:

1. Capital Expenditure – Equipment & Vehicles

2. Business Expenditure – stock, wages, premises

3. Private Expenditure – day to day living expenses – mostly not allowed but some types of cost may still count as business expenses

In general its types 1 and 3 where sole traders and partnerships miss out on tax allowances.

For example, you could claim capital allowances on your car,

Example: If you are self-employed, you pay Income Tax and your accounts are drawn up for the year to 5 April 2011 and you spent £20,000 on a car that you use 100 per cent for your business that has CO2 emissions of 165g/km, the calculation is as follows:

Cost of car = £20,000
Writing-down allowance deducted (£20,000 x 10 per cent) = £2,000
Value to carry forward = £18,000
Capital allowance you can claim = £2,000

If you use your car partly for private and partly for business you simply disallow a % for private use.

On other assets there is an Annual Investment Allowance which is currently £100,000 per year but will drop to £25000 in April 2012.

For most business that will cover all their capital expenditure, but there are further allowances available too.

With regard to private expenditure, there are tax reliefs available for working from home

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/relief-household.htm

If you have to spend money on tools or specialist clothing for your job you may be entitled to either:

  • tax relief for the actual amounts you spend
  • a ‘flat rate deduction’

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32712.htm

steve@bicknells.net