Recently came across this very interesting video on youtube by Tom Ferry, which breaks down a very interesting and accurate in our opinion of how to manage your money.
The Treasury is finalising plans to overhaul tax rules which allow self-employed people to avoid paying national insurance contributions.
The move will be targeted at people who set themselves up as private companies to take on work.
announcements that may be in this month’s Budget.
The Treasury believes a third of people claiming self-employed status as a “personal service company” are actually full employees and should pay more tax.
It says without reform, high levels of non-compliance with tax rules could cost HM Revenue and Customs, which collects taxes, £1.2bn a year by 2023.
It is now looking at demanding that firms which use personal service company contractors take legal responsibility for ensuring “off-payroll” contractors stick to the tax rules known as IR35.
A similar move in the public sector on “synthetic” self-employed has raised £410m extra in taxes since 2016, HMRC estimates suggest.
Full employees pay higher levels of national insurance compared with the self-employed.
Philip Hammond is under pressure to raise taxes at the Budget following the Prime Minister’s pledge of £20bn worth of extra spending on the NHS by 2023.
Personal income tax allowances could be frozen, despite a Tory pledge at the 2017 election that they would rise to £12,500 for lower rate taxpayers and £50,000 for higher rate taxpayers by 2020.
Freezing them could raise up to £2bn a year.
Reform of the IR35 rules would not raise as much, but might be less politically controversial.
Britain’s high streets will be dominated by charity shops and betting shops unless business rates are overhauled, a senior Tory councillor has warned.
With just under two weeks to go until the Budget, Philip Hammond was urged to create a ‘level playing field’ for regular shops as they face an onslaught from online giants.
The leader of Westminster City Council called for a 1 per cent turnover tax on tech giants such as Amazon to alleviate the pain.
Hammond told the Tory party conference last month he might introduce a digital services tax on web giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.
The Mail has called for a reform of business rates as part of our Save Our High Streets campaign amid a crisis gripping the sector.
Around 50,000 retail jobs have already been lost this year, and about 61,000 stores have shut in the past five years.
Major retailers such as Poundworld, Toys R Us and Maplin have gone bust while House of Fraser was saved from collapse by Sports Direct.
Councillor Nickie Aiken, leader of Westminster City Council, said: ‘I absolutely support the Mail’s campaign. Westminster City Council has already called for a 1 per cent turnover tax on tech titans.
‘I would ask the Treasury: do we want to continue the decline so that the only things left on the High Street are charity shops and betting shops?’
Business rates are based on the estimated rental value of a retailer’s property. Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, said: ‘It becomes a real challenge to afford, because it doesn’t matter how well or how badly you’re doing, the cost is not going down.’
Edward Woodall, head of policy at the Association of Convenience Stores, said the tax discourages investment.
If a shopkeeper refurbishes their store, or installs new equipment, it makes the property more valuable, so rates go up. He said: ‘The system doesn’t really incentivise investment.’
As the deadline gets nearer to the 31st January 2018, many of us have still not completed our tax returns. If your tax return is not filed on time your liable for a £100 fine, and if later than 3 months the penalty increases.
For more information on Self assessment , don’t hesitate to contact us at info@cloudbookkeeper.co.uk
Some of the high;rights from todays Budget.
- Vat Threshold to remain at £85,000 the lowest in europe
- Extra 2.8 Billion NHS
- Personal Allowance £11,850 from 2018
- Business rates revaluations every 3 years not 5 years
- Online marketplaces having to comply with VAT rules
- 100% tax premium on council tax for empty properties.
HMRC to disallow input tax on purchase invoices over 6 months if no proof can be provided.
Current VAT regulations state that if a payment to a supplier is overdue by more than 6 months then any input tax claimed on an earlier VAT return must be repaid to HMRC. In a recent case with Capital SMA, HMRC disallowed some input tax claimed by the company on its April 2015 return under the six- month rule. The taxpayer’s appeal was based on the argument that it had paid for the invoices by cash, highlighting cash withdrawals in the company’s bank statements to support its argument.
However, the tribunal agreed with HMRC that payment had not been made and dismissed the appeal. The company provided no evidence from suppliers confirming payment had been made, such as a payment receipt or correspondence. The amounts for cash withdrawals did not reconcile with any particular invoices.
Lessons to take away from this case include;
- using electronic payment methods to ensure there is some evidence of payment for VAT purposes.
- ask suppliers to confirm cash payments using a stamp ensuring all relevant information is on the invoice.
- Where an invoice is in dispute, then no input tax adjustment is needed if the supplier has agreed to extend the payment deadline while the problem is being resolved.
Following a recent legal restructuring eBay business sellers are now liable to pay 20% standard rate VAT on fees to eBay UK rather than eBay Europe S.à r.l, their Luxembourg arm. Those business sellers that are already VAT registered won’t have to worry as they will be able to reclaim this additional cost by using a tax credit. However, it’s those business sellers that aren’t voluntarily VAT registered and fall short of the taxable turnover threshold (currently £85k) that will suffer as a result of this news. Private and individual eBay sellers already incur 20% VAT on fees so this news won’t impact them.
MTD will be launching in 2019 for Vat registered businesses, although the VAT returns will be the same as they are now, they will however be required in a digital format. The way in which VAT returns are filed are also changing and these returns must now be done using MTD compatible software, the option to file through HMRCs online portal will no longer be possible.
Are you ready for MTD ? (Making Tax Digital)
Having issues with credit control ? well this software might just be the tool your company is looking for. Chaser gives you the tools to get paid quicker and save time on chasing debtors.
Some of the features of Chaser includes.
Tailor
Customise templates to your personal style, preserving the human touch.
Attachments
Automatically attach copy invoices or statements to your email chasers.
Unlimited templates
Create unlimited templates to suit all your chasing needs.
Timings
Choose which days of the week and what time your email chasers will be sent out. Align this with when you do your bank reconciliation to avoid chasing invoices that have already been paid.
Escalate
Set for later email chasers to be sent from a more senior individual at your business and to a more senior individual at your customer.
Thank you
Build customer goodwill by automatically sending a thank you message when an invoice is reconciled on your accounting system
Different Schedules
Create multiple schedules with different chasing approaches for different groups of customers.
