fpdteam, Author at Bennetts Accountancy

New crackdown on illicit tobacco

27th July 2023 by fpdteam

HMRC has continued to tackle the UK’s most notorious hotspots for the sale and supply of illicit tobacco as part of its overall remit to tackle tax fraud. This has resulted in the seizure of more than 27 million illicit cigarettes and 7,500kg of hand-rolling tobacco.

These seizures have taken place under Operation CeCe in its first two years of action. Operation CeCe is a joint HMRC-National Trading Standards operation which has been working to seize illicit tobacco since January 2021.

New legislation has also come into effect from 20 July, which could see penalties of up to £10,000 for any businesses and individuals who sell illicit tobacco products. The sanctions will bolster the government’s efforts to tackle the illicit tobacco market and reduce tobacco duty fraud.

Illicit tobacco is defined as any tobacco product that is sold in the UK without the payment of excise duty.

HMRC’s Deputy Director for Excise and Environmental Taxes, said:

'Trade in illicit tobacco costs the Exchequer more than £2 billion in lost tax revenue each year. It also damages legitimate businesses, undermines public health and facilitates the supply of tobacco to young people.

These sanctions build on HMRC’s enforcement of illicit tobacco controls, will strengthen our response against those involved in street level distribution, and act as a deterrent to anyone thinking that they can make a quick and easy sale and undercut their competition.'

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 24-07-2023

HMRC pledges £5.5m in partnership funding

24th July 2023 by fpdteam

HMRC is awarding £5.5 million to voluntary and community organisations to support customers who may need extra help with their tax affairs.

HMRC is inviting eligible organisations to bid for the funding, worth £1.8 million a year from 2024 until 2027, through HMRC’s Voluntary and Community Sector Grant Funding programme. Bids can be submitted between 24 July and 21 August 2023 with successful organisations being announced in October ready for the new funding to start from 1 April 2024.

This is the 12th round of funding HMRC is awarding as part of its commitment to help everyone get their tax right. The programme builds on more than a decade of partnership funding, worth in excess of £20 million.

Successful organisations will receive funding to provide free advice and support to customers who:

may face barriers in understanding their tax obligations and claiming their entitlements;
are digitally excluded from accessing HMRC services; and
have any other difficulty in interacting directly with HMRC.

As well as providing support to customers who may need extra help, organisations will provide valuable insight to improve HMRC’s understanding of customers in vulnerable circumstances. This will allow HMRC to reduce barriers and improve the customer experience when dealing with the department.

HMRC’s Voluntary and Community Sector Grant Funding programme complements the work of HMRC’s Extra Support Team, who are on hand to help customers whose health conditions or personal circumstances make contacting HMRC difficult.

More information on eligibility and how to apply can be found online at GOV.UK.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 23-07-2023

Business records if self-employed

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

If you are self-employed as a sole trader or as a partner in a business partnership, then you must keep suitable business records as well as separate personal records of your income.

For tax purposes, the business records must be held for at least 5 years from the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year. For example, for the 2021-22 tax year, when online filing was due by 31 January 2023, you must keep your records until at least the end of January 2028. In certain situations, such as when a return is submitted late, the records must be held for longer.

If you are self-employed, you should also keep a record of:

all sales and income
all business expenses
VAT records if you’re registered for VAT
PAYE records if you employ people
records about your personal income
grant details if you claimed through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme because of coronavirus.

You don't need to keep the vast majority of your records in their original form. If you prefer, you can keep a copy of most of them in an alternative format as long as they can be recovered in a readable and uncorrupted format. For example, a scanned PDF document.

If your records are no longer available for any reason, you must try and recreate them letting HMRC know if the figures are estimated or provisional. There are penalties for failing to keep proper records or for keeping inaccurate records.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 17-07-2023

Connected persons for tax purposes

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

The definition of a connected person for tax purposes can be complex.

A statutory definition of “connected persons” for Capital Gains Tax purposes is set out in Section 286 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act (TCGA) 1992.

The legislation states:

" A person is connected with an individual if that person is the individual’s spouse or civil partner, or is a relative, or the spouse or civil partner of a relative, of the individual or of the individual’s spouse or civil partner"

In this context, "‘relative’ means brother, sister, ancestor or lineal descendant and spouses or civil partners of relatives. The term 'relative' does not cover all family relationships. In particular, it does not include nephews, nieces, uncles and aunts.

HMRC’s internal guidance on this definition also states that:

widows or widowers, or surviving civil partners of deceased persons, or relatives of a deceased spouse or of a deceased civil partner are excluded unless connection can be established by a route not involving the deceased.
a dissolution of a civil partnership or a divorce can similarly lead to persons in addition to the former civil partner or spouse ceasing to be connected with the individual.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 17-07-2023

Exempt company purchase of own shares

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

Most payments a company makes to its shareholders, in respect of their shares, will be qualifying distributions (usually described as dividends) and may be subject to Income Tax.

If certain conditions are met, the payment can be treated as an exempt distribution. An exempt distribution is a payment that is not treated as a distribution. It is treated as consideration for the disposal of shares and is subject to CGT.

When a company makes a purchase of its own shares, any excess paid over the amount of capital originally subscribed for the shares is usually treated as a distribution. However, there are special provisions that enable an unquoted trading company or an unquoted holding company of a trading group to undertake a purchase of its own shares without making a distribution.

In order to do this a clearance application may be made. Under this procedure a company wishing to make a purchase of its own shares can obtain advance confirmation from HMRC that the distribution arising will be an exempt distribution.

If the application is approved, the payment is treated as consideration for the disposal of the shares in the hands of the seller and subject to CGT. Where Business Asset Disposal Relief is available CGT of 10% is payable in place of the standard rate. There are a number of conditions that must be met in order to qualify for the relief.

When the necessary conditions are met a company purchase of own shares can be a tax efficient way of exiting a business.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 17-07-2023

Tax on savings interest

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

If you have taxable income of less than £17,570 in 2023-24 you will have no tax to pay on interest received. This figure is calculated by adding the £5,000 starting rate limit for savings (where 0% of the interest is taxable) to the current £12,570 personal allowance. However, it is important to note that if your total non-savings income exceeds £17,570 then the starting rate limit for savings is unavailable.

There is a tapered relief available if your non-savings income is between £12,570 and £17,570 whereby every £1 of non-savings income above a taxpayer's personal allowance reduces their starting rate for savings by £1.

There is also a Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) that can be beneficial to many savers. This allowance ensures that for basic-rate taxpayers the first £1,000 interest on savings income is tax-free. For higher-rate taxpayers the tax-free personal savings allowance is £500. Taxpayers paying the additional rate of tax on taxable income over £125,140 do not benefit from the PSA.

Interest from savings products such as ISA's and premium bond wins do not count towards the limit. So, taxpayers with tax-free accounts and higher savings can still continue to benefit from the relevant PSA limits.

Banks and building societies no longer deduct tax from bank account interest as a matter of course. Taxpayers who need to pay tax on savings income are required to declare this as part of their annual Self-Assessment tax return.

Taxpayers that have overpaid tax on savings interest can submit a claim to have the tax repaid. Claims can be backdated for up to four years from the end of the current tax year. This means that claims can still be made for overpaid interest dating back as far as the 2019-20 tax year. The deadline for making claims for the 2019-20 tax year is 5 April 2024.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 17-07-2023

South Yorkshire first UK Investment Zone

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

It was announced as part of the Spring Budget 2023 measures that the government would establish twelve Investment Zones across the UK, subject to successful proposals. South Yorkshire has now been named as the first of the UK Investment Zones.

These Investment Zones are designed to encourage investment and new economic activity, supporting growth and jobs. The Investment Zones will benefit from lower taxes and more relaxed planning frameworks to encourage rapid development and business investment.

The new Investment Zone in South Yorkshire will specifically focus on Advanced Manufacturing. Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley all stand to benefit from an estimated 8,000 new jobs and £1.2 billion of private funding by 2030, which this Investment Zone will help to deliver. Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Loop Technology and the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) have partnered to support the first investment worth over £80 million.

The government is also working with the devolved administrations and local partners to deliver this opportunity to drive local growth in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There will be two Investment Zones in Scotland, with Glasgow City Region and North East of Scotland the most likely areas to host Investment Zones. Further information on Investment Zones in Wales and Northern Ireland is pending.

Source:HM Treasury| 17-07-2023

Check a UK VAT number is valid

20th July 2023 by fpdteam

The check a UK VAT number service is available at: www.gov.uk/check-uk-vat-number.

This service allows users to check:

if a UK VAT registration number is valid; and
the name and address of the business the number is registered to.

The service also allows UK taxpayers to obtain a certificate to prove that they checked that a VAT registration number was valid at a given time and date. This is especially important where you take on new suppliers as HMRC could withdraw your ability to reclaim the input VAT you have paid if the VAT number is subsequently found to be invalid. The certificate will provide valuable evidence for a taxpayer to prove that they acted in good faith should HMRC challenge input tax recovery or seek payment of lost VAT.

The European Commission's website also includes an on-line service which allows taxpayers to check if a quoted VAT number from anywhere in the EU is valid. The on-line service is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/#/vat-validation

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 17-07-2023

What do we mean by cost of living?

19th July 2023 by fpdteam

A simple dictionary definition of cost of living would probably say something like:

The level of prices relating to a range of everyday items…

The problem is, the price inflation for food, or fuel for your car, or heating costs will vary. Although inflation is quoted as just under 9% in the UK, this disguises the true rate of cost increases in different sectors. For example:

Petrol and diesel prices were much higher in 2022 that currently. In which case prices in this area have reduced.
In the year to May 2023, food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 18.4%, much higher than the current rate of published inflation.
According to the Office of National Statistics energy prices rose 8.1% in the year to May 2023. However, energy price caps will have artificially held down price increase due to government interventions.

To further complicate the issue, inflation is measured in two ways:

CPI – the Consumer Price Index, and
RPI – the Retail Prices Index

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is no longer classified as a National Statistic because the way it is calculated does not meet international standards.

In general terms, when the press discuss inflation, the measure they are quoting is the CPI. The CPI inflation rate in May 2023 was 8.7%, the same as in April 2023.

The other factor that is entering the equation on this topic is interest rates. The Bank of England only has one weapon in its armoury to bring down inflation and that is to increase interest rates to dampen demand.

As rates increase, the cost of repaying loans – particularly mortgages – is increasing. Stories abound of monthly repayments doubling in recent weeks.

And so, care should be taken when interpreting price increases. The CPI hides a wealth of price increases and decreases that are no where near 8.7%.

Source:Other| 18-07-2023

Tax Diary August/September 2023

17th July 2023 by fpdteam

1 August 2023 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 October 2022.

19 August 2023 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2023. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2023)

19 August 2023 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2023.

19 August 2023 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2023 is payable by today.

1 September 2023 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 November 2022.

19 September 2023 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 September 2023. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 September 2023)

19 September 2023 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 September 2023.

19 September 2023 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 September 2023 is payable by today.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs| 16-07-2023