General

There are many benefits to encourage the use of electric cars including lower running costs, the environmental advantages and reduced noise pollution. There are also tax benefits to encourage the purchase of electric cars.

We have listed some of these benefits below.

The benefit-in-kind (BIK) due on company cars can be significantly reduced. For example, most electric cars will incur a BIK rate of only 2% in 2022-23. Compare this with the benefit charge for a gas-guzzler pumping out 160 g/km or more of CO2 which would be based on 37% of the list price when new. This means that company car drivers who switch to an electric car should see their tax bill significantly reduced. This also benefits employers who may see a significant decrease in Class 1A National Insurance charges.

Businesses purchasing electric cars can expect to recover more of their investment in direct tax relief. For example, businesses can write-off 100% of the cost of an electric vehicle against the profits of the year of purchase and there are no restrictions on the value of the vehicle. The car must be new and unused to qualify for the 100% relief.

Companies can also benefit from the super-deduction, which offers 130% first-year allowance on qualifying electric charging points for cars and vans. To qualify for the relief the company must use the charging point in their own business. This relief is available until 31 March 2023.

The road tax, or Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates for all fully electric vehicles have been reduced to £0 until at least 2025. There are reduced VED rates for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

There is no benefit-in-kind charge for the private use of a company van if the private mileage is insignificant. If the van is an electric vehicle, there is no benefit-in-kind charge even if the private mileage is significant.

There are also other benefits including an EV charge-point grant that provides funding of up to 75% towards the cost of installing electric vehicle smart charge-points, up to a maximum of £350 (including VAT) per household/eligible vehicle. Electric cars are also exempt from the London congestion charge when applying for a Cleaner Vehicle Discount.

HMRC’s internal manual offer some revealing insights as to the treatment of accountancy expenses arising out of an enquiry. As a matter of course, HMRC allows companies to claim a tax deduction for normal accountancy expenses incurred in preparing accounts or accounts information and in assisting with preparing Self-Assessment tax returns.

In respect of accountancy expenses arising out of an enquiry HMRC’s manuals state the following:

Additional accountancy expenses arising out of an enquiry into the accounts information in a particular year’s return will not be allowed where the enquiry reveals discrepancies and additional liabilities for the year of enquiry, or any earlier year, which arise as a result of:

• negligent or fraudulent conduct or
• for periods beginning on or after 1 April 2008 where the filing date for the return is on or after 1 April 2009, careless or deliberate behaviour.

Where, however, the enquiry results in no addition to profits, or an adjustment to the profits for the year of enquiry only and that adjustment does not arise as a result of:

• negligent or fraudulent conduct or
• for periods beginning on or after 1 April 2008 where the filing date for the return is on or after 1 April 2009, careless or deliberate behaviour

the additional accountancy expenses will be allowable.

This guidance was originally published in Tax Bulletin 37 (October 1998) and supersedes Statement of Practice SP16/91 which applied to pre-SA periods.

As the Easter holiday approaches, HMRC is reminding parents that they may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) to help pay for regulated childcare, including holiday clubs and other out-of-school activities.

The TFC scheme can help parents of children aged up to 11 years old (17 for those with certain disabilities). The TFC scheme helps support working families with their childcare costs. There are many registered childcare providers including childminders, after school clubs and approved play schemes signed up across the UK. Parents can pay into their account regularly and use their TFC allowance towards the cost of holiday clubs, before and after-school clubs, childminders and nurseries, and other approved childcare schemes. 

The TFC scheme provides a government top-up based on parental contributions. For every £8 contributed by parents an additional £2 top up payment will be funded by Government up to a maximum total of £10,000 per child per year. This will give parents annual savings of up to £2,000 per child (and up to £4,000 for disabled children until the age of 17) in childcare costs. 

The TFC scheme is open to all qualifying parents including the self-employed and those on a minimum wage. It will also benefit parents on paid sick leave as well as those on paid and unpaid statutory maternity, paternity and adoption leave. To be eligible to use the scheme, parents will have to be in work at least 16 hours per week and earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. If either parent earns more than £100,000, both parents are unable to use the scheme.

HM Treasury’s Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said:

‘There are lots of brilliant holiday clubs and childcare providers to help working parents during the Easter holidays, and Tax-Free Childcare is a great offer that can help cut the childcare bills.’

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has published the list of successful bidders from the reopening of the first round of the Community Ownership Funding. This brings the total level of funding in the first round to almost £8m. Thus, helping communities across the UK take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of closure. In total, the government has committed to funding of £150m until 2024-25.

The funding round has helped rural pubs in areas such as West Cornwall and Melton Mowbray placing them into community ownership with the support of local people.

The government also announced funding for a sports academy in Northern Ireland, a community centre in Scotland, an historic chapel in County Durham and a village shop and post office in Dorset.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up said:

‘Pubs, historic buildings and sports clubs form a vital part of our heritage and for too many places they are a disappearing part of the local community. That is why we are helping local people take control of these beloved community assets, which would otherwise be lost.’

Fraudsters are continuing to target taxpayers with scam emails, texts and calls following the deadline for submission of Self-Assessment returns for 2020-21.  In fact, over the last year, HMRC received more than 570,000 reports about suspicious HMRC contacts. 

A number of these scams purport to tell taxpayers they are due a fake tax rebate or tax refund from HMRC and ask for bank or credit card details in order to send the fake tax refund. The fraudsters use various means to try and scam people including making contact by phone calls, texts or emails. In fact, fraudsters have been known to threaten victims with arrest or imprisonment if a bogus tax bill is not paid immediately.

HMRC’s has a dedicated Customer Protection team to identify and close down scams. The team seeks to identify suspect emails before they reach the taxpayer. Since 2017, these technical controls have prevented 500 million emails from reaching taxpayers, but the problems continue as the fraudsters adapt and try new methods to evade capture.

Taxpayers should also try and recognise the signs of fraud to avoid becoming victims themselves. For example, genuine organisations like HMRC and banks will never contact customers asking for their PIN, password or bank details.

If you think you have received a suspicious email claiming to be from HMRC you are asked to forward the details to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk. Suspect texts should be sent to 60599 and there is a form on GOV.UK that can be used to report suspicious phone calls. If you have suffered financial loss, you should contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use their online fraud reporting tool.

When a couple separate or divorce it is unlikely that they are thinking about any tax implications. However, apart from the emotional stress, there are also tax issues that can have significant implications.

For example, when a couple are together there is no Capital Gains Tax (CGT) payable on assets gifted or sold to a spouse or civil partner. However, if a couple separate and do not live together for an entire tax year or get divorced, then CGT may be payable on assets transferred between the ex-partners.

This effectively means that the optimum time for a couple to separate would be at the start of the tax year so that they would have up to a year to plan how to transfer their assets tax efficiently. Obviously, in the real world most couples will have far more on their minds than deciding to get separated on a certain day, but these issues should be considered.

It is also important to make a financial agreement that is agreeable to both parties. If no agreement can be reached, then going to court to make a 'financial order' will usually be required. The couple and their advisers should also give proper thought to what will happen to the family home, any family businesses as well as Inheritance Tax implications.

The government has published its latest guidance on COVID restrictions and specifically on the new phase we have entered of ‘Living with COVID-19’. This has effectively moved the country into a new phase of living with COVID and marked the end of legal restrictions in England (since 24 February). 

These changes include the removal of the legal requirement to self-isolate although adults and children who test positive continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people in line with the existing rules. There are different timescales for the removal of restrictions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The other main changes that have taken or will take effect are as follows:

• No longer asking fully vaccinated close contacts and those under the age of 18 to test daily for 7 days and removing the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate.
• The end of self-isolation support payments and national funding for practical support. The medicine delivery service will no longer be available. People who were instructed to self-isolate before 24 February can still claim support payments until early April.
• The revoking of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations. Local authorities will continue to manage local outbreaks of COVID-19 in high-risk settings as they do with other infectious diseases.
• From 24 March, the COVID-19 provisions within Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations will end. 
• From 1 April, the government will update guidance setting out the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to minimise contact with other people.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is a government body in England and Wales and an executive agency of HMRC. The Agency values properties for the purpose of Council Tax and for non-domestic rates in England and Wales. The council tax bands were set on 1 April 1991 for England and on 1 April 2003 for Wales and range from Band A – F. 

If you believe that your council tax listing is incorrect you can challenge this with the VOA. A recent press release from the VOA has highlighted that some 70,000 households are expected to contact them over the coming months to ask for a review of their Council Tax band. 

An appeal against your current band can be made online and you need to give a reason for your challenge and provide supporting evidence. Legally, the VOA can only review Council Tax bands where the claimant provides certain types of evidence to show their banding is wrong, or if it meets certain criteria. 

This includes:

• You disagree with an alteration to your properties banding made by the VOA.
• You are new to the property in question and feel the valuation band too high or low.
• The property is no longer a dwelling.
• The local area has changed.
• The property is new or has only recently become used for domestic purposes.
• Change in a property e.g., flats merged into a house of vice versa.
• The valuation band does not take into account a relevant decision of a local Valuation Tribunal or the High Court. 

When submitting an appeal, you should include the reasons why you think the Valuation List should be altered and include documentary evidence where possible. You can also appoint someone else to challenge your council tax listing on your behalf. 

If you live in Scotland, then you need to use the Scottish Assessors portal website to check your Council Tax band and if necessary, lodge a claim with them (known as a proposal).

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new campaign to help shoppers spot and avoid misleading online practices that could result in them being ripped off.

If the campaign identifies any commercial practices that adversely affect consumers then they can take enforcement action if a firm breaches consumer protection law and fails to respond to warnings.

In a poll of over 2,000 UK adults:

• 7 out of 10 had experienced misleading online practices
• 85% believed businesses using them were being dishonest with their customers
• And 83% were less likely to buy from them in the future

The misleading online practices, include:

• Hidden charges (85% of respondents) – unexpected compulsory fees, charges or taxes being added when someone tries to make an online purchase.
• Subscription traps (83%) – – misleading a customer into signing up to, and paying for, an unwanted subscription that can be difficult to cancel.
• Fake reviews (80%) – reviews which do not reflect an actual customer’s genuine opinion or experience of a product or service.
• Pressure selling (50%) – a tactic used to give a false impression of the limited availability or popularity of a product or service.

The CMA’s Chief Executive, stated:

‘As online shopping grows and grows, we’re increasingly concerned about businesses using misleading sales tactics, like pressure selling or hidden charges, to dupe people into parting with their cash.’

The campaign also has the support of Citizens Advice, to whom consumers can report problems with misleading practices that they have encountered online.

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak delivered a statement to the House of Commons on 3 February 2022 announcing a number of measures to help people cope with fast rising energy costs.

Record increases will see a 54% jump in the energy price cap from 1 April 2022 affecting some 22 million customers across the UK. This will mean the average consumer paying by direct debit will face an annual increase of £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 per year with those paying by prepayment facing even higher costs. The price cap is updated twice a year and tracks wholesale energy and other costs.

The emergency package of measures announced by the Chancellor will see the government offer support with energy bills worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23.

This includes:

• A £200 discount on their energy bill this Autumn for domestic electricity customers in Great Britain. This will be paid back automatically over the next 5 years starting in 2023-4 when wholesale gas prices are expected to come down.
• A £150 non-repayable Council Tax Rebate payment for all households that are liable for Council Tax in Bands A-D in England.
• £144 million of discretionary funding for Local Authorities to support households who need support but are not eligible for the Council Tax Rebate.

The devolved administrations will receive around £715 million funding through the Barnett formula where UK Government support doesn’t cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.