Autumn Statement 2023 – Growth, growth, growth…
As ever, in the last couple of weeks there has been a huge amount of speculation about what may or may not be announced at the Autumn Statement 2023 – abolition of inheritance tax; increase in the inheritance nil rate band; a stamp duty land tax holiday; a cut in the rate of income tax… […]
Autumn Statement 2023 – Two become one… a single R&D scheme for all
These days, it doesn’t feel like a proper fiscal event without an announcement around R&D relief! Much of this is predicated on the benefit that the Government believes this relief brings to the growth of the economy, while balancing the complexity of having multiple schemes in place and an undercurrent of belief that the level […]
Autumn Statement 2023 – Tax cut, complexity and uncertainty
It’s a tax cut, Jim, but not as we know it Having been told by successive Chancellors for as long as one can care to remember that ‘national insurance is not a tax’, it feels so wrong to claim that there has been a tax cut today – that said, to the ‘man on the […]
Budget 2023 – everywhere, but not quite everything
In what was the first (and hopefully last) budget of 2023, there was a focus on growth being supported by the Chancellor’s four pillars – enterprise, employment, education and everywhere… not quite everything everywhere all at once, but there were some promises to review and reform the self-assessment for small businesses and sole traders which […]
Autumn Statement 2022 – no rabbits pulled out of hats but plenty of fiscal drag
After the debacle of eight weeks ago, the announcements by the Chancellor today were never going be so radical as to cause concern in the markets, but we all knew that there would be some element of revenue raising, we just didn’t know which taxes would rise and by how much. On a positive note, […]
Child’s income: Or is it?
Parents sometimes wish to gift income-bearing assets (e.g. company shares) directly to their unmarried minor children, to take advantage of the child’s personal allowance (and dividend allowance) and possibly also their basic rate income tax band, to reduce the family’s overall tax burden on dividend payments. Unfortunately, this tax planning idea is generally blocked by […]
Selling your company? How dare you!
A targeted anti-avoidance rule (TAAR) was introduced (from 6 April 2016) to prevent ‘phoenixism’. In broad terms, this practice involves company owners winding up their ‘old’ companies and extracting profit reserves as capital (instead of income) and repeating the exercise in one or more successive businesses. The effect of the TAAR applying is that an […]
Business property relief: Traps to avoid
Many business owners will be aware of business property relief (BPR) for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes, and some might assume that the value of their business interest will be sheltered from IHT by BPR. However, BPR (at the rate of 100% or 50%) is subject to various conditions and restrictions. This article outlines a selection […]
‘Good’ or ‘bad’ tax advice?
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will generally seek to impose penalties on taxpayers who (for example) have made tax return errors resulting in their tax liabilities being understated. However, it is important to note that HMRC cannot impose penalties for errors despite the taxpayer having taken reasonable care. Unfortunately, the tax legislation does not define […]