2019 Archives | Taxfile

Tax-Free Personal Allowance Thresholds & Tax Bands (2022/23 to 2016/17)

May 28, 2022/in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, Accountancy, Accountants, Annual threshold, Band rates, Dulwich, HMRC, London, Personal allowance, Personal Tax Account, South London, Tax, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax calculation, Tax-free allowance, thresholds, Tulse Hill/by Mark

Today we look at the tax-free allowance thresholds for what’s officially known as the tax-free Personal Allowance in the tax and accountancy world.

The Tax-Free Personal Allowance

This is the amount a UK individual can earn as income before they have to pay any Income Tax. In the current tax year (6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023) individuals can earn up to £12,570 before they have to start paying Income Tax, as you’ll see in the first table. In other words, if their taxable income is two thousand pounds more than that, they’ll only have to pay income tax on the extra £2000, not the core £12,570. There are exceptions, and different rules applied before 2016/17, but our aim is to keep things simple in this guide rather than focusing on more rare exceptions. So, below, we show the Personal Allowance thresholds for tax-free income over the last 7 tax years. As you will see, the Tax-Free Personal Allowance has gradually increased over the years.

Tax Bands for Basic Rate, Higher Rate and Additional Rate Taxpayers

The tables also show the various tax bands for earnings above the Personal Allowance threshold. These are the Basic Rate, Higher Rate and Additional Rate income tax bands, with tax rates increasing the more people earn. The information might be useful if you owe income tax from previous years but bear in mind that anyone born prior to 6 April 1948 may be entitled to a larger Personal Allowance.

Please note: this guide focuses only on Income Tax. Taxpayers will also need to allow for other deductions like National Insurance, which we’ll cover in a separate guide, and things like pension contributions, any student loan interest repayments, any tax on dividends, and so on.

Tax-Free Allowance Thresholds 2022/23

For the tax year 6 Apr 2022 to 5 Apr 2023:
The first £12,570 (your Personal Allowance) is tax-free*
Earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 are taxed at 20% (‘Basic Rate’ income tax)
Earnings between £50,271 and £150,000 are taxed at 40% (‘Higher Rate’ income tax)
Earnings over £150,000 are taxed at 45% (‘Additional Rate’ income tax)

* For every £2 earned above £100,000, the Personal Allowance is reduced by £1. It therefore reduces to zero for earnings of £125,140 or more.

Tax-Free Allowance Thresholds 2021/22

For the tax year 6 Apr 2021 to 5 Apr 2022:
The first £12,570 (your Personal Allowance) is tax-free*
‘Basic Rate’ earnings between £12,571 and £50,270 are taxed at 20%
‘Higher Rate’ earnings between £50,271 and £150,000 are taxed at 40%
‘Additional Rate’ earnings over £150,000 are taxed at 45%

* For every £2 earned above £100,000, the Personal Allowance is reduced by £1. It therefore reduces to zero for earnings of £125,140 or more.

Tax-Free Allowance Thresholds 2020/21

For the tax year 6 Apr 2020 to 5 Apr 2021:
The first £12,500 (your Personal Allowance) is tax-free*
‘Basic Rate’ earnings between £12,501 and £50,000 are taxed at 20%
‘Higher Rate’ earnings between £50,001 and £150,000 are taxed at 40%
‘Additional Rate’ earnings over £150,000 are taxed at 45%

* For every £2 earned above £100,000, the Personal Allowance is reduced by £1. It therefore reduces to zero for earnings of £125,000 or more.

Tax-Free Allowance Thresholds 2019/20

CIS Sub-contractors – Claim Your Tax Refund Now!

March 28, 2022/in 2020, 2021, 2022, Accountancy, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, Income & Expenditure, Income tax, Personal allowance, Refund, South London, Subcontractor, Tax, Tax refunds, Tulse Hill/by Mark

[Updated April/May 2022]: It’s now time to start the process of claiming your tax refund if you are a sub-contractor working within the Construction Industry Scheme (‘CIS’). Refunds are usually fast through Taxfile.

What you need to do

Don’t delay – book an appointment with Taxfile today by calling 0208 761 8000 and we’ll sort it all out for you. We have staff who speak English, Polish, Pashto, Dari, Russian, French, and Dutch, should you need them on the day. Our Tulse Hill office is at 25 Thurlow Park Road, London SE21 8JP. Call 0208 761 8000 for an appointment — the first 20 minutes is free! Alternatively, you can have a ‘virtual’ appointment with us on Zoom, Teams, Google Hangouts, Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp or whatever you prefer.

Outside of London? No problem – click here.

We’re open from Monday to Saturday in April & May (including early evenings Mon/Tues)

Our Tulse Hill office is open 6 days a week during April & May and offers Saturday morning appointments plus early evening appointments on Mondays and Tuesdays if standard office hours do not suit you (please call for details).

Check List

SEISS: The 5th & Final Round

July 13, 2021/in 2020, 2021, coronavirus, Coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19, Pandemic, Pandemic, Partnership, SEISS, Self-assessment, Self-employed, Sole traders/by Taxfile

HMRC has already started contacting possible eligible sole traders and partnerships for the 5^th and final Self Employed Income Support Scheme grant announced by the Government last year.

HMRC’s online access for applications is due to open later this month (July) and the grant will cover the period 1^st May 2021 through to 30^th September 2021. You can claim the 5^th grant if you believe that your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus between these dates.

This round of grants requires turnover calculations to be done by the applicant, following four stages to determine the two turnover figures required in the application and hence, how much they will be eligible for.

You will first need to work out your turnover (money received) for a 12-month period starting from any date between 01/04/20 to 06/04/20. Your figure must include the turnover from all your businesses. You can ask us at Taxfile for your figure if we have submitted your 20/21 tax return. If you haven’t yet done your 2020/21 tax return, it might be an opportunity to contact your tax agent at Taxfile and bring in your financial data for the period, so we can give you an accurate figure, as HMRC will be able to check the figures once you do submit your tax return.
The second stage is to adjust the 12-month turnover figure by removing the monies received from any SEISS grants or COVID relief grants from the council/government. Although these grants are viewed as subject to income tax and national insurance, they will not be considered as part of your 12-month turnover figure for the 5^th SEISS grant.
The third stage requires you to calculate a previous year’s turnover to use as a reference figure. This is the 2^nd figure you will need for the application. HMRC states that in most cases you must use the 2019/20 tax return as your reference year. If for any reason 2019/20 was not a normal year, you can use the turnover reported in your 2018/19 tax return. For ‘not a normal year’, HMRC has stipulated the following examples; being on carers or sick leave for a prolonged period, losing a large contract, reservist duties, or being eligible for the 5^th SEISS grant but not having submitted a 21019/20 tax return. The turnover for your reference figure can be found on the tax return summary we would have issued you. If you need this figure, please do not hesitate to contact your tax agent on 020 8761 8000.
The fourth stage is to compare the two turnover figures. Only when the figure from stage 3 (the reference year) is greater than that obtained for the 20/21 figure will you be eligible for the 5^th SEISS grant. Furthermore, if the 2020/21 turnover figure has reduced by 30% or more when compared to the reference turnover figure, the grant will be 80% of the 3-month average profits, with the maximum grant payment capped at £7,500. If the 2020/21 turnover is less than 30%, the grant will be 30% of the 3-month average profits, capped at £2,850.

4th SEISS Grant Available THIS Week

April 22, 2021/in 2020, 2021, coronavirus, Coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19, Pandemic, Partnership, SEISS, Self-assessment, Self-employed, Sole traders, Tax returns/by Taxfile

If you are self-employed or a member of a partnership and have been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19), the 4^th Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant will be available to those eligible from this week (w/c 19 April 2021), and the online service for the fourth SEISS grant is now online HERE

The grant covers the period from 01/02/2021 – 30/04/2021 and eligibility for the fourth grant is dependent on you having traded for both tax years:

2019 to 2020 and submitted your tax return on or before 2 March 2021
2020 to 2021

You must either:

be currently trading but are impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus
have been trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus
intend to continue to trade
reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits

The same criteria that were applied for the first 3 SEISS grants still apply & this grant will be 80% of your average trading profits for up to 4 tax years (2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, & 2019/20) for 3-months.

The closing date for the 4th SEISS Grant is 01 June 2021.

By now you should have received an email form HMRC stating when you can claim your 4^th SEISS grant from. If you need any assistance with your claim, please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 8761 8000 or email/message us here.

Tax “Payment Plans” are ENDING – Act NOW if you Owe Tax!

March 31, 2021/in 2019, 2020, 2021, Accountancy, Accountants, HMRC, Income tax, Late return, London, payment plans, penalties, penalty, Self-assessment, Tax advice, Tax bill, Tax return, Tax returns, Tulse Hill/by Mark

Are you late paying your tax? Do you owe unpaid tax for the last financial year, or earlier? Are you struggling to pay it?

Taxfile has recently been helping some of our customers with tax debts from 2019/20 and earlier. In particular, we’re helping them to arrange payment plans with HMRC as part of their ‘Time to Pay‘ scheme. This spreads the cost of those tax debts instead of paying them off in one go. This is really useful to those who are struggling financially following the pandemic. The new payment plans are only available until 1 April 2021, though, so really you should apply by 31 March 2021. Our advice is to act now if you are in a position to take advantage of the payment plans while they’re still — just about — available.

The benefits of arranging a tax payment plan now

Agreeing a payment plan with HMRC will help avoid the 5% late payment penalty that’s usually charged on outstanding tax not paid by the deadline. And, of course, spreading the cost helps those who might otherwise struggle to get together the full amount in one transaction. The HMRC interest rate seems relatively low too.

How Tax Payment Plans have gone so far

What we’ve found so far is that Read more

Latest News on Gov. Grants, Support, Loans, Deadlines & More

February 19, 2021/in 2019, 2020, 2021, Accountancy, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Grants, Newsletter, SEISS, Self-assessment, Self-employed, Tax, VAT/by Mark

Don’t miss our latest newsletter. Published just this week, it includes several updates on the latest Government support for small businesses during the pandemic, including:

a possible 4th SEISS grant coming for the self-employed and …
extensions of both the Job Retention Scheme (‘furlough’) ….
and Bounce-Back Loan Scheme.
There’s also a useful link where you can check what help may be available to you using a simple but genius interactive interface.

The newsletter also includes imminent deadlines that may affect you and news about a significant VAT change that will affect the entire Construction Sector.

Have you submitted your Self-Assessment tax return for the year 2019-20? It’s due in a few days! Learn more in the newsletter or get the ball rolling here.

Have you paid any tax you owe for the same period? It’s now overdue if not. Also see the newsletter for more information contact us using the yellow buttons below.

Learn much more about all these topics and more in our latest e-Newsletter, which can be viewed here. For help with any tax or accounting related issue, simply contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Choose an option below …

Book an Appointment

Send us a Message

T: 020 8761 8000

HMRC Extends the Self-Assessment Submission Deadline to 28th February BUT Payments still need to be made by 31st January

January 26, 2021/in 2019, 2020, 2021, Appeal, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deadline, Late return, Self-assessment, Self-employed, UTR/by Taxfile

Yesterday HMRC made an 11^th hour decision to give the remaining 3 million tax payers an additional 28-days to file their tax return electronically.

For most, a submission after the 31^st of January would have resulted in a £100 late filing penalty. With planning already underway at HMRC on how to cope with the administrative task of appeals around COVID & late filing, HMRC has decided to only issue the penalties after 28^th February, effectively offering a 1-month extension on the electronic submission of self-assessment income tax.

However, the payment date for taxes remains unchanged, so it is important to note that taxpayers are still obliged to pay any tax they still owe (including any deferred payments) by 31/01. In fact we are advising our clients to pay as much as they can into their HMRC self-assessment account and to view it as a bank account with HMRC so that, once their taxes are filed, they are not left with any unwanted surprises with interest on late payments, as any unpaid tax from 19/20 will be charged interest as of 01/02.

The extension has been welcomed and our own Director Guy Bridger had approached the Treasury requesting this extension. so even though there is a sense of relief, we are adamant that tax payers realise they need to settle their outstanding tax bill if they can, even if it is an estimate, otherwise they will face HMRC’s low rate of annual interest on late payment of taxes along with the initial surcharge of 5% of any tax unpaid for the 19/20 tax year after 28-days. So Guy’s suggestion is to pay as much tax as you can before 28th of February.

Please view your UTR as a bank account with HMRC, and any money paid into HMRC’s account with your UTR is money that will sit on your account until it needs to be used up.

So, even though your taxes can now be filed electronically by no later than 28/02, you will need to pay money into your HMRC account by 31/01. If you still need us to calculate and submit your 19/20 taxes, please come and see us or call us on 020 8761 8000. Even though we might not file them before the 31^stJanuary, you will at least know the outstanding amount owed.

Every Day of January is the 31st

January 21, 2021/in 2019, 2020, 2021, Self-assessment, Tax return, Tax returns/by Guy Bridger

HMRC have announced that those members of the public not able to pay their taxes or submit tax returns on time will be able to appeal against the late filing penalties they will inevitably get this winter. From what we have been hearing HMRC are expecting everyone to have adequate proof of sickness. Does this mean that they will be expected to waste the time of the medical community who, if I am right, are rather busy these days?

What will happen if tax filers struggle with the HMRC online service and cannot get help over the phone, perhaps because HMRC are closing early, not open over the two Sundays, under-staffed on the helplines and rather strangely make you wait 40 minutes in a queue (which has been the case the past year)?

What are people to do?

Buy last minute accounting software from some of the companies climbing on the band wagon to further stress and pressure people into adopting overbearing products and systems designed for businesses not necessarily for sole traders, who probably use their personal bank accounts to get paid, so have mixed use issues? These software products are now being pedalled to the public as the fix-all solution — but who wants to have all their personal bank info imported into a tax and accounting package? Are people expected to analyse every minutiae and, in doing so, become experts on what they can claim or most likely not claim anyway! Or have to master percentages for use of things such as telephone, Internet usage and then apportion in the software (how does this work if at all)?

When I worked with the office of tax simplification we worked out what was actually happening in society and gave it credence;

People earn an income from dealing with their clients;
They may or may not provide materials or use tools;
They may or may not use transport;
They probably have some communication and technology costs;
Then they may have some professional costs like insurance.

It’s hardly rocket science.

When you come to use the HMRC software it leads you through the maze somewhat similar to the psychology of coping with your first orientation of a new Ikea store!

So I can tell you …

Act NOW & get 5% Off 2019-20 Self-Assessment Tax Return Fees

November 9, 2020/in 2019, 2020, Accountancy, Accountants, Battersea, Devon, Dulwich, Self-assessment, Tax, Tax accountant, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax return, Tax returns, Tulse Hill/by Mark

Have you contacted us about your 2019-20 Self Assessment tax return yet?

If not, please get in touch early this month (November). You’ll save 5% or more¹ by acting right away. You’ll also avoid the coming bottleneck if you act now. So, please get in touch:

Get started with your tax return here
or call 020 8761 8000
or book an appointment² here

We’ll then confirm the next steps.

1. If you supply everything in time for us to submit your tax return by 30 November 2020, you’ll save 5% off our standard tax return fees. You’ll save even more compared to the higher prices that we’ll need to impose closer to the self-assessment deadline. Our prices will also increase very soon to cover weekend working and overtime to cater for those who leave it to the last minute. Please bear in mind that the pandemic lock-down will make things even harder than usual, so please act now and plan ahead.

2. Worried about COVID? There’s no need! We can do ‘virtual’ meetings instead, for example by telephone, Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Skype, Facetime or whatever suits you best. So, we don’t even need to meet face-to-face. Just give us a call on 020 8761 8000 to discuss your preferences. We’re here to help!

Taxfile are accountants and tax advisors in South London and the South West, with offices in Tulse Hill, Dulwich, Battersea & Devon.

Don’t Miss THIS on your Tax Return! (Checklist)

October 8, 2020/in 2020, Accountancy, Accountants, Self-assessment, South London, Tax, Tax return, Tax returns/by Mark

The standard Self-Assessment Tax Return includes all the usual areas that you’d expect to have to confirm to HMRC. These include the obvious things like personal details, information about income for the period in question, any assets, dividends, interest received, pensions and so on.

However, there are a number of additional areas that you need to check and confirm before the return is submitted and filed with HMRC. It’s not an exhaustive list, but things people sometimes miss and that you need to check you have allowed for (if applicable) include:

Employment Income — have you confirmed any employment income? Have you supplied Taxfile, if we’re your tax agent or accountant, with copies of P60’s and P11D’s. Did you have any employment expenses?
Self-Employment Income or Partnership Income — have you confirmed any self-employed or partnership income and relevant expenses? Have you supplied all CIS vouchers, invoices, cash income etc. if applicable?
UK Land & Property Income — have you confirmed any rental income and relevant expenses for each property you perhaps rent out?
Foreign Income — did you receive any foreign income? Have you confirmed it?
Trust Income — did you receive any trust income or are you treated as having received any trust income?
Capital Gains — have you sold any assets or investments which may be subject to capital gains tax e.g. a rental house, stocks and shares etc?
Residence — were you, for all or part of the year, not resident, not ‘ordinarily resident’ or not ‘domiciled’ in the UK?
Investment Income — have you confirmed any bank/building society interest, dividends, etc?
Pension Income — are you in receipt of any? It needs confirming if so.
Any other income received that doesn’t fit into any of the above e.g. Job Seekers Allowance, Tax Credits? Child Benefit is an important one, especially if one parent is earning £50k or more. Marriage Allowance is another.
Do you have a pension that you pay into? If so, how much did you pay for the period in question?
Have you given any money to charity? Higher rate taxpayers can usually get extra tax relief on this.
Do you have a student loan?
Are you subject to the High Income Benefit Charge?
Do you use a service company?
Have you been paying your National Insurance?
Have you been keeping good records?

Taxfile will always prompt you to check for things like these if you’re our customer, before we submit your tax return on your behalf. As we say above, though, the list is not an exhaustive one, so there may be other information we need, depending upon your individual situation. The list of what HMRC requires each year also Read more

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