Entries by Mark

HMRC’s ‘Direct Recovery’ of owed tax – straight from your bank account!

Part of the Chancellor’s recent Budget included plans to recover tax owed to the Treasury direct from the debtor’s bank account — all done directly and without a Court Order being necessary. This has been criticised widely but HMRC says that only 17,000 people in the UK per year would fall into this potential scenario […]

The Chancellor’s Budget, March 2014

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has now presented his March 2014 Budget to Parliament. There was lots of talk about the economy, growth forecasts, supporting UK businesses and employment – as well as some obvious political spin bearing in mind the European and General Elections are just around the corner – however we thought we’d concentrate […]

RTI (Real Time Information) – last Full Payment Submission (FPS) due soon

Exactly eleven months ago at time of writing, HMRC launched ‘RTI’ (Real Time Information) in the UK. This is the mechanism through which employees now have to report PAYE information for employees on the day it actually happens, or alternatively before that day, for example to confirm to HMRC each time an employee is paid […]

(Time Sensitive): Tax Year End Changes for Pension Allowances

The start of the new Tax Year on 6 April 2014 – just 6½ weeks away at time of writing – will see two very important changes in relation to pensions allowances. The first change will affect the ‘Annual Allowance’ (or ‘AA’) which is the annual limit on pension savings attracting tax relief. This limit […]

Time for ‘tax year end planning’ (pre-Budget)

The budget will take place on March 19th 2014 so that gives us all just 5 weeks (at time of writing) for ‘tax year end planning’. So perhaps now is the time to start reviewing investments. N.B. We’re not financial advisers (we are tax agents and accountants) so we can’t give advice on investments. But […]

It’s official: thousands are on the wrong tax code!

With the tax return deadline being only hours away (midnight 31 January 2014) there is still time to get professional help if you need it – particularly because HMRC  often get it wrong according to new research by UHY Hacker Young. In just one example, HMRC sent a tax bill to a pensioner which demanded […]

‘Employment Allowance’ to save businesses up to £2k in NIC

In April 2014 the new ‘Employment Allowance’ will be introduced. This will cut up to £2k off the National Insurance costs incurred by businesses and save employers nearly £5.5 billion across the UK as a whole by the end of the Parliament. This equates to £200 per UK employee. These savings will also be helped […]

HMRC’s fight against tax avoidance is bearing fruit

HMRC has reported that it raised an extra £20.7 billion in additional revenue during the financial year 2012-13, a result of its continued push on tax compliance and anti-avoidance measures. That’s an increase of £2.1 billion on the preceding year and is actually £2 billion above its original target. This information comes hot on the […]

Tax return help 7 days a week!

By midnight on 31st January 2014, you will need to have submitted your self-assessment tax return to HMRC and have paid them any tax due for the 2012-13 financial year. It doesn’t matter if you have zero tax to pay – you still need to submit your tax return on time or you will be […]