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- Information You Need to Supply for Professional Help with Your Tax Return
- Tax Refunds After Redundancy: Claiming Your Cash Back – A Taxfile Guide
- Decoding IR35: Your Guide to Contractor Tax Status
- UK Landlords: Is Your Portfolio Ready for the Digital Tax Revolution? (Making Tax Digital for Landlords)
- Companies House ID Verification 2025: A Director’s Guide to the New UK Rules
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Email: info@taxfile.co.uk
Hosts renting out rooms to be targeted by HMRC
/in Higher rate tax payers, HMRC, Information sharing, Land and property, Landlords, Lettings income, London, Rent a Room Scheme, South London, Tax, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tulse Hill/by MarkHosts who rent out a spare room could soon see themselves being straddled with an unexpected tax bill if companies like ‘Airbnb’ are forced to share data with UK authorities. Airbnb, the website that allows you to list, find or rent a room in a private residence, has announced that it now has to share […]
Received a ‘P800 tax calculation’ from HRMC in the post?
/in P800, Tax, Tax calculation, Tax liability, Tax overpayment, Tax underpayment/by MarkIf you have paid either too much or too little tax during the financial year, HMRC will send you a ‘P800 Tax Calculation’ some time between now and October 2015. If you’ve paid too much tax If you’ve paid too much tax then you will receive a cheque for the overpayment within 2 weeks of […]
Summer Budget 2015 – Key Tax Takeaways
/in 2015, Annual Investment Allowance, Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, National Minimum Wage, Non-domiciled residents, South London, Tax advice, Tax advisers/by MarkThe Summer Budget was announced last week and in this blog post we’ll take a look at only those changes which will affect ordinary taxpayers and SMEs. In his opening remarks, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, promised: A Budget … to keep moving us from a low wage, high tax, high welfare economy; […]
Case Study: a high rate taxpayer in a complex tax situation
/in Case Studies/by MarkThe Client A new client, Mr ‘K’, is a higher rate taxpayer who previously used to file his own tax returns. The Problem Mr K got into a complicated financial situation in 2013/14 due to having received redundancy pay, severance pay waiver, investment income, PAYE income and pension income. He needed professional guidance and advice […]
STILL haven’t filed your tax return? You owe £410 in fines & counting!
/in HMRC, Late return, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax returns/by MarkIf you STILL haven’t filed your tax return despite the end of May being almost upon us, you’ll owe £410 in HMRC penalties by the end of this week. Continue to throw money down the drain at the rate of £10 extra per day thereafter if you still don’t submit your return. As we explained […]
Still Haven’t Filed Your Tax Return? Expect a Nasty Bill from HMRC!
/in 2014, Accountancy, Accountants, Advice, HM Revenue and Customs, HMRC, Income tax, Key dates, Late return, London, Nil return, Online returns, penalties, penalty, Self-assessment, South London, Tax, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax affairs, Tax bill, Tax return, Tulse Hill/by MarkIf you still haven’t filed your tax return for the financial year up to 5 April 2014 you can expect the penalties from HMRC to begin racking up daily — and potentially very significantly — starting from Friday 1 May. If you missed the 31 January Tax Return deadline … If you missed the 31 […]
Construction Industry Scheme (CIS): How to Claim a Tax Refund
/in Accountancy, Advice, CIS, cis gross payments, CIS4, CIS5, CIS6, Construction Industry Scheme, Contractor, Contractor Monthly Return, Multilingual staff, National Insurance, New CIS, NI, NIC, Non-domiciled residents, Rebate, Refund, South London, Subcontractor, Tax, Tax refunds, Tulse Hill, UTR/by MarkThe CIS Scheme
The Construction Industry Scheme, or CIS, is a scheme whereby a contractor in the construction industry usually deducts a proportion of the money due to their subcontractor, at source. The deducted amount is then passed direct to HMRC and counts towards the subcontractor’s tax and National Insurance, the tax element effectively being paid in advance. The exact proportion deducted depends on whether the subcontractor concerned has registered under the CIS system. If the subcontractor has not registered, the deduction will usually be made at a rate of 30%. If they have already registered, then the deduction will usually be made at a rate of 20%. Either way, by the financial year end, the amount of tax deducted at source will usually end up being more than they really needed to have paid, simply because it won’t have factored in the personal allowance which every UK taxpayer is entitled to (most UK citizens can earn up to £10,000 before paying tax at time of writing, this figure being set to rise to £10,600 in the tax year 2015-16, 10,800 a year later then increasing to £11,000 by 2017-18 following the recent budget proposals). Hence, many subcontractors in the construction industry will be due a tax refund because of the overpayment. The good news is that the time to apply for the refund is pretty much now, so get in touch if you’d like our help claiming.
What kind of work does CIS cover?
You qualify to be in the CIS system if you are a subcontractor who supplies construction work to buildings. This includes labouring, decorating, site preparation and refurbishment but excludes things like architecture, surveying services, the hire of scaffolding without labour, the fitting of carpets, the delivery of materials, and finally non-construction type services such as site facilities (canteens etc.).
What if your business is not in the UK?
Even if your business is abroad, the same rules apply if you work as a subcontractor within the UK. However there are some slightly different rules regarding the treatment of taxation for non-resident workers from countries which have ‘Double Taxation’ treaties with the UK (we can, of course, also help with that — just get in contact).
Registering for CIS
If you haven’t already registered for CIS as a sub-contractor, Taxfile can help to do this for you. You’ll need to be registered for Self Assessment (we can also help with this) and this will give you your UTR (unique taxpayer reference) number. We’ll also need your name, National Insurance number, your legal business/trading name and contact details. Once registered with CIS one of the immediate benefits will be that you’ll then have tax deductions made at the 20% rate rather than at 30%, which would otherwise be the case. If your business is a legal partnership you will also need to register it for CIS but this would need to be done in addition to being registered as an individual or sole trader. Of course, Taxfile can help with that too. Once you have been registered with CIS and have passed certain eligibility criteria, it is also possible to apply for ‘gross payment status’ meaning that you’ll then be paid by the contractor without the usual ‘at source’ deductions. Instead you’ll need to pay any outstanding tax and National Insurance at the financial year end; however HMRC will review your business each year to check that you still qualify for this status (paying tax late and/or submitting returns late would put your gross payment status at risk).
Offsetting Expenses against your tax
Taxfile can also help you to offset certain expenses against your subcontractor income. This means that any tax refund will be larger — or any tax outstanding will be lower. We can offset
Highlights from the Chancellor’s Budget, 18 March 2015
/in 2015, 2016, 2017, Accountancy, Annual Allowance (AA), Annual Investment Allowance, Band rates, Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Flexible ISA, George Osborne, Help to Buy ISA, Higher rate tax payers, HM Revenue and Customs, HMRC, Income tax, Investments, ISAs, National Insurance, National Minimum Wage, NI, NI Class 3, NIC, Personal allowance, Personal Savings Allowance, Self-assessment, Self-employed, Tax, Tax advice, Tax allowance, Tax bands, Tax returns/by MarkAlong with some encouraging news about the UK economy, some interesting new measures were announced in the Chancellor’s Budget yesterday and below we highlight those which we feel will directly impact the majority of UK taxpayers: As widely forecast, the tax-free allowance will increase. The amount people can earn before paying tax will rise to […]
Missed the Tax Return Deadline?
/in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, Accountancy, Accountants, Deadline, Dulwich, Filing deadlines, HMRC, Income tax, Key dates, Late return, London, Nil return, penalties, penalty, Self-assessment, South London, Tax, Tax accountant, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax return, tax return amendment, Tax returns, Tulse Hill/by Mark[Updated 3 February 2020]: If you missed the deadline for submission of your tax return to HMRC (that was 12 midnight on Saturday 31 January) here’s what you can expect in terms of a fine:
In case you didn’t realise, you still had to submit a tax return even if you did not owe any tax and the longer you leave it, the more it will cost you — as you can see in the table above. Alternatively, use this excellent estimation tool to work out your exact penalty at any given point in time. Not sure if you even need to submit a Self Assessment tax return? No problem; there’s a tool for that too (here).
Statistically speaking, women seem to send in their returns on time more often than men; 18 to 20 year olds of either sex are the very worst with around 11% of them sending in their returns late in recent years, while those over 65 seem to be statistically the most reliable of all, with only around 1½% of them having filed tax returns late. We’ll have to wait and see how it panned out this year when the figures are in.
Taxfile are here for you if you need to get your tax return sorted out whether you’re on time or not – but the earlier the better if you’re to minimise any penalty from HMRC. We are professional accountants and tax advisors, are based in South London, and will help to get your tax affairs in order with minimal fuss. We will ensure that all your figures are correct so that you pay only the right amount of tax – no more, and no less. For professional tax help contact us or book an appointment on-line.
You have only HOURS left to submit your Tax Return!
/in 2014, Accountancy, Accountants, Advice, Deadline, Dulwich, Filing deadlines, HM Revenue and Customs, HMRC, Income tax, Key dates, Late return, London, penalties, penalty, Self-assessment, South London, Tax, Tax accountant, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax agents, tax experts, Tax return, tax return amendment, Tax returns, Tulse Hill/by MarkYou’re running out of time to submit your tax return and have just HOURS left! We are here to help you fill in and submit your self assessment tax returns to HMRC on Saturday 31st (by appointment only, 9-1pm) so come and see us quickly or you may miss the HMRC deadline. If you do […]