Accountancy | Taxfile

CIS Sub-contractors – Claim Your Tax Refund Now!

April 6, 2021/in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, Accountancy, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, Discount, Income & Expenditure, Income tax, Multilingual staff, Personal allowance, Refund, South London, Subcontractor, Tax, Tax refunds, Tulse Hill /by Mark

[Updated April 2021]: 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 (including early evenings Mon/Tues)

Our Tulse Hill office is open 6 days a week during April 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

Book an appointment by calling 0208 761 8000;
Bring in records of your invoices, whether they are self-billed or your own. If any are lost, try to bring copies.
Bring in all your CIS statements and receipts for the period 6th April 2020 to 5th April 2021;
Even if you don’t yet have your most recent CIS statement, we can still make a start;
Show us receipts for things you use for work including tools, equipment and plant hire – the law expects you to keep proof so don’t throw anything away;
Bring receipts for materials too, as some can be offset to maximise your tax refund;
If you had any equipment or tools stolen during the year, make sure you bring a crime reference number so we can obtain tax relief on those items;
Bring in bank statements — if any records for income or expenditure have been lost, bank statements can prove vital to fill in the gaps and give us a better view of your overall tax situation;
Lastly, if you have any payslips from any employment during the year, please do also bring in those.

Contact Taxfile to get your CIS tax refund fast!

Taxfile are experts at claiming back CIS tax refunds – we do over 500 of these per year and usually sub-contractors receive their refunds in just 2-4 weeks (often sooner for those who beat the rush and come in early). Taxfile are also very well trusted by HMRC so our sub-contractor CIS submissions and refund requests are rarely questioned. And currently we’re open 6 days a week at the Tulse Hill branch!

Come and see us. Our offices are ideally located if you’re in Tulse Hill, Battersea, Brixton, Dulwich, Elephant & Castle, Streatham, Camberwell, Peckham, West Norwood, Clapham, Stockwell, Herne Hill, Clapham, Pimlico, Vauxhall, Balham, South Lambeth, Earlsfield, Southfields, Wandsworth, Chelsea, Fulham & beyond.

Need a Saturday morning appointment? No problem – call us on 0208 761 8000 for latest staff availability.
Need a late afternoon/early evening appointment on a Monday or Tuesday? Again, no problem — call 0208 761 8000.

Why you’re due a tax refund

CIS construction workers like you are usually taxed at source before being paid, and this usually results in a tax overpayment. That’s because you were taxed on the first £12,500 of your income even though that part falls within your 2020-21 ‘Personal Allowance’, i.e. the part of your income that should be tax-free. In addition, by pre-paying the tax, you will not have offset any allowable expenses such as tools etc. To rectify this, Taxfile will help you get the figures right, offset all allowable expenses and maximise your tax refund! Most sub-contractors receive their tax rebate within just 2 to 4 weeks, through Taxfile.

Working through a Limited Company?

Perhaps you a sub-contractor working through a limited company? If so, that’s also no problem! As well as CIS tax refunds, we can help limited companies with accounts preparation, confirmation statements, corporation tax computations, CIS set-off rebate, National Insurance (N.I.), VAT and much more.

Call Taxfile on 0208 761 8000. We look forward to seeing you soon! Read more

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

TODAY is the deadline for submission of your tax return. Contact Taxfile for help filing & avoid a minimum £100 fine!

TODAY is the Self Assessment Tax Return Deadline!

February 28, 2021/in 2019, 2020, Accountancy, Accountants, Deadline, HMRC, Self-assessment, South London, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax returns, Taxfile, Tulse Hill /by Mark

[As at 28 February 2021]: TODAY is the deadline for submitting your Self Assessment tax return with HMRC. Miss the deadline (recently extended to 28 February) and you’ll straight away be in for a £100 HMRC fine, so don’t delay — contact Taxfile for help with your tax return. We’re open today (Sunday 28 Feb) for a limited time. Book a time-slot* with one of our helpful tax advisors and accountancy experts A.S.A.P. and we’ll make it easy! 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

SEISS Grant 4 – News Coming Soon!

February 10, 2021/in 2021, Accountancy, Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, coronavirus, COVID-19, Grants, Pandemic, SEISS, Self-employed /by Mark

Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has announced¹ exclusive news about a possible 4th SEISS Grant for self-employed people. The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) offers direct financial support from the Government for those self-employed people who have seen a significant drop in profits due to the coronavirus pandemic, where eligible. He says the official announcement is currently scheduled for 3rd March 2021 during the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Spring Budget.

Applications for the current 3rd SEISS grant closed on the 29th of January. The fourth SEISS grant period will cover the months February, March and April. Martin’s exclusive information suggests:

“… there will not be an announcement made on the amount of that grant and who is eligible […] until the budget, which is on the third of March. So over a month after the grant period starts, there won’t be news on exactly how much money you can get, and who is going to get it.”

He goes on to say:

“I doubt this actually means that people will receive their money any later, relatively, than they have done in the prior grants, because you’ve never been able to apply on the first day of the period”

Martin goes on to confirm that he suspects Read more

BREAKING NEWS: No. 10 Heeds Guy’s Plea — & Extends Self-Assessment Deadline!

January 25, 2021/in Accountancy, Accountants, Guy Bridger, Office of Tax Simplification, South London, Tax return, Tax returns /by Mark

[BREAKING NEWS:] 11 days ago we published a post confirming that Guy Bridger, Taxfile’s founder, had personally delivered a postcard to No. 10 Downing Street, making the case for an extension to the Self-Assessment tax return deadline until the end of February. In Guy’s postcard to Boris Johnson, he had argued that there was simply too much pressure on people during Christmas, the New Year and the month of January, due to the bottleneck caused by the Self Assessment tax return deadline.

Well, in some very welcome good news, it seems the Government has listened to Guy’s plea. This afternoon HMRC confirmed:

“Self Assessment customers will not receive a penalty for filing their 2019-20 tax return late, as long as they file online by 28‌‌ ‌February.”

They went on to say:

“We are still encouraging customers who have not yet filed to do so by 31‌‌ January, if possible.”

This is great news for the people of the UK, in what are otherwise challenging times. Tens of thousands of accountants across the nation will also be hugely relieved. We also suspect that under-pressure HMRC staff will be happy about this development. Accountants and taxpayers across the UK may well be queueing to buy Guy a drink when the pubs re-open!

It’s important to realise, however, that the tax owed for the tax year 2019-20 will still be due by 31 January. HMRC will charge interest from 1 February as usual. Guy’s company Taxfile is here to help compute the figures, though. For those who wish to take advantage and submit tax returns online during the February extension, but also want pay tax by 31 January in order to avoid interest, we have now published some further guidance here on what to do. That new guidance will help even if you’re not yet 100% sure of the figures, so take a look via that bold link.

Contact Taxfile for Help with Tax Returns & Any Tax-Related Issue

To contact Guy Bridger or any of the helpful tax experts at his company Taxfile, simply get in touch. We’re here to help!

Book an Appointment

Send us a Message

T: 020 8761 8000

You can learn more about Guy Bridger, his involvement at The Office of Tax Simplification and his company Taxfile here. If you would like to read Guy’s original article about the postcard given to Boris Johnson, click here.

Guy Tells No. 10 to Extend Self-Assessment Deadline

January 14, 2021/in Accountancy, Accountants, Guy Bridger, Office of Tax Simplification, South London, Tax return, Tax returns /by Guy Bridger

[THERE IS BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THIS POST – CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS]

Guy Bridger, Taxfile’s founder, has personally delivered a post card to Boris Johnson. He recently slipped it under the door of Number 10 Downing Street (there is no letterbox!).

The Issue with the Tax Return Deadline – & Guy’s Suggested Solution

In his communication to Boris, Guy suggested that the tax return filing deadline should be permanently extended, for example to the end of February, instead of 31 January as it is currently. In his proposed scenario, people would have longer to file their tax return. As well as taking the pressure off over Christmas, New Year and during January, this later deadline would also mean less likelihood of receiving a surcharge on the possible tax debt they owed for the last tax year’s calculation. Taking this a step further and with the help of video journalist David Gyimah, Guy has also been making a documentary about the tax return filing deadline and the immense pressure it puts people under during Christmas and the New Year — and especially during the entire month of January.

In contrast, limited company businesses currently have 9 months in which to file their accounts to Companies House and at the same time pay their taxes. Interestingly, they have 12 months to file their Corporation Tax return.

Guy & Taxfile

Guy has worked in South London for 25 years, dealing with members of the public and their tax responsibilities. At Taxfile, he has long-serving, thoughtful staff on hand six, sometimes seven, days a week every January. This is a measure of just how much work the current tax return deadline causes during this key accounting month every year. Taxfile makes it their task to remind — even nag — every customer about the deadline, as most of them will have to submit a Self-Assessment tax return by 31 January.

Consulting with the Office of Tax Simplification

Guy Bridger’s last visit to the Treasury was when he worked with The Office of Tax Simplification, resulting in the recognition that people actually prepare their self-employed accounts on a cash basis.

When Guy worked with John Whiting there, the other theme he was interested in was the idea that people who were sole traders perhaps didn’t need to form a limited company. This was because, in agreement with John and many members of the consultation body, it was our view that Read more

Taxfile Partners with Vantage Tax Fee Protection

November 13, 2020/in 2020, 2021, Accountancy, Accountants, CIS, Income tax, Self-assessment, Self-employed, Sole traders, Uncategorized, VAT /by Taxfile

Great news for ALL Taxfile clients!

We are proud to announce that we have partnered with Vantage Tax Fee Protection, a market leading insurance company that will protect all of our clients from any HMRC investigations for tax returns submitted by us.

You are protected as a result of:

Corporation Tax and Income Tax full or aspect enquiries
PAYE/NIC compliance checks from the outset and disputes with HMRC following such checks
CIS enquiries and disputes
VAT compliance checks from the outset and disputes with HMRC following such checks
Enquiries under Section 60 or 61 of the VAT Act 1994 (provided there is no dishonesty or fraud)
Business record checks, inspections and interventions under HMRC’s Information & Inspection Powers at Schedule 36 FA 2008… & more.

Most accountants would charge you a considerable sum for such a leading standard of protection but at Taxfile we will spread the cost through the business on each tax return submitted and as a result the additional cost is a fraction of what would be paid individually by you or your business.

The protection will only add (exclusive of VAT):

£5 on a self assessment income tax return
£10 on a VAT return
£25 on a corporation tax return
£4 on a payroll submission

I think you will agree with us, a very small price to pay for peace of mind.

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.

Need a Limited Company? Questions you may be asking yourself

October 20, 2020/in 2020, Accountancy, Accountants, Accounts, Book keeping, Bookkeeping, Capital assets, Corporation tax, Dividends, HMRC, Income & Expenditure, Limited companies, Limited company, P11D, PAYE, Payroll, Tax, Tax calculation, Value Added Tax, VAT /by Taxfile

“What are the main differences between being self-employed and running a limited company?”

“What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a private limited company?”

The major difference between running a private limited company and being self-employed are the administrative requirements you are required to do by law & although the volume is more, the data contained within those returns are pretty similar to being a sole trader.

A limited company will:

need to keep company records
report any changes to Companies House & HMRC
need to file an annual company tax return along with the company’s accounts, giving an undistorted view of its finances.

So why go through the extra cost and resources of having a Limited Company?

In forming a limited company, you are limiting your personal liability. What this means is that the Limited Company becomes a legal entity of its own. Think of it as another being, that you work for. However, it is important to keep in mind that you cannot abuse your power with the limited liability, to take selfish and unnecessary risks. As a director, you are ethically and morally responsible for the business decisions and transactions the company makes.

As a director of a private limited company you will:

make decisions that benefit the company rather than your own
abide by the rules and regulations outlined by the company Articles of Association, which are written rules about running the company agreed by the shareholders or guarantors, directors and the company secretary
notify any shareholders if you might benefit personally from a company transaction
always act with the intention of making the company successful.

Having a Limited company can also add professionalism to your business. This can help your business become even more successful because customers, clients, and B2B companies will be more inclined to trust you and buy your products or services if you are a limited company rather than a sole trader. It is quite common for B2B companies only to trade with another limited company as a general rule.

A final benefit is, if you have a profitable Limited Company, how you distribute salaries and dividends can have income tax savings, especially once your Read more