Pension Contribution Deadline Extended

Deadline for Voluntary Insurance Contributions Extended to 5th April 2025

Deadline for Voluntary Insurance Contributions Extended to 5th April 2025

The original deadline for buying National Insurance ‘credit’ was 31st July 2023, but you can now ‘buy’ incomplete years to boost your state pension until 5th April 2025. The extension was approved by the Government, giving HMRC more time to deal with the process.

You can view our original blog on what you need to do to plug the gaps in your National Insurance contributions here.

Boost State Pension by Plugging Gaps in National Insurance

Boost State Pension by Plugging Gaps in National Insurance

IMPORTANT: the video mentions the original deadline in April 2023. This has now been extended to 5th April 2025.

Do you have gaps in your National Insurance record? If so, it could mean that you could get a lower State Pension when you reach state retirement age, particularly if you are aged between approximately 45 and 70 at the moment. Generally speaking, you need 10 years of contributions for a basic state pension and around 30 to 35 years for a full state pension. It does vary by circumstance though and, even with gaps, some people might have enough qualifying years for the full state pension already.

Urgently Check Whether You Have National Insurance Gaps

Our advice is to urgently check whether you do have any gaps in your National Insurance record. If so, in many cases it would be wise to make some one-off payments to plug any gaps for the years 2006 to 2016. However, there is limited time to do so despite the deadline for this opportunity having been extended from early April to the end of July 2023 [UPDATE: This has now been extended again to 5th April 2025]. Thereafter, the chance to fix all 11 years from 2006 to 2016 will be gone forever. Read more

Key Takeaways from the Spring Statement 2022

Key Takeaways from the Spring Statement 2022

Key Takeaways from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Spring Statement 2022

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his Spring Statement for 2022 on 23 March and in some ways it was more like a mini budget.

Key takeaways from the Spring Statement include:

  • The earnings threshold at which you start to pay National Insurance Contributions (NICs) will increase to £12,570 from July 2022. This is currently set at £9,880 (correct at time of writing, March 2022), so will leave people with more money in their pockets.
  • Class 2 NICs for the self-employed will also reduce, from April 2022, to zero for profits between £6,515 and £9,568
  • 5p per litre has been cut immediately from fuel duty.
  • The basic rate of income tax will reduce from 20% to 19% starting in April 2024.
  • The Employment Allowance will increase to £5,000 per annum from April 2022. Currently it’s set at £4,000. The allowance reduces the NICs that employers have to pay.
  • VAT on materials that save energy will be reduced from 5% to zero from April 2022. This should reduce the cost of things like solar panels, heat pumps and insulation.
  • Councils in England will be able to pass on their share of an additional £500m in extra Government support via the Household Support Fund. The new tranche is for the period 2022/23. The fund helps vulnerable residents, via councils, with short-term help with things like fuel and household bills, food, clothing and other essentials. The previous tranche ends on 31 March 2022, so this is timely.

Watch the Chancellor’s 28 minute Spring Statement 2022, as delivered to the House of Commons, in the video above (skip any adverts). Alternatively get all the detail in the House’s briefing summary here. There’s also a Read more

Are you self employed? If so, Joe from Taxfile has some quick advice for you

Are you self employed? Advice from Taxfile

Are you self employed? Joe from Taxfile has some quick advice for you

Are you self employed? If so, Joe from Taxfile has some quick advice for you:

Class 2 National Insurance

It is important to register for Class 2 National Insurance. A lot of people don’t have this set up correctly and, if not sorted, then it can greatly affect your pension in the future. Class 2 National Insurance isn’t a lot of money, so speak to one of our advisors to make sure you’re set up. Finding out missing years is also possible.

Tax Returns

Try to file your tax return early. A major benefit to this is knowing what your tax liability will be long before it is due. That way, you can plan ahead or even set up a payment plan.

If you are filing your return late, then it is very important to try to get up to date as soon as you can. Apart from the initial £100 penalty for late returns, you will eventually end up paying a £10 per day penalty too if you don’t get up to date soon enough. That can soon spiral out of control. HMRC is very good at helping people who are struggling, but they can’t help if you bury your head in the sand. Penalties for late tax returns can be appealed but you must have very a good reason, like illness or death in the family.

Are you claiming the right expenses?

Speak to one of our agents about allowable expenses. A lot of people don’t claim the right expenses and can end up overpaying their tax. We can help with that, so you save unnecessary tax.

Contact Taxfile

Speak to Taxfile for any of your tax needs. Our staff skills are so versatile that, between us, there is nothing accounting- or tax-related that we can’t help with.

Call Taxfile on 020 8761 8000 or email your tax-related query and we’ll be happy to help. We also offer a free 20-minute introductory appointment if you’d like to meet us in person or virtually through a video or telephone call — whatever you prefer. We are accountants and tax advisors in Tulse Hill/Dulwich South London and Devon/Cornwall in the South West.

This post was brought to you by Joe at Taxfile.

Small Trader? Make the Most of These 2 Allowances!

Small Trader? Make the Most of These 2 Allowances!

Small trader? Make the most of these 2 allowances!

Small traders with very modest incomes are currently eligible for a couple of very useful allowances. Both of these could save them money — and some paperwork:

1. Tax-Free Allowance for small traders

If you receive income of no more than £1000 per annum (before expenses) from property or trading income, you don’t need to tell HMRC, you don’t need to pay tax and usually you don’t need to do a self-assessment tax return. If you have both types of income and each earns you no more than £1000 gross per annum, you are usually eligible for the tax-free allowance in BOTH cases! There are exceptions, of course, but these are the general guidelines. Income from property or land speaks for itself, while ‘trading‘ would include things like self-employment, hiring out personal equipment or services like gardening, window cleaning or babysitting. Partnerships are not eligible.

2. Trading Income Allowance

If you are paying tax but have expenses below £1000 per annum, you could reduce the tax by claiming for ‘Trading Income Allowance’ instead of claiming for the actual expenses themselves. In effect, it’s like claiming for £1000 worth of expenses rather than the lower amount of expenses that you’ve incurred in reality. This aspect is all explained in greater detail, with a simple example, in our previous Trading Income Allowance article here.

It’s important to know, though, that you cannot claim both the Read more

The Spring Budget, March 2017

Spring Budget 2017: Key Changes Affecting SMEs & the Self-Employed

Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his Spring Budget to the House of Commons today.

If you missed it, you can watch and listen to the entire speech by clicking the video above. For those without 55 minutes to spare, we spotlight the key changes, particularly in relation to tax, National Insurance, the self-employed and small businesses.

  • For the self-employed, Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) were already set to be abolished from April 2018. Today, to the surprise of many, the Chancellor announced that Class 4 NIC rates will increase from 9% to 10% from April 2018, increasing again to 11% in April 2019. The Chancellor said that this was to more closely align self-employed NI rates with those paid by employees, particularly in view of the new State Pension to which the self-employed will now have access.
  • Tax-free dividends for those working through a limited company will also be reduced from the current £5,000 level to just £2,000 in April 2018. Corporation Tax will then be charged above that threshold. Again, the reason cited was to bring the self-employed more in line with employees in terms of tax paid overall.
  • The National Living Wage, for those over 25, will increase to £7.50 per hour from April.
  • From April this year, the personal allowance (the amount people can earn before paying income tax) will increase to £11,500 and to £12,500 by 2020. The threshold for higher rate tax will also increase from £43,000 to £45,000 this April.
  • Up to £2,000 (tax-free) will be available towards the cost of childcare for children under 12 from April this year. So for every 80 pence you pay in childcare costs up to £10,000 maximum, the government will add a further 20 pence.
  • Those lucky enough to be able to afford it will be able to save up to £20k maximum in their ISAs from this April. There will also be an NS&I bond introduced, which will pay 2.2% interest on a maximum of £3,000 per person.
  • There will be help for businesses following business rate increases, particularly pubs, which will receive a £1,000 discount if their rateable value is less than £100k (apparently that’s 90% of all English pubs). Also businesses coming out of ‘small business rate relief’ will be helped through the transition with a promise of increases no larger than £50 per month from next year.
  • There will also be an expansion of the clampdown on tax avoidance where some businesses were converting capital losses into trading losses.

Other announcements made by the Chancellor Read more