NIC | Taxfile

May Newsletter – New Battersea Branch, Easy CIS Tax Refunds, Avoid £10 Daily Fines & More

May 11, 2018/in Accountancy, Accountants, Accounts, Battersea branch, Bookkeeping, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, Contractor, Devon, Income tax, Late return, Limited companies, Limited company, London, London SW8, National Insurance, New CIS, NI, Payroll, Rebate, Refund, Self-assessment, South West, Subcontractor, Tax, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax bill, tax experts, Tax overpayment, tax rebates, Tax refunds, Tax returns, Taxfile, Tulse Hill, VAT /by Mark

Our informative May e-Newsletter is now ready to view online. It includes exciting news of our new branch opening in Battersea along with important tax and accountancy-related news that might affect you. Here is a quick summary of the newsletter’s contents:

The first article announces the opening of our new Battersea Branch in London SW8. New and existing customers are welcome to pop in and say hello and to get expert help with your tax affairs and accountancy requirements. Learn more about the opening of the Battersea branch, and the core services on offer, here or click the big button below to read the newsletter.
If you work on one of the many Battersea construction sites in or around SW8, we can help you reclaim overpaid tax and much more … see the newsletter for more details – click the big button below.
If you’re a sub-contractor working in the construction industry scheme (‘CIS’), you’re almost certainly due a tax refund (learn why here). Taxfile are experts at getting tax rebates from HMRC, so come and see us and we’ll get you the maximum refund possible. Read the newsletter (click the big button below) to learn how we make your tax refund application fast and hassle-free.
We can help limited company contractors too! We’re tax and accountancy experts so we can help you register as a limited company or register for CIS if you’re not already set up, we’ll help you with the monthly tasks demanded of you by HMRC including accounts preparation, confirmation statements, corporation tax handling, CIS set-off rebate, National Insurance (NI), VAT, bookkeeping, payroll and much more. We’ll save you time and will make operating the Construction Industry Scheme a breeze. Click the pink newsletter button below for more details.
If you introduce a family member, friend or colleague to Taxfile, you will get a discount off your next tax return if they sign up as a new paying customer with us. Click the button for details.
Taxfile recently printed some brightly coloured postcards to promote our new Battersea office and our tax-related services. Simply get in contact if you’d like some of these postcards to hand out to colleagues. If you write your full name on the back and use it to refer a colleague, it might even save you money! Click the button for more details.
Our team are multi-lingual and always happy to help. If English is not your first language, let us know and we’ll try to match you to the most appropriate staff member.
If you, your friends, family or colleagues have not dealt with your old tax returns, HMRC will be adding £10 per day to the penalty from 1st May. That’s on top of the £100 fine that will have applied immediately after missing the original 31 January deadline. Let Taxfile get your tax records, tax returns and overdue tax all in order so you don’t have to pay any more in fines than you have already. Learn more here or contact your nearest branch for a consultation.
All Taxfile clients get free ‘Tax Enquiry Fee Protection Insurance‘ when they file their tax return through Taxfile by the statutory deadline. So – if you’re investigated by HMRC – our fees to sort it out are covered. Click the button for more details.

Read the Newsletter

Feel free to Read more

Taxfile: Your One-Stop Tax & Accountancy Shop

February 3, 2018/in Accountancy, Accountants, Accounts, Advice, Auto Enrolment, Bookkeeping, Buy to let, Cab drivers, Capital gains tax, CGT, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, CT, Disclosure, Dulwich, Estate Planning, HMRC, Income tax, Landlords, Lettings income, Limited companies, National Insurance, NI, NIC, Non-domiciled residents, Partnership, PAYE, Payroll, Self-assessment, Sole traders, Tax, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax enquiry, tax experts, Tax planning, Tax returns, Taxi drivers, Tulse Hill, VAT, Workplace Pensions /by Mark

Taxfile has over 100 years of combined tax and accounting experience. It’s incredible to think that the key personnel have administered over 30,000 tax submissions in the past 20 years! Beginning way back in 1994 (and continuing as Guy Bridger Limited from 1997), we originally started business offering only CIS sub-contractor returns but quickly developed the service to help the self-employed, local businesses and higher rate taxpayers with their tax computations. Along the way we added tax and accounting services for taxi drivers, cab drivers, landlords and more. We also offer Capital Gains tax expertise and tax investigation help and, more recently, professional help with disclosures, written tax advice and tax planning for things like inheritance.

We have exceptional accounting experience in all key tax and accounting areas including:

CIS computations, CIS returns and refunds for sub-contractors and limited companies in the construction industry,
Tax, tax returns and accountancy for the self-employed, small businesses, partnerships etc.,
Tax help for taxi drivers and cab drivers,
Tax help for landlords,
Tax help for limited companies,
Tax help for directors,
Payroll services,
Bookkeeping,
VAT including VAT registrations, VAT returns and VAT accounting,
Corporation tax,
Capital Gains Tax (CGT),
Year end accounts for SME’s, partnerships and limited companies,
Non-domicile taxes/foreign taxes,
PAYE and National Insurance Contributions (NIC),
Company registrations,
Auto Enrolment for Workplace Pensions
and just about any other tax and accounting-related assistance you can think of.

Taxfile helps individuals as well as businesses. Our customers are very varied, turning over anything from £10,000 to over £1 million a year. A few are high wealth individuals who no longer need to work but still need to account for their taxes etc. Some customers have retired, others operate small businesses and some don’t even live in the UK but may have assets here. So, whatever your income, assets or situation, the message is that if you need ANY tax-related help, you’ve found the right place in Taxfile.

Taxfile also has the back-up and expertise of professional bodies on tap (so nothing is too complicated for us) and also has excellent relations with the tax authorities — we’re very well trusted by HMRC. Guy even helps in the local employment zone, which aims to improve business in the Tulse Hill and West Norwood area. So, Taxfile is very much part of the local community, particularly in South London (but expanding to other areas too — keep an eye on this blog for forthcoming information about that in the very near future).

Whatever help you need with tax and accountancy-related matters, call Taxfile on 0208 761 8000 and we’ll be delighted to help you. Alternatively, Read more

Making Tax Digital (‘MTD’), Part 1 — Your Personal Tax Account

October 30, 2017/in Accountancy, Accountants, Making Tax Digital, MTD, Personal Tax Account, PTA /by Mark

HMRC have been busy, behind the scenes, shaking things up with regard to the personal data they hold on UK taxpayers. They’ve been pulling in – rather successfully – personal data from various different government departments and bringing all that data into one central place for both them and us to see, whenever the need arises. This is all part of their longer-term plan for Making Tax Digital or ‘MTD’ as it’s known in the tax and accounting world. So, with that in mind, this is the first in a series of posts that introduces MTD and a crucial part of that; Personal Tax Accounts (PTAs). In this series of articles we’ll discuss what MTD will mean for most of us, we’ll look at the kinds of data that will be stored, see how it’ll affect us and, lastly, see if there is anything that we’ll need to do.

Personal Tax Accounts (PTAs)

One of the core elements of MTD is the Personal Tax Account (PTA). In years to come, each UK individual is likely to become very used to logging into their Personal Tax Account on the HMRC website. In fact, these already exist and most, if not all, UK taxpayers can already access them if they want to. When accessed, it’s quite interesting to see the huge amount of data already accessible via your own PTA if you care to take a look. You may be surprised just how much data they contain for you.

For those not yet ready to take the plunge, we’ve taken a look for you, as you’ll see. And, so far, we are quite impressed.

First, though, perhaps you’d like to sign up to view your PTA account for the first time. If you do this you can perhaps follow along with our notes and see how similar records in your PTA are to those in our demonstration account. For example, we found the National Insurance Record and resulting State Pension Forecast of particular interest, but that’s just indicative of many different areas available in the new PTAs. Before starting, though, take a look at our quick word about security* because it’s important to keep your personal details safe and out of harm’s way.

Anyway, if and when you’d like to take a look at your own PTA, head off to this page which will give you various options depending on whether you already have a Government Gateway account (to clarify, you will need a Government Gateway account before you can gain access to your PTA). If you’ve used HMRC online services before, you’ll already have a Government Gateway account. If not, follow the instructions on that page in order to set one up for the first time. To do that, you’ll need your National Insurance (NI) number and proof of identity which can include your bank account details, a P60, your 3 most recent payslips or your passport number and expiry date. It takes about 15 minutes to set up if you have these to hand.

So, assuming you now have your Government Gateway account access credentials sorted out, you can sign into your Personal Tax Account (PTA) here using your User ID and password.

When first logging in as a new user, the HMRC system may prompt you to set up an additional level of login security. For example, setting up access codes by SMS (you’ll then be sent a code to enter into the screen when logging in, to prove you are who you say you are. You’ll be sent a new access code to your mobile phone every time you sign in. It’s rather like 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) for those who are familiar with that).

You may additionally be asked some security questions, again to protect your data from hackers. In my test I was asked for my full name, date of birth, passport number and similar information (quite a bit actually). This type of heavy duty disclosure is another reason to make sure you have read our security* pointers before disclosing anything sensitive online.

Welcome to your Personal Tax Account (PTA)

Once logged in you’ll be met with a screen similar to the image shown right, with your name at the top:

As you can see, it contains several sections. From your Personal Tax Account, you can:

Check your PAYE tax code, see an estimate of the Income Tax you’ll pay and more;
Check your Self Assessment details (or enrol) and view personal tax returns submitted in the past;
View your National Insurance record;
Check and amend your Tax Credits record;
Tell HMRC about any changes that might affect any Child Benefit you receive (e.g. tell HMRC if your child is staying in education or training if they were aged 16 on or before 31 August);
View and potentially update details about any Marriage Allowance if applicable to you (if you’re married or in a civil partnership and earn less than £11,500 you may be eligible);
View an entire history of your National Insurance (NI) contributions;
Check when you can claim your State Pension;
See a forecast of how much you may receive for your State Pension when the time comes.

You can also: Read more

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

March 8, 2017/in 2017, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Class 2 NICs, Class 4 NICs, Corporation tax, Dividends, ISAs, Limited companies, National Insurance, NIC, Philip Hammond, Self-employed, Spring Budget 2017, Tax /by Mark

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

Taxfile’s multi-lingual, multi-talented staff, at a glance

November 18, 2016/in Accountancy, Accountants, Bookkeeping, Capital gains tax, CIS, Construction Industry Scheme, Corporation tax, Dulwich, HMRC, Income tax, Landlords, Lettings income, Limited company, Multilingual staff, NI, PAYE, Payroll, Payroll bureau, Rebate, Refund, RTI, Self-employed, South London, Tax, Tax accountant, Tax accountants, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax agents, tax experts, Tax refunds, Tax returns, Taxfile, Tulse Hill, Value Added Tax, VAT /by Mark

[Updated]: It’s common knowledge that most of Taxfile’s South London staff are multi-lingual but can you guess which staff member speaks no less than four languages fluently (Russian, Pashto, Dari and English) and which staff member is into both metal music and Irish dancing? And who should you ask for if you need payroll services? And who specialises in bookkeeping … who in limited company accounts and so on? Our staff ‘mind map’ tells you a bit more about each member of the team, what their specialities are, key interests and, of course, their contact details in case you ever need their help. Take a look … Read more

Taxfile are Finalists in the British Accountancy Awards 2016

September 20, 2016/in 2016, Accountancy, Awards, Dulwich, London, Taxfile, Tulse Hill /by Mark

Taxfile are delighted to confirm that they’ve been nominated as Finalists in the sixth annual British Accountancy Awards taking place in November 2016. With a real chance of winning the Independent Firm of the Year, Greater London category, all the staff at Taxfile should take this as a pat on the back for their expertise and diligence looking after the tax affairs of clients in the Greater London region. “It’s a great honour!” said Guy Bridger, Taxfile’s Managing Director, who wanted to draw attention to the particularly hard work of Julie, Faiz, Ewelina and Ali on the Taxfile team. The awards ceremony takes place at The Brewery, London EC1, on 29 November.

Taxfile can add this to their already impressive list of previous accolades which include being a Finalist in the Award for Innovation and winner of the Best Small Business award. Our congratulations to all staff and best wishes to all accountancy companies taking part — it should be a night to remember!

Taxfile are accountants and tax advisors with London offices in both Tulse Hill and Dulwich in SE21. We can help with anything from simple bookkeeping, payroll, tax returns, tax refunds, VAT, National Insurance and Corporation Tax to full accounts work for limited companies, help with auto enrolment duties as well as sorting out complex tax problems. Read more

Professional, Affordable Help with Auto Enrolment

August 9, 2016/in Auto Enrolment, Payroll, pension scheme, Pensions, Workplace Pensions /by Mark

Good news – one less burden for Employers!

If you are an employer, you’ll no doubt know about the new Automatic Enrolment scheme that was recently imposed on UK businesses. For most employers, it’s yet another unwelcome administrative burden. However, it’s not all bad news; in fact, Taxfile has some excellent news to share with you …

As you probably know, compliance with the new Automatic Enrolment scheme is not optional. Virtually every UK employer has to choose and commit to a Workplace Pension Scheme, liaise with every employee, administer all the paperwork and comply with the various rules, regulations and deadlines. It’s a massive administrative burden. However, the good news is that Taxfile can handle it all for you! Our prices are incredibly affordable too. So — it’s a no-brainer!

Let Taxfile handle your Auto Enrolment for you

For a simple, affordable fee, Taxfile can help your company or organisation with:

Monitoring, compliance and administration of your Auto Enrolment duties. We’ll handle it all, on your behalf;
Registering your compliance with The Pensions Regulator at the correct intervals;
Integrating Auto Enrolment pension payments into your company payroll (if we handle payroll for you), so the right level of pension contributions, tax and NI is paid in relation to salaries;
If you and all your employees are eligible and want to opt out of Auto Enrolment, we’ll help you accomplish that too, within the rules.
If you’ve missed your ‘staging date’ and want to minimise any penalty and get back on track, we can also help with that.

With Taxfile handling it all for you, you can get on with

AMAZING OFFER! Save Time, Money & Space with a FREE Sage Bookkeeping & Accounts Package!*

January 14, 2016/in Accountancy, Accountants, Auto Enrolment, Bookkeeping, Cash flow, expenses, Filing deadlines, Income & Expenditure, Income tax, London, National Insurance, NI, NIC's, Online returns, PAYE, Payroll, Real Time Information, RTI, Sage, Save money, Self-assessment, Software packages, South London, Special Offers, Tax, Tax advice, Tax advisers, Tax calculation, Tax returns, Taxfile, VAT /by Mark

[UPDATE: Please note that this offer has now expired]. Taxfile’s customers can benefit from an incredible offer on a range of Sage accounting packages at the moment. We’re offering a FREE or, in effect, heavily subsidised* Sage accounting package to all active Taxfile customers, whether existing or new. There are various different packages available so we’re sure we’ll have one which will suit every customer perfectly. The list of benefits is almost endless — here are just a few:

Firstly we’ll GIVE* Taxfile customers the package — you don’t have to pay Sage at all;
Say hello to quick and easy bookkeeping and record-keeping;
Quick and easy cash flow management tools;
Cloud-based record keeping means you can access accounts records from anywhere with an internet connection;
Automatic bank statement integration makes bank reconciliation a breeze, helping when receipts go missing and even recognising – and accounting for – regular transactions;
A mobile app module allows you to simply snap a photo of your receipt and it uploads to your Sage account (say goodbye to physical receipt storage!);
Less paperwork!
Automatic tax computations performed by the software;
Report and analysis options;
VAT handling;
Automatic VAT return options (or let us handle it for you as you prefer);
Shows you the taxes and National Insurance due so you can easily pay them on time;
Fast and easier tax returns;
Help from Taxfile at any point and from Sage’s own helpful videos;
Helps you stay in line with UK laws, taxes and regulations;
No experience needed;
Perfect for the self-employed, start-ups and small businesses;
Taxfile will even be happy to set you up;
Integrated invoicing and quotation options available (even from your mobile phone!);
A quick and easy payroll bolt-on is also available for limited companies, with payslips, RTI, Auto Enrolment integration etc.;
Auto enrolment communications included if you have a company pension scheme;
Option to automatically integrate online e-commerce records into your Sage account;
Fast and easier company accounts preparation;
… and much more!

But there is more major benefit – collaboration with us, your accountant!

The Sage packages we supply are not only free, or in effect heavily subsidised depending on the package involved, but also allow us, your accountant and tax adviser, to collaborate with you within your Sage package with your permission. So where you cannot do something yourself, we can log in using our own integrated Sage administration system to get involved on your behalf, for example to set things up for you, run reports, activate VAT returns, tax returns, end of year accounts, payroll and so on. It’s amazing really! So you do as much or as little as you want to … and we cover everything else!

You save money!

Using the easy but powerful Sage bookkeeping and accounting packages supplied by Taxfile
means that you’ll save money. It’s as simple as that. Customers using such packages makes our job easier, reducing our chargeable hours working on your accounts, so quite simply saves you money!

You also save time!

Our Sage packages will save you SO much time you’ll never look back! Once you’ve tried our Sage packages for a while you’ll Read more

Summer Budget 2015 – Key Tax Takeaways

July 17, 2015/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 Mark

The 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; to the higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare country.

So, taking each of those goals in turn …

Higher Minimum Wages

With regard to the higher wages promise, Osborne announced that there would be a new National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour from April 2016 for those aged over 25 and over, rising to more than £9 per hour by the year 2020.

Lower Tax

With regard to the lower tax promise, the Personal Allowance (the amount people can earn before paying any tax) will increase – as anticipated – from £10,600 in the financial year 2015-16 to £11,000 in 2016-17. A longer term plan is to increase this still further to £12,500 by 2020. The ultimate ambition is pass a law to make sure that those working 30 hours a week and earning the National Minimum Wage will pay no tax whatsoever, although clearly this will need further clarification in due course.

Dividend tax will also be reformed. Here the existing dividend tax credit (this reduces tax paid on dividends from shares) will be replaced by a new £5,000 tax-free allowance on income from shares from April 2016 and this will be available to all taxpayers. To offset the cost of this to the Exchequer, those with more significant dividend income will see an increase in the tax rate they pay.

Inheritance tax will also be subject to changes from 2017-18. The idea is to allow individuals to each have a ‘family home allowance’ which they can pass on to their children or grandchildren, tax-free, when they die. This allowance will be added to the existing Inheritance Tax threshold currently set at £325k and will potentially allow property up to the value of £1m to be passed down from 2020-21 (see table below). For those with estates valued over £2m the allowance will be gradually withdrawn.

This is how the effective Inheritance Tax thresholds will look in 2020-21: Read more

Construction Industry Scheme (CIS): How to Claim a Tax Refund

March 24, 2015/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 Mark

It’s now time to start the process of claiming your tax refund if you are a subcontractor working within the construction industry and have been paying tax, in advance, through the Construction Industry Scheme (‘CIS’). In this article we will tell you how you qualify and how to claim your tax refund. First, though, a little bit of background to the scheme:

The 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 Read more

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