Brian at Tissington Hall, Derbyshire

On Sunday 30th April at 9am, Brian will embark on a challenging 50 mile cycle from Maggie's Oxford to Maggie's Cheltenham in aid of raising money for the fantastic support Maggie's centres offer to people living with cancer and their families. Brian has been training hard since January and here is a recent update from him; 

‘Well, there's less than 2 weeks to go until my 50 miles Charity Cycle ride for Maggie’s Cancer Charity. My training is going well and my cycle team member, Sarah Allen has kindly accompanied me to help spur me along. I cycled 40 miles on the Tissington Trail in Derbyshire 2 weeks ago and completed another 20 miles over the Easter weekend. 

A big thank you to those who have kindly sponsored me so far and there is still time for you to help me reach my £1,000 target for Maggie’s.’

You can donate to Brian's just giving page below, or email him on brian@coopercurtis.co.uk to make an offline donation.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/CooperCurtis

You may be wondering why you have been sent a notice to complete a tax return, or whether or not you should be completing one for the year.

The list below explains when you need to prepare a self assessment, but should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us; 

• You were self employed at any point of the tax year (runs from 6 April to 5 April)
• You received more than £2,500 of un-taxed income for renting property or from un-taxed savings
• You received dividend income of over £5,000 in the year
• Your investment income was £10,000 or more before tax
• You made a profit from selling a second property or shares and owe Capital Gains Tax
• You are a company director
• Your income was more than £50,000 and you or your partner claimed Child benefit
• You received overseas income and need to pay UK tax on it
• You lived abroad and need to pay tax on your UK income
• Your income was over £100,000 for the tax year
• You were trustee of a trust or registered pension scheme
• If HMRC have issued you with a tax return, you must still complete and submit it

If you would like any advice on whether or not you should be completing a Self Assessment, or would like help completing and filing a tax return, please call 0845 303 1144 or email info@coopercurtis.co.uk 

Post by Caroline

 Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published.

Tax-free Trivial Benefits

A little known and underused tax free perk is the trivial benefits exemption.

A benefit provided to an employee is classed as a trivial benefit and therefore tax free for not only them, but a tax deduction for the employer too, provided that;

1. It is less than £50, if given as a voucher it is non cash transferable,
2. It is NOT a reward for services,
3. And, it isn't included in the terms of an employee’s contract.

Examples

Trivial benefits could include, a gift voucher, a bunch of flowers, a meal out for employees under £50 per head.

To avoid the reward for service rule, the benefits could be given for a birthday, or a turkey or bottle of wine at Christmas, the birth of a child or a bereavement.

There is no limit to employees!

HMRC’s legislation does not state how many times per year you can give a trivial benefit to your employees. But be wise! Obviously a £50 gift every working day of the year would ring HMRC's alarm bells so we would advise that any trivial benefits made in the year are made as a gesture rather than a frequent payment.

Does this apply to company directors too?

Yes it does! To limit company directors taking advantage of this tax freebie, HMRC will allow trivial benefits provided to directors up to a value of £300 per year. So that’s a payment up to £50 once every two months. If your spouse is also a director that is another saving of £300 and a potential tax saving of £335 if both higher rate tax payers!

For more information on trivial benefits and other tax saving opportunities, contact Cooper Curtis on 0845 303 1144 or email info@coopercurtis.co.uk

POST BY CAROLINE

Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published.

In 2015, employment intermediary reports became compulsory for agencies supplying workers and filed on a quarterly basis.

The workers details and payment details are supplied on a simple excel spreadsheet in a format given by HMRC, each quarter, by the 5th of the following month. If no workers were supplied in a particular quarter, a nil report must still be submitted. 

The main reason HMRC brought in this reporting was to satisfy HMRC that PAYE should not have been operated on their payments and to tackle false self-employment.

Failure to submit these reports or submitting an inaccurate report can run into the £1,000's after a third offence so it is paramount that these are submitted with care. 

You will need to sign up to HMRC's unique online service in order to file these reports.

The intermediary report template can be found on our website under Recruitment resources

For more information on intermediary reporting, please contact us on 0845 303 114 or info@coopercurtis.co.uk 

Post by Caroline

Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published. 

From April 2017, those businesses classed as 'limited cost traders' will be automatically required to use the flat rate percentage of 16.5% when calculating their VAT.

The VAT Flat Rate scheme is available to businesses with turnover of £150,000 per annum or less. Before April, is it calculated as a percentage determined by the type of business performed by the sales figure in that quarter and the balance paid over to HMRC. It provided advantages to those service companies who's overheads were low. 

What's a 'limited cost trader'?

Changes to the scheme will mean a business will be required to check actual spending it's spending on 'goods' each quarter and if spending is either less than £250 in the quarter or less than 2% or its gross sales for that period, then the business will have to use 16.5% as their VAT flat rate percentage.

Goods includes, supplies of gas and electricity and exclude vehicles, fuel, motor expenses, capital goods and food and drink. Rent, telephone and internet are classed as services so are also excluded. 

Conclusion

HMRC have brought in the changes to not only limit the advantages to using the flat rate scheme but also, it is gearing up to HMRC's 'making tax digital' changes next year where quarterly reporting will become mandatory. 

The changes will see more time spent on administration by the business owner on analysing purchases made in the quarter. It would be necessary to see whether it is worth continuing under the scheme and paying 16.5% or deregistering depending on the circumstance.

If you have any concerns regarding changes to the VAT Flat rate scheme, please contact us on 0845 303 1144 or email info@coopercurtis.co.uk.

POST BY CAROLINE

Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published. 

A question we get often asked by our recruitment director clients' is; 

'Should I be operating a childcare voucher scheme through my own limited company?'

The facts.

An employer operating the Childcare voucher scheme will allow each parent paying basic rate tax, up to £55 per week or £243 per month tax free childcare for children up to the age of 15. Higher rate tax paying parents are allowed up to £28 p/wk and £124 p/mth respectively. Any vouchers exceeding this amount are subject to tax and NI and must be included on a form P11D. 

So, many limited company directors who employ their spouses, have use of twice the amount of vouchers. 

It works by having either a deduction in your salary (via a salary sacrifice) saving tax &NI, or having an addition to your salary, and having it as a company expense. 

Care needs to be taken when coming to a decision on which option to take. 

How it's done.

• Your childcare provider must be registered with the OFSTED scheme. You can find out this information from the OFSTED website.

• Set your scheme up IN YOUR COMPANY'S NAME through HMRC or pay for a scheme administrator such as Kiddivouchers or Edenred to do this for you.  

• If you choose to use a scheme administrator they will charge commission on supplying the vouchers for this but is allowed as an additional business expense. (Yet more tax savings!) 

• Payments MUST be made through the company bank.

The future of the Childcare Voucher Scheme.

The childcare voucher scheme is running out and no further parents can apply to join the scheme after April 2018.

You may already be aware of the Government's new 'Tax-free childcare' scheme which is being introduced from 2017. It will then be necessary for parents to decide which scheme would be more beneficial to them. There are more strict conditions with this new scheme. For example, both parents must be working and earning over a certain amount to enter the scheme.

How it works under the new 'Tax-free childcare' for every 80p paid into the scheme, the government will top this up by 20p up to a total of £10,000. For parents with lower childcare costs such as a couple of days a week, the current childcare voucher scheme may be more beneficial to them.

To conclude, in my opinion it is beneficial to enter the scheme and operate the vouchers through your limited company as long as your administration costs stay low and the costs don't outweigh the benefit. We will see what happens when the new 'Tax-free childcare' scheme is introduced next year and whether my view will change.

post by caroline

If you would like further information on how to set up a childcare scheme through your own limited company, please contact Cooper Curtis on 0845 303 1144 or email info@coopercurtis.co.uk.

Please note, all our content is for general guideline only, every case is different and we would recommend speaking to us before taking any action as a result of the content. The content was correct at the time it was published.