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Peter Arrowsmith FCA highlights a selection of NIC matters, and provides a helpful tip for elderly couples. Reliefs Being Abolished The recent publication of the 'Consultation on the Abolition of 36 Tax (sic) Reliefs' provides more detail as to the timing of the withdrawal of reliefs as announced on Budget day. Those concerning NIC are - certain payments to mariners disregarded - obsolete provisions, withdraw by Regs as of 6 April 2012, cycle to work days and associated ... Continue Reading

Malcolm Finney outlines the conditions for a valid disclaimer, and its implications for Inheritance Tax purposes. Introduction - What is a Disclaimer? Inheritance Tax (IHT) is levied at 40% on an individual’s estate on death. A basic tenet of English law is freedom for an individual to dispose of his property, owned at the date of death, by will in any way whatsoever and to whomever he pleases. So what is the problem? A beneficiary under a will is under no obligation to accept ... Continue Reading

James Bailey warns that the 'Only or Main Residence' Exemption can be denied or restricted in certain circumstances. Introduction Everyone knows that a gain they make when selling their home is exempt from Capital Gains Tax (CGT), but everyone is not always correct in this assumption. There are several ways in which CGT can be payable on the sale of your home, and this article concentrates on the way the exemption is withdrawn in cases where money has been spent ‘wholly or partly’ ... Continue Reading

LITRG’s guide to HMRC’s forthcoming tax repayment letters advises you to make sure yours is right (neither too much nor too little) and check whether you can claim anything else. Background HMRC say that between 1.7 and 3.5 million people will get a letter (technically known as a ‘P800’) over the summer informing them they are due a tax refund for the 2010/11 tax year. The letters start going out in mid-July. A further 1.2 million people will receive a letter ... Continue Reading

Malcolm Finney provides an overview of two different types of trust for Tax Insider. Introduction - Trusts are Still Useful! Trusts have been used for tax planning purposes for many years, and continue to be used despite their tax effectiveness arguably having been seriously eroded in the past few years. This is probably because trusts also offer significant non-tax advantages with respect to planning for family succession and provision purposes. Trusts are typically set up in lifetime ... Continue Reading

Mark McLaughlin looks at the tax rules for jointly held property, and highlights a recent tax case. Introduction The tax legislation includes specific rules for income from assets held jointly by spouses (or civil partners) who live together. The rules provide a potential tax planning opportunity for spouses who are liable to Income Tax at different rates. The broad effect of the legislation (in ITA 2007 s 836) is that income from jointly held assets is taxable on both spouses in ... Continue Reading

Lee Sharpe considers HM Revenue & Customs' current strategy for campaigns. Introduction HM Revenue & Customs picked a bad week to launch their new VAT Amnesty - sorry - Campaign. Given the stories in the general press this week, (what remains of it), people might be forgiven for not noticing that there is a new Initiative to encourage businesses to register for VAT, where applicable. HMRC has plumped for (what would usually be) attention-grabbing headlines, such as 'A Crackdown on ... Continue Reading

We mentioned in our earlier news article - HMRC Targeted Campaigns Move On to VAT - that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had set up a section on their website to monitor previous, current and anticipated Campaigns or "Amnesties".  It is at HMRC Campaigns It is expected that these campaigns will be a feature of the tax landscape for the next several years, so this new section will become increasingly important over time. This is because - so far at least - HMRC will not allow advantageous ... Continue Reading

Despite the temptation to enjoy warm summer evenings, don’t neglect your tax and tax credits paperwork. LITRG reminds us of deadlines in July which cannot be ignored.   Introduction Here LITRG provides the latest in their series of monthly reminder articles to help you check your tax and tax credits, covering the following topics: Tax credits – renew by 31 July or consider claiming them Do you need to pay tax by 31 July? Having difficulty paying your ... Continue Reading

In an earlier news item HMRC Now Scanning (and Destroying!) - Post we advised that in future, when conducting enquiry work into taxpayers' affairs, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) would scan documents and letters received from taxpayers and their agents and then routinely destroy the originals within the following 40 days. We asked HMRC for a list of the documents which it would never destroy but would automatically return the originals to the taxpayer/agent and we have now been advised they are ... Continue Reading