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Prior to the Finance Act 2006, the IHT treatment of trusts was relatively straightforward, such that if a beneficiary was named in a trust then that beneficiary was treated as the owner of the capital held within that trust. On the death of the beneficiary, the trust was subject to IHT at the full tax rate as if the capital had actually belonged to them. Should there have been no defined beneficiary, then the trust was subject to a special tax regime which included a tax charge levied every ten years. ... Continue Reading

LITRG is reminding people who received tax credits during 2016/17, and who have received renewal forms from HMRC, to act by 31 July so that their payments do not stop. Introduction The tax credits renewals process does two things: it finalises the tax year that has just ended (2016/17) and it acts as a claim for the new tax year. Even if someone no longer wants to claim or thinks they are no longer entitled, if they claimed tax credits at all during the 2016/17 tax year, they will still receive ... Continue Reading

Lee Sharpe of TaxationWeb wonders if forcing HMRC to swallow credit card charges is really for the greater good. Films I enjoy watching films. I do not profess to have good taste: each to his own. There are few films I care to watch more than once* however, I can and have watched Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz several times. With Messrs. Pegg and Frost, you know you are in safe comedic hands. The Greater Good In at least one of those films, the delightful duo end up having to do battle with ... Continue Reading

The way in which you run your business will affect the amount and type of tax and National Insurance that you pay. When deciding on an appropriate structure for a business, the tax and National Insurance regime under which the business operates is one of the factors that should be taken into consideration. If you run your business as a sole trader, or as a member of a partnership, depending on the level of your profits, you will pay income tax and National Insurance contributions (NIC) on your profits. ... Continue Reading

Update on Finance Bill (No. 2) 2017 The government has today published an update on Finance Bill 2017, which confirms that all policies that were cut from the March 2017 Budget in order to make it through Parliament before the General Election, will now be re-instated and take effect from April 2017 as originally planned: "The Government confirms that... ...it expects to introduce a Finance Bill as soon as possible after the summer recess containing the withdrawn provisions. Where policies have ... Continue Reading

Despite HMRC’s efforts, their IR35 assessment tool is fundamentally flawed, produces inaccurate results, and unless they go back to the drawing board it will never be fit for purpose, warns Dave Chaplin of Contractor Calculator. Introduction At ContractorCalculator we have knowledge of what HMRC tried to achieve, because we’ve already spent the last 7 years tackling this task, and released our enhanced version of our IR35 Testing tool in Feb 2017 – it asks 101 questions and delivers ... Continue Reading

Limited Companies Limited Liability Companies As Asset ProtectionAs far as business is concerned, the limited liability company is probably the original and oldest type of asset protection. Business, entrepreneurship, whatever you want to call it, is by definition a risky activity. Things can go badly wrong, and if there were no “ring fencing” between your business activities and the rest of your assets, a lot of people would think twice about going any further.Of course, you could ... Continue Reading

HMRC recently published their latest error and fraud statistics for tax credits covering the 2015-16 tax year: they are still struggling to deal with errors arising in the system. Introduction Despite the marked increase in compliance activity by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in recent years, the figures show an overall increase in claimant error and fraud from 4.8% (1.37 billion) in 2014/15 to 5.5% (1.57 billion) in 2015/16 – with the increase coming from a rise in claimant error. As the ... Continue Reading

We take a look at the latest developments in the intermediaries legislation. The prognosis is not good. Introduction Many readers will know already that the 2017 Finance Bill was pared to the bone, so it might be passed ahead of the General Election. Where we might be in terms of the ‘postponed’ parts, now that we have a hung parliament, is a matter for another day. But one part of the Bill that did survive the cut was Workers’ Services Provided to the Public Sector through Intermediaries – ... Continue Reading

As the P11D season is now upon us, a timely reminder of developments in the reporting process for 2016/17 forms. Introduction The P11D regime for reporting employee benefits in kind has changed quite significantly from April 2016, and many expenses that traditionally had to be reported will not now need to be included on the form.  Employer dispensation agreements have been abolished, and replaced with a similar statutory regime, which applies to all employers. Background The underlying ... Continue Reading