Enter Your E-mail

Tolley's Practical Tax by Sarah DeeksSarah Deeks looks at an important source of information for tax professionals.Tax practitioners regularly have to refer to HMRC’s on-line manuals but find using them to be a frustrating experience. This is principally because HMRC does not adequately publicise the updates, and with no audit trail to track the changes within the manuals, advisers have found to their cost that they have used out-of-date material. This article considers how practitioners can get ... Continue Reading

TaxationWeb by VAT Solutions (UK) LtdVAT Solutions (UK) Ltd comments on VAT changes included in this week's Pre-Budget Report.VAT partial exemptionHMRC has introduced two variations to the existing partial exemption rules following an informal consultation which was introduced in the 2006 Budget. The first is a requirement for the business to sign a declaration that a proposed partial exemption special method is fair and reasonable. The second is to allow businesses with a special partial exemption ... Continue Reading

Busy Practitioner by Mark McLaughlin CTA (Fellow) ATT TEPMark McLaughlin CTA (Fellow) ATT TEP, General Editor of TaxationWeb, warns that HMRC’s current policy and practice on capital gains tax taper relief will be less than helpful for some taxpayers.Companies and cash balancesAn announcement by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in Tax Bulletin 84 (August 2006) regarding changes to the facility for obtaining company status rulings (i.e. whether a company was a trading company or the holding company of ... Continue Reading

Capital Tax Review by Matthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEPMatthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP outlines the implications for existing and new ‘reverter to settlor’ trusts following the tax changes announced in FA 2006.ContextThe twin capital tax advantages of reverter to settlor trusts are as follows. For Inheritance Tax (IHT) purposes, there is an exemption from IHT under IHTA 1984 s 53(3), so that any appreciation in value in the trust property between entering and leaving the settlement ... Continue Reading

VAT Voice by Andrew NeedhamAndrew Needham, Director of VAT Solutions (UK) Ltd, asks where a trader stands if a VAT Officer writes to ask for a back up copy of the last 24 months’ accounting transactions. Can this request simply be ignored?The story so far…First request One of our clients recently received a form from HMRC headed ‘Request for Annual Accounts’. It included a question as to whether or not the business was using a computer to keep accounting records. As the VAT returns and the ... Continue Reading

Property Tax Portal by James BaileyJames Bailey explains why many ‘buy to sell’ entrepreneurs may well be contractors within HMRC’s Construction Industry Scheme.‘Buy to let’ has grown hugely in the last few years, with more and more people becoming landlords. For some, the next step is ‘buy to sell’. Instead of looking for long term rental income, they opt for a quicker profit, either by building a new property on a greenfield site, or by buying a dilapidated property and refurbishing ... Continue Reading

Capital Tax Review by Matthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEPMatthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP author of Capital Tax Review, comments on the Special Commissioner’s decision in Henke and another v HMRC.ContextThe matters for consideration in this case involved both the validity of assessments made by HMRC and the substantive issues of deductible expenses, the size and location of the ‘permitted area’ and whether an apportionment was required to exclude relief for the period before ... Continue Reading

TaxationWeb by John PageJohn Page of Empowerment Services Ltd requests support in appealing his VAT case, and believes that success at the House of Lords would help many tuition providers.IntroductionA recent decision in the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest court, means that a great many independent providers of tuition are exempt from charging VAT on only the teaching that they do themselves. In other words, should they employ anyone to teach for them, or should they incorporate, the teaching ... Continue Reading

Tolley's Practical Tax by Roger Jones BSc FTII TEPRoger Jones considers some issues relating to disincorporation of a businessTo be asked if I would like to write an article on disincorporation came as something of a culture shock. Over the last few years, I have spent so much time advising businesses on use of the corporate medium. This in turn led to a book on incorporation. Although there are many reasons why a business proprietor might wish to trade through a company, recently one factor seems ... Continue Reading

Capital Tax Review by Matthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEPMatthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP author of Capital Tax Review, comments on current Treasury practice as it effects the informal winding up of companies.ContextWhen a company is struck off owning property (which term includes rights of any kind), that property vests in the Crown as ‘bona vacantia’. From time to time the question surfaces how this affects companies that have been struck off following distribution of assets ... Continue Reading