The much criticised “off-payroll” working rules were introduced for the public sector from 6 April 2017 and then extended to large and medium-sized private-sector organisations from 6 April 2021.

It was on 7 September 2021 that we first heard about a new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy, imposed on employers, employees and the self-employed, coming in from 2023/24.

In the March 2021 Budget, Rishi Sunak announced that the rate of corporation tax would increase to 25% from 1 April 2023 where a company’s profits exceeded £250,000 a year, with the current 19% rate continuing to apply where profits were no more than £50,000 a year.

the SDLT announcement was still a surprise as house prices have been steadily rising. Increases in mortgage rates are likely to slow the market so the SDLT announcements are designed to stave off a housing slump.

On 23 September 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng, the new Chancellor (the fifth in as many years) delivered a Tax Cutting “Fiscal Event” or Mini-Budget to help boost economic growth.

Many director/shareholders of family companies pay themselves a small salary and take the rest of their “pay” in dividends. With dividends being free of NIC, this would have allowed them to avoid the extra 1.25% NIC charge when it was originally introduced.

The Government is in discussion with 38 local authority areas in England to set up ‘Investment Zones’ in specific sites within their area.

The figures in the table below are the HMRC suggested reimbursement rates for employees' private mileage using their company car from 1 September 2022. Remember that provided all private fuel is fully reimbursed the fuel benefit does not apply

Under the current rules the no gain/no loss rule that means that there is no CGT on transfers of assets between spouses or civil partners only applies up to the end of the tax year in which they separate

The changes to the basis of assessment of self-employed profits are scheduled to change from 6 April 2024. The new rules mean that profits (and losses) will be assessed based on the amounts arising between 6 April and 5 April instead of the profit/loss of an accounting period ending in the tax year.

In recent years HMRC have identified and successfully challenged a number of spurious claims for Research and Development (R&D) tax credit relief made by purported ‘R&D Consultants’.

With the departure of Boris Johnson, the contenders as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister (PM) have now been whittled down to the last two – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss

If you have children under 12 who attend a nursery, after school club, play scheme, childminder or you are considering sending them to a summer camp, you should think about setting up a tax-free childcare account

HMRC are reminding sole traders and partners who have received Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants that there are potentially penalties of up to 100% of amounts overclaimed in certain circumstances.

The Research & Development (R&D) tax credit scheme for small and medium sized enterprise companies is particularly generous as there is currently 230% relief for qualifying expenditure and, where the company is loss making, this results in a 14.5% repayable credit.