Blog

All the latest changes to tax legislation- important tax dates and deadlines, Help-Sheets on managing your personal finances, business news & opinion, as well as updates on what’s happening at Rawcliffe’s.

IR35 U-Turn
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

IR35 U-Turn

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.

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Corporation Tax Rate Increase Scrapped
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

Corporation Tax Rate Increase Scrapped

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.

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SDLT Threshold Increased to £250,000
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

SDLT Threshold Increased to £250,000

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.

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Dividend Rates Reduced from 2023/24
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

Dividend Rates Reduced from 2023/24

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.

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New Investment Zones
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

New Investment Zones

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

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UK Government Outlines Plans to Help Households and Businesses With Energy Bills
Business Resources Andrew Mellor Business Resources Andrew Mellor

UK Government Outlines Plans to Help Households and Businesses With Energy Bills

Through a new Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), the government will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for all non-domestic customers (including UK businesses, voluntary sector organisations like charities and public sector organisations such as schools and hospitals) whose current gas and electricity prices have been significantly inflated in light of global energy prices.

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HMRC Issues Warning to Contractors About the Use of Umbrella Companies
Business Resources Andrew Mellor Business Resources Andrew Mellor

HMRC Issues Warning to Contractors About the Use of Umbrella Companies

Using these non-compliant umbrella companies could leave the workers at risk of being involved in a tax avoidance scheme and owing HMRC the tax and NICs that should have been deducted.

Under PAYE regulations, employers have an obligation to deduct tax and NICs from employment income on workers’ behalf. However, where this does not happen, HMRC may recover the tax directly from the worker.

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How Does A New Prime Minister Affect You?
Business Resources Andrew Mellor Business Resources Andrew Mellor

How Does A New Prime Minister Affect You?

Unlike domestic customers, energy bills for businesses are not capped and the rising cost is proving critical for many companies, especially smaller firms. Liz Truss announced that businesses will get an "equivalent support" for a six-month period, but it is not clear what that means as the UK government have not yet published the unit cost per unit of gas and electricity that they are using to generate the domestic cap and cannot yet confirm whether the same unit cost will be applied to business customers.

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Advisory Fuel Rate for Company Cars
Tax News Andrew Mellor Tax News Andrew Mellor

Advisory Fuel Rate for Company Cars

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

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