11
Apr, 2024

Termination payment clearance process

The tax treatment of termination payments has changed significantly over recent years. The changes have aligned the rules for tax and secondary National Insurance contributions (employer (NICs)) by making an employer liable to pay NICs on termination payments they make to their employees. 

HMRC has announced that it is aligning its approach to providing advance assurance on certain termination payment enquiries. 

HMRC guidance had previously committed HMRC to giving a binding answer if you made enquiries on termination cases involving:  

  • the disability and injury compensation exception;
  • the foreign service exception;
  • how the £30,000 threshold applies to payments made by the third party and by the employer; and
  • non-cash provisions.

HMRC will no longer give a binding answer on these cases outside the normal Non-Statutory Clearance process, for example, where there is a genuine point of uncertainty on the correct treatment.

This means that any future enquiries from taxpayers and employers on termination payments should be dealt with through the existing Non-Statutory Clearance procedure. HMRC will no longer provide clearance outside of the Non-Statutory Clearance route.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 08-04-2024
11
Apr, 2024

HMRC continues to target till fraud

HMRC has, for many years, looked to target businesses that deliberately undertake electronic sales suppression (ESS). ESS happens where a business deliberately manipulates its electronic sales records in order to hide or reduce the value of individual transactions. 

This type of fraud is hard to spot as it tries to reduce the recorded turnover of the business and the corresponding tax liabilities while providing what appears to be a credible and compliant audit trail. This can be done by misusing built in till functions or installing software specifically designed to suppress sales.

HMRC officers are continuing to target businesses across the country that are suspected of being involved in making, supplying or promoting ESS systems. These businesses can face fines of up to £50,000 and criminal investigations. HMRC is also actively targeting users of these systems who will also face having to pay back tax evaded, financial penalties and possible criminal convictions. HMRC has confirmed that they will continue to contact and target till fraud throughout 2024.

HMRC is also urging affected businesses to voluntarily come forward and use the online portal to disclose their undeclared sales and stop using ESS software immediately. If businesses do not come forward, HMRC may issue an assessment and open an investigation, and harsher penalties will apply.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 08-04-2024
11
Apr, 2024

Using the starter PAYE checklist

Employers that take on a new employee need to work out which tax code and starter declaration to use in their payroll software. Incorrect tax codes can lead to a new employee paying more tax than is due.

Employers will require certain information from their new employee in order to ensure that the correct tax code and starter declaration information is entered on the payroll software. In most cases, all the necessary information can be found on the employees P45. It is important to remind new employees to bring this with them on their first day of work.

If the employee does not have a P45 the necessary information can be collected by asking the new employee to complete HMRC's online starter PAYE checklist. A paper version can also be completed if the new employee is unable to use the online version. This information must be held in the employers’ payroll records for the current year and the 3 following tax years. Once the information has been collated, HMRC’s online tool can be used to work out the employee’s tax code.

The starter checklist can be used by a new employee if:

  • they have a student or postgraduate loan;
  • their personal details are different to those shown on their P45;
  • they do not have a P45; and
  • they have been sent to work temporarily in the UK by their overseas employer.

Once the checklist has been completed, the new employee should email, post or give the completed list to their employer. There is no requirement to send the checklist to HMRC.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 08-04-2024
11
Apr, 2024

Accessing the HMRC mobile APP

HMRC’s free tax app is available to download from the App Store for iOS and from the Google Play Store for Android. The latest version of the app includes updated functionality.

The app can be used to see:

  • your tax code and National Insurance number;
  • your income and benefits;
  • your income from work in the previous 5 years;
  • how much you will receive in tax credits and when they will be paid;
  • your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) self-assessment;
  • how much self-assessment tax you owe;
  • your Child Benefit; and
  • your State Pension.

The app can also be used to complete a number of tasks that usually require the user to be logged on to a computer. This includes:

  • get an estimate of the tax you need to pay;
  • make a self-assessment payment;
  • set a reminder to make a self-assessment payment;
  • report tax credits changes and complete your renewal;
  • access your Help to Save account;
  • using HMRC’s tax calculator to work out your take home pay after Income Tax and National Insurance deductions;
  • track forms and letters you have sent to HMRC;
  • claim a refund if you have paid too much tax;
  • ask HMRC’s digital assistant for help and information;
  • update your name and / or postal address;
  • save your National Insurance number to your digital wallet; and
  • choose to be contacted by HMRC electronically, instead of by letter.
Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 08-04-2024
9
Apr, 2024

What do we mean by profit?

When most business owners refer to business profits, they are likely to mean the difference between sales and costs, and more concisely, that sales exceed costs.

However, the word “profits” can prove to be a moveable feast as HMRC, banks and traders will likely have a different interpretation.

For example, do costs include:

  • intangible overheads like depreciation;
  • the write-off of goodwill; or
  • taxation.

The distinctions can prove to be important especially if comparisons are being made for benchmarking purposes – comparing the results of a business with the results for the relevant industry sector.

Company accounts display sales, costs, intangible write-offs and corporation tax charges, but any dividends taken by directors as part of their remuneration package – most directors of small companies take low salaries and high dividends to save NIC costs – are not deducted as a cost in the Profit & Loss account. And so reported profits after tax are not the complete story; any dividends taken by working directors need to be considered as these will reduce retained profits.

The question, what is profit, is therefore dependent for its usefulness as an indicator of a businesses’ health, only if its definition is fully appreciated.

Source:Other | 08-04-2024
9
Apr, 2024

New employment protections

New legislation, including three Government backed cross party Acts, came into force from 6 April 2024.

Pregnant women and new parents will now receive special treatment in a redundancy situation, as a suite of new laws are introduced – delivering the Government’s plan to support families and back hardworking Brits.

New laws will protect workers by strengthening existing redundancy protections to cover pregnancy and a period of time after parents return to work.

The Government-backed package of Acts will also boost support to vulnerable workers offering greater flexibility and confidence to workers and businesses – to help galvanise productivity, help grow the economy and tackle inactivity.

Families will receive new employment protections, including redundancy protections for pregnant women and new parents and a new leave entitlement for unpaid carers. In addition, there will be new flexible paternity leave and pay for parents of babies due on or after 6 April 2024. 

Against a backdrop of skills and labour shortages, these measures will help businesses to attract and retain talented staff. The measures also support groups more likely to fall out of the workforce, such as parents and disabled people, enabling them to thrive in the workplace.

Source:Other | 08-04-2024
5
Apr, 2024

Measures to support household budgets from 1 April

In a recent press release the government confirmed the following policies to support household incomes from 1 April 2024.

  1. The National Living Wage has officially risen from £10.42 an hour to £11.44. This marks a £1,800 annual boost to full-time workers’ pay packets. This means nobody over 21 will earn less than two-thirds of the average hourly wage increase – putting more money in the pockets of around 3 million of UK’s lowest paid workers.
  2. Households will also save around £250 a year on average thanks to a drop in energy bills introduced by Ofgem. This marks a 12.3% fall from the previous quarter, which brings prices down to their lowest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
  3. An increase to the Local Housing Allowance means some of the poorest families on either Universal Credit or Housing Benefit will gain around £800 a year on average. 
  4. Additionally, these changes run alongside the roll out of 15 hours of free childcare, which will save working parents an average of £3,450 a year – the first stage in the £8 billion childcare package that was announced by the Chancellor last year.

Clearly the recent increases in inflation have had a major impact on spending power and although the above measures are welcomed, the real increases in purchasing power are to some extent reduced by the continuing increase in prices.

However, since October 2022, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) has already more than halved from 11.1% to 3.4%. This is stabilising the financial situation for many families, and the government expects that by Quarter 4 2024 (October-December) CPI will have fallen to 1.4%.

Source:Other | 04-04-2024
5
Apr, 2024

To register or not to register

In the recent Spring Budget, the VAT registration threshold was raised to £90,000 (previously £85,000) which means that smaller businesses that did not want to register for VAT, now have an additional £5,000 of turnover they can make each year without needing to register for VAT.

Obviously, if you sell goods or services to other businesses, and they are likely to be registered for VAT, if you are eventually required to register you can do so without changing your price structure; clients can simply claim back the VAT you have added to their bills.

But problems arise if you sell to non-business customers who cannot claim back VAT.

Once your business breaches the £90,000 turnover threshold you will be faced with two choices:

  1. Reduce your prices so your customer pays no more for your services. For example, if the pre-VAT price was £120, following registration, you would need to reduce your price to £100, which plus VAT at 20% would equal £120. Unless you could increase your sales volume, this would have a serious impact on your profitability.
  2. The second choice would be to pass on the VAT to customers. In this case your price would stay at £120, but you would need to charge customers £144 (£120 plus 20% VAT). Unless the goods or services you were selling had limited alternative suppliers, this price hike will likely reduce your sales and profitability.

So, although welcome, the rise in the VAT registration threshold to £90,000 will not overly excite traders who are grappling with the need to increase prices already, to counter inflation, and cope with rising costs.

Traders caught in this do I register or not conundrum do have choices, but they require serious consideration. If you need help to consider your options, please call.

Source:Other | 04-04-2024
4
Apr, 2024

Tax-free mileage expenses

If you use your own vehicle for business journeys you may be able to claim a tax-free allowance from your employer known as a Mileage Allowance Payment or MAP. The allowance is paid when employees use their own car, van, motorcycle or bike for work purposes. It is important to note that this tax-free allowance is not available for journeys to and from work but is available where employees use their own vehicles to undertake other business-related mileage. 

Employers usually make payments based on a set rate per mile depending on the mode of transport used. There are approved mileage rates published by HMRC. For cars, the approved mileage allowance payment for the first 10,000 business miles is 45p per mile and 25p per mile for every additional business mile. An equivalent payment of 20p per mile is available for bicycle travel and 24p per mile for motorcycle travel. These rates have been fixed for many years and HMRC has recently confirmed that they will continue to apply for the 2024-25 tax year.

If an employee travels with business colleagues, they can claim an additional 5p per passenger per business mile for each qualifying passenger. Where an employer pays less than the published rates, the employee can make a tax relief claim for the shortfall using Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR). There is no equivalent to MAR for passenger payments, which means if the employer pays less than 5p per mile to carry a passenger, the driver cannot claim any tax relief on the difference.

It is important to note that if employees are paid more than the approved mileage rates then the excess is treated as a BiK. Conversely, if employees are paid less than the published rates then they can make a tax claim for the shortfall using MAR. There is no equivalent to the MAR for passenger payments.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 01-04-2024
4
Apr, 2024

Online check how to import or export goods

HMRC has a useful online tool to help UK business owners check how to import or export goods. This online tool can be used by businesses, the self-employed and agents acting on behalf of a business.

Using the online tool you can obtain information on:

  • the commodity codes (reference numbers) you need to classify goods for import and export declarations;
  • paying the right VAT and duties for your goods;
  • which licences and certificates you will need for your goods; and
  • how to move goods into a specific country.

There are many special procedures to be aware of when importing or exporting goods to / from the UK. Following the end of the Brexit transition period, the process for importing / exporting goods to / from the EU effectively mirrors the process for all other international destinations. There are different rules if you are moving goods in or out of Northern Ireland under what is known as the Windsor framework.

The online check can be a useful tool for smaller businesses and the self-employed to familiarise themselves with the necessary requirements and work accordingly. Businesses can make customs declarations themselves or hire a third party such as a courier, freight forwarder or customs agent to do the paperwork.

Source:HM Revenue & Customs | 01-04-2024