News from InAccountancy

Introduction David Cameron – freshly back from his trade mission to China – looked on encouragingly as Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Autumn Statement. But how his mind must have drifted back to the delights of Shanghai… No inconvenient elections; no opinion polls; no awkward questions from Jeremy Paxman.

With the season for office parties fast approaching we thought it would be a good idea to remind you of the tax implications. The good news is that, unlike entertaining customers, the costs of entertaining employees are generally allowable against the profits of the business.

HMRC publishes details of deliberate tax defaulters, those people who have received penalties either for: • deliberate errors in their tax returns or • deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations. To view the latest list please visit the HMRC website and look for the latest list.

HMRC have announced that they are changing their Business Record Check (BRC) activity to ensure ‘it better targets help to those who are likely to have inadequate records’.

The Chancellor announced the creation of a National Insurance Contributions (NIC) Employment Allowance in the 2013 Budget. This is expected to be introduced from 6 April 2014 and this moved a step closer to becoming law with the First Reading of the Bill on 14 October 2013.

HMRC have announced a new campaign designed to target landlords in the residential property market. The campaign offers landlords in this sector a chance to get their tax affairs up to date or put right any errors they have made and then remain compliant. HMRC have set up a Let Property Campaign Hotline on 03000 514479 but please do get Read the full article…

HMRC have launched yet another disclosure facility, the Health and Wellbeing Tax Plan, which runs from 7 October 2013 to 6 April 2014 and is aimed at physical therapy, alternative medicine or therapy and other therapy. Notification is required by 31 December 2013 and disclosure and payment by 6 April 2014. If you have any concerns in this area please Read the full article…

The latest Employer Update issued by HMRC contains a number of pertinent articles which may be of interest to employers and employees:

The government has announced that from April 2015 married couples and civil partners may be eligible for a new Transferable Tax Allowance. The Transferable Tax Allowance will enable spouses and civil partners to transfer a fixed amount of their personal allowance to their partner. The option to transfer will be available to couples where one partner is a basic rate Read the full article…

We have updated our TaxApp to support Apple’s recent iOS7 release and made improvements to the layouts for Android users to make our TaxApp even easier to use.