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Personal Tax

Helpful information/data sheets

 

 

Personal Tax - Self Assessment

Under the self assessment regime an individual is responsible for ensuring that their tax liability is calculated and any tax owing is paid on time.

The self assessment cycle

Tax returns are issued shortly after the end of the fiscal year. The fiscal year runs from 6 April to the following 5 April, so 2014/15 runs from 6 April 2014 to 5 April 2015. Tax returns are issued to all those whom HMRC are aware need a return including all those who are self employed or company directors. Those individuals who complete returns online are sent a notice advising them that a tax return is due. If a taxpayer is not issued with a tax return but has tax due they should notify HMRC who may then issue a return.

A taxpayer has normally been required to file his tax return by 31 January following the end of the fiscal year. The 2014/15 return must be filed by 31 October 2015 if submitted in 'paper' format.  Returns submitted after this date must be filed online otherwise penalties will apply.

Penalties

Late filing penalties apply for personal tax returns as follows:

  • £100* penalty immediately after the due date for filing (even if there is no tax to pay or the tax due has already been paid)

* Previously the penalty could not exceed the tax due, however this cap has been removed. This means that the full penalty of £100 will always be due if your return is filed late even if there is no tax outstanding. Generally if filing by ‘paper’ the deadline is 31 October and if filing online the deadline is 31 January.

Additional penalties can be charged as follows:

  • over 3 months late – a £10 daily penalty up to a maximum of £900
  • over 6 months late – an additional £300 or 5% of the tax due if higher
  • over 12 months late – a further £300 or a further 5% of the tax due if higher. In particularly serious cases there is a penalty of up to 100% of the tax due.

Calculating the tax liability and ‘coding out’ an underpayment

The taxpayer does have the option to ask HMRC to compute their tax liability in advance of the tax being due in which case the return must be completed and filed by 31 October following the fiscal year. This is also the statutory deadline for making a return where you require HMRC to collect any underpayment of tax, up to £3,000 £through your tax code, known as ‘coding out’. However if you file your return online HMRC will extend this to 30 December. Whether you or HMRC calculate the tax liability there will be only one assessment covering all your tax liabilities for the tax year. Whether you or HMRC calculate the tax liability there will be only one assessment covering all your tax liabilities for the tax year.

Changes to the tax return

Corrections/Amendments

HMRC may correct a self assessment within nine months of the return being filed in order to correct any obvious errors or mistakes in the return.

An individual may, by notice to HMRC, amend their self assessment at any time within 12 months of the filing date.

Enquiries

HMRC may enquire into any return by giving written notice. In most cases the time limit for HMRC is within 12 months following the filing date.

If HMRC does not enquire into a return, it will be final and conclusive unless the taxpayer makes an overpayment relief claim or HMRC makes a discovery.

It should be emphasised that HMRC cannot query any entry on a tax return without starting an enquiry. The main purpose of an enquiry is to identify any errors on, or omissions from, a tax return which result in an understatement of tax due. Please note however that the opening of an enquiry does not mean that a return is incorrect.

If there is an enquiry, we will also receive a letter from HMRC which will detail the information regarded as necessary by them to check the return. If such an eventuality arises we will contact you to discuss the contents of the letter.

Keeping records

HMRC wants to ensure that underlying records to the return exist if they decide to enquire into the return.

Records are required of income, expenditure and reliefs claimed. For most types of income this means keeping the documentation given to the taxpayer by the person making the payment. If expenses are claimed records are required to support the claim.

Checklist of books and records required for HMRC enquiry

Employees and Directors

  • Details of payments made for business expenses (eg receipts, credit card statements)
  • Share options awarded or exercised
  • Deductions and reliefs

Documents you have signed or which have been provided to you by someone else:

  • Interest and dividends
  • Tax deduction certificates
  • Dividend vouchers
  • Gift aid payments
  • Personal pension plan certificates.

Personal financial records which support any claims based on amounts paid eg certificates of interest paid.

Business

  • Invoices, bank statements and paying-in slips
  • Invoices for purchases and other expenses
  • Details of personal drawings from cash and bank receipts

How we can help

We can prepare your tax return on your behalf and advise on the appropriate tax payments to make.

If there is an enquiry into your tax return, we will assist you in answering any queries HMRC may have. Please do contact us for help.

 

Property Investment - Buy to Let

In recent years, the stock market has had its ups and downs. Add to this the serious loss of public confidence in pension funds as a means of saving for the future and it is not surprising that investors have looked elsewhere.

The UK property market, whilst cyclical, has proved over the long-term to be a very successful investment. This has resulted in a massive expansion in the buy to let sector.

Buy to let involves investing in property with the expectation of capital growth with the rental income from tenants covering the mortgage costs and any outgoings.

However, the gross return from buy to let properties - ie the rent received less costs such as letting fees, maintenance, service charges and insurance - is no longer as attractive as it once was. Investors need to take a view on the likelihood of capital appreciation exceeding inflation.

Factors to consider

Do

  • think of your investment as medium to long-term
  • research the local market
  • do your sums carefully
  • consider decorating to a high standard to attract tenants quickly.

Don’t

  • purchase anything with serious maintenance problems
  • think that friends and relatives can look after the letting for you - you’re probably better off with a full management service
  • cut corners with tenancy agreements and other legal documentation.

Which property?

Investing in a buy to let property is not the same as buying your own home. You may wish to get an agent to advise you of the local market for rented property. Is there a demand for say, two bedroom flats or four bedroom houses or properties close to schools or transport links? An agent will also be able to advise you of the standard of decoration and furnishings which are expected to get a quick let.

Agents

Letting property can be very time consuming and inconvenient. Tenants will expect a quick solution if the central heating breaks down over the bank holiday weekend! Also do you want to advertise the property yourself and show around prospective tenants? An agent will be able to deal with all of this for you.

Tenancy agreements

This important document will ensure that the legal position is clear.

Taxation

When buying to let, taxation aspects must be considered.

Tax on rental income

Income tax will be payable on the rents received after deducting allowable expenses. Currently allowable expenses include mortgage interest, repairs, agent’s letting fees and an allowance for furnishings. Changes were announced in the Summer Budget which impact on the allowable expenses for landlords. These changes are not yet law but are detailed below..  

Restricting loan interest relief for ‘buy to let’ landlords

The government proposes to restrict the amount of income tax relief landlords can get on residential property finance costs to the basic rate of income tax. Finance costs include mortgage interest, interest on loans to buy furnishings and fees incurred when taking out or repaying mortgages or loans. No relief is available for capital repayments of a mortgage or loan.

Landlords will no longer be able to deduct all of their finance costs from their property income. They will instead receive a basic rate reduction from their income tax liability for their finance costs. To give landlords time to adjust, the government will introduce this change gradually from April 2017, over four years. The restriction in the relief will be phased in as follows:

  • in 2017/18, the deduction from property income will be restricted to 75% of finance costs, with the remaining 25% being available as a basic rate tax reduction
  • in 2018/19, 50% finance costs deduction and 50% given as a basic rate tax reduction
  • in 2019/20, 25% finance costs deduction and 75% given as a basic rate tax reduction
  • from 2020/21, all financing costs incurred by a landlord will be given as a basic rate tax reduction.

This restriction will not apply to landlords of furnished holiday lettings.

The end of wear and tear allowances

From April 2016 the government proposes to replace the Wear and Tear Allowance with a new relief that allows all residential landlords to deduct the actual costs of replacing furnishings. Capital allowances will continue to apply for landlords of furnished holiday lets.

Tax on sale

Capital gains tax (CGT) will be payable on the eventual sale of the property. The tax will be charged on the disposal proceeds less the original cost of the property, certain legal costs and any capital improvements made to the property. This gain may be further reduced by any annual exemption available and is then taxed at either 18% or 28% or a combination of the two rates. CGT is payable on 31 January after the end of the tax year in which the gain is made.

Student lettings

Buy to let may make sense if you have children at college or university. It is important that the arrangement is structured correctly. The student should purchase the property (with the parent acting as guarantor on the mortgage). There are several advantages to this arrangement.

Advantages

This is a cost effective way of providing your child with somewhere decent to live.

Rental income on letting spare rooms to other students should be sufficient to cover the mortgage repayments from a cash flow perspective.

As long as the property is the child’s only property it should be exempt from CGT on its eventual sale as it will be regarded as their main residence.

The amount of rental income chargeable to income tax is reduced by a deduction known as ‘rent a room relief’. This is currently £4,250 per annum and is expected to increase to £7,500 from 6 April 2016. In this situation no expenses are tax deductible. Alternatively expenses can be deducted from income under normal letting rules where this is more beneficial.

Furnished holiday lettings

Furnished holiday letting (FHL) is another type of investment that could be considered. This form of letting is short holiday lets as opposed to letting for the residential market.

The favourable tax regime for furnished holiday letting accommodation includes qualifying property located anywhere in the European Economic Area (EEA). In order to qualify for FHL treatment certain conditions have to be met. These include the property being available for letting for at least 210 days in each tax year and being actually be let for 105 days. Provided that there is a genuine intention to meet the actual letting requirement it will be possible to make an election to keep the property as qualifying for up to two years even though the condition may not be satisfied in those years. This will be particularly important to preserve the special CGT treatment of any gain as qualifying for the lower CGT rate of 10% where the conditions for Entrepreneurs’ Relief are satisfied.

Losses arising in an FHL business cannot be set against other income of the taxpayer.  Separate claims would need to be made for UK losses and EEA losses. Each can only be offset against profits of the same or future years in each relevant sector.

FHL property has some advantages but it has other disadvantages which should also be considered.

Advantages

You will be able to take a holiday in your own property, or make it available some of the time to your family or friends. However, care would need to be taken to adjust the level of expenses claimed to reflect this private use.

Generally however the rules for allowable expenditure are more generous.

Disadvantages

Holiday letting will have higher agent’s fees, advertising costs, and maintenance fees (for example more regular cleaning).

Owning a holiday property may be more time consuming than you think and you may find yourself spending your precious holiday sorting out problems.

If you would like any further advice in this area please get in touch.

How we can help

Whilst some generalisations can be made about buy to let properties it is always necessary to tailor any advice to your personal situation. Any plan must take into account your circumstances and aspirations.

Whilst a successful buy to let cannot be guaranteed, professional advice can help to sort out some of the potential problems and structure the investment correctly.

We would be happy to discuss buy to let further with you. Please contact us for more detailed advice.

 

 

Cars for Employees

The current regime for taxing employer provided cars (commonly referred to as company cars) is intended:

  • to encourage manufacturers to produce cars which are more environmentally friendly and
  • to give employee drivers and their employers a tax incentive to choose more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.

We set out below the main areas of importance. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information.

The rules

Employer provided cars are taxed by reference to the list price of the car but graduated according to the level of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Percentage charges

2015/16

CO2 emissions (gm/km)(round down to nearest 5gm/km for values above 95)

% of car's price taxed

0 - 50

5

51 – 75

9

76 - 94

13

95

14

100

15

105

16

110

17

115

18

For every additional 5g thereafter add 1%

-

210 and above

37 (max)


 

Examples

Jane was provided with a new company car, a Mercedes CLK 430, on 6 April 2015. The list price is £50,000. The CO2 emissions are 240 gm/km.


 

For 2015/16 Jane’s benefit will be £50,000 x 37% =£18,500.


 

Phil has a company car, a BMW 318i, which had a list price of £21,000 when it was provided new on 6 April 2015. The CO2 emissions are 117 grams per kilometre. Note: The CO2 emissions are rounded down to the nearest 5 grams per kilometre - in this case 115.


 

Phil's benefit for 2015/16 is: £21,000 x 18% = £3,780.

Diesels

Diesel cars emit less CO2 than petrol cars and so would be taxed on a lower percentage of the list price than an equivalent petrol car. However, diesel cars emit greater quantities of air pollutants than petrol cars and therefore a supplement of 3% of the list price generally applies to diesel cars. For example, a diesel car that would give rise to a 22% charge on the basis of its CO2 emissions will instead be charged at 25%. The maximum charge for diesel is capped at 37%.

The diesel supplement will be removed from 6 April 2016.

Obtaining emissions data

The Vehicle Certification Agency produces a free guide to the fuel consumption and emissions figures of all new cars. It is available on the internet at http://carfueldata.direct.gov.uk. These figures are not however necessarily the definitive figures for a particular car. The definitive CO2 emissions figure for a particular vehicle is recorded on the Vehicle Registration Document (V5).

The list price

  • The list price of a car is the price when it was first registered including delivery, VAT and any accessories provided with the car. Accessories subsequently made available are also included (unless they have a list price of less than £100).
  • Employee capital contributions up to £5,000 reduce the list price.

Employer’s Class 1A national insurance contributions

The benefit chargeable to tax on the employee is also used to compute the employer’s liability to Class 1A (the rate is currently 13.8%).

The exceptions

Imports

Some cars registered after 1 January 1998 may have no approved CO2 emissions figure, perhaps if they were imported from outside the EC. They too are taxed according to engine size.

Engine size (cc)

% of list price charged to tax

0 - 1400

15%

1401 - 2000

25%

Over 2000

35%

Private fuel

There is a further tax charge where a company car user is supplied with or allowed to claim reimbursement for fuel for private journeys.

The fuel scale charge is based on the same percentage used to calculate the car benefit. This is applied to a set figure which is £22,100 for 2015/16. As with the car benefit, the fuel benefit chargeable to tax on the employee is used to compute the employer's liability to Class 1A. The combined effect of the charges makes the provision of free fuel a tax inefficient means of remuneration unless there is high private mileage.

The benefit is proportionately reduced if private fuel is not provided for part of the year. So taking action now to stop providing free fuel will have an immediate impact on the fuel benefit chargeable to tax and NIC.

Please note that if free fuel is provided later in the same tax year there will be a full year’s charge.

Business fuel

No charge applies where the employee is solely reimbursed for fuel for business travel.

HMRC have published guidelines on fuel only mileage rates for employer provided cars. The advisory rates are not binding and an employer may be able to agree higher rates with HMRC via a dispensation, perhaps where employees need to use particular types of car such as 4x4s to cover rough terrain. Employers can adopt the rates in the following table but may pay lower rates if they choose.

Rates from 1 June 2015

Engine size

Petrol

1400cc or less

12p

1401cc - 2000cc

14p

Over 2000cc

21p


 

Engine size

Diesel

1600cc or less

10p

1601cc - 2000cc

12p

Over 2000cc

14p


 

Engine size

LPG

1400cc or less

8p

1401cc - 2000cc

9p

Over 2000cc

14p


HMRC update these rates on a quarterly basis in March, June, September and December. These rates can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advisory-fuel-rates 

Employees’ use of own car

There is also a statutory system of tax and NIC free mileage rates for business journeys in employees’ own vehicles.

The statutory rates are:

 

Rate per mile

Up to 10,000 miles

45p

Over 10,000 miles

25p


Employers can pay up to the statutory amount without generating a tax or NIC charge. Payments made by employers are referred to as ‘mileage allowance payments’. Where employers pay less than the statutory rate (or make no payment at all) employees can claim tax relief on the difference between any payment received and the statutory rate.

How we can help

We can provide advice on such matters as:

  • whether a car should be provided to an employee or a private car used for business mileage
  • whether employee contributions are tax efficient
  • whether private fuel should be supplied with the car.

Please contact us for more detailed advice.

 

For information of users: This material is published for the information of clients. It provides only an overview of the regulations in force at the date of publication, and no action should be taken without consulting the detailed legislation or seeking professional advice. Therefore no responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the material can be accepted by the authors or the firm.

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