Are you looking for ways to help your company be more tax-efficient? You wouldn’t be the only one. In fact, it’s one of the top things people search for on Google! And whilst there’s a lot of obvious advice out there, do you know these lesser known tips?Tip #1 –...

January is often viewed as one of the worst months of the year; a longer wait until payday, dark and cold nights, and of course the impending deadline of your Self Assessment tax return by 31st January. Whilst we can’t do much about the weather, we can help to make...

Are you aware of HMRC’s Real Time Capital Gains Tax Service? Here’s everything you need to know about this government-run service and how Braceys can help you. What is HMRC’s RT CGT Service? HMRC has set up a “Real Time” Capital Gains Tax Service to help individuals...

In our previous article, R&D tax relief – could your company be slipping through the cracks?  we discussed how Research & Development (R&D) tax relief encourages companies to innovate. Tax relief incentives do not stop once the development of a product is...

Since the R&D tax relief scheme’s introduction in 2000, the UK government has set itself a target to spend 2.5% of GDP on Research & Development (R&D). This target is yet to be achieved, with 2018 only resulting in a 1.7% spend. This begs the question, is...

Should you be backing yourself to run your own business? Before you go making any dramatic and life-changing decisions, this article presents a few of the pros and cons of taking the step. The Pros Perhaps the most obvious advantage of being self employed is the...

You may be at that time in your life when you are thinking of selling the family home where you raised your children in order to downsize ready for retirement. And, in most cases, the property you have lived in for what feels like a lifetime will earn you a nice...

The deadline for filing your Self-Assessment returns is looming and our team members in Hemel Hempstead know just how important it is to be prepared. The Self-Assessment system was introduced into the UK for the first time in 1996/1997. Now in its 24th year, the form...

A letter from the taxman is enough to bring anyone out in a cold sweat. And if that missive is asking rather probing questions about your landlord, it has the potential to send you into a full-blown meltdown. Tweeting Tales Reports that these letters are in fact a...

There is no simple answer to this question. We have listed below some of the matters that need to be are considered. As self-employed business owners’ profits are subject to income tax and National Insurance - and limited companies to corporation tax - we have divided...

We are fast approaching the deadline for filing self-assessment tax returns in the UK for 2018-19. As readers will be aware, this deadline is 31 January 2020. Unfortunately, this coincides with a pick-up in scamming activity by fraudsters pretending to be the tax...

The following extracts from HMRC’s website explain how certain benefits to employees can be tax-free. Surprisingly, HMRC describe these as “trivial” benefits. Tax-Free Benefits You don’t have to pay tax on a benefit for your employee if all of the following apply: it...

We are approaching the end of the calendar year, goodbye 2019, and the end of the of the current tax year, 2019-20, will draw to a close 5th April 2020. Uncertain Future Add to this self-assessment deadlines, Brexit changes, election results and will we – won’t we –...

UK resident anticipating the sale of a residential property on which a capital gains tax (CGT) charge may apply? You need to consider the changes to the reporting and payment of this CGT charge from 6 April 2020. CGT Payment and Report Changes The general rule will be...

If your business makes a trading loss its ability to survive the loss will depend on a number of issues. They include: Did your business have sufficient reserves to absorb the loss? If not, are the business owners able to introduce new capital to cover the losses? Or,...

Since April 2017, you can earn £1,000 from a trading activity and £1,000 of property-related income, without being liable to income tax. These tax-free allowances are useful as families can generate an extra £2,000 a year of income without increasing their tax bills....

Dividends received from shares held in UK companies form part of a tax-payers self-assessment. The payments are made by the paying company without any deduction of tax and therefore the amount received is the sum that needs to be declared. Share Of Profits Dividends...

Digitisation is simply the conversion of text, pictures, numbers, and sound into a form that can be processed by a computer. Add to this the replacement of feet on the ground with algorithms and programs that respond to certain criteria, and we can start to see where...

According to a recent government announcement, 32 million people will be better off as the Finance Bill 2018-19 receives Royal Assent. Treasury Announcement: A basic rate taxpayer will pay over £1,200 less income tax than they did in 2010, thanks to the government’s...

The deadline for filing 2017-18 self-assessment tax returns without paying a penalty for late submission has passed (31 January 2019). But a new and pressing deadline now presents itself: 5 April 2019. Tax planning options for 2018-19 As we have outlined in previous...

In what amounts to a single-issue mini-budget the Treasury posted a welcome announcement for the manufacturers and consumers of alcoholic products last week. They said: From today, (1 February 2019) taxes on beer, cider and spirits are frozen for another year, keeping...

There must be several hundred separate deadlines for UK tax purposes, but the most common is the end of the tax year. In the UK this is 5 April.  Deadly Beginnings Historically, a deadline was a line drawn around a prison. If inmates crossed it, they were shot. This...