Payrolling Of Benefits In Kind - HMRC Update!

Legislation to require employers to report 'Benefits in Kind' in real time as opposed to the end of year form P11D was included in the first Finance Act of 2015. However, there are concerns amongst accountants that this should not be mandatory until 2017/18 at the earliest, as many employers are only just getting to grips with real time processing of basic wages and salary data.

The new system will require employers to calculate the cash equivalent of the Benefit in Kind and effectively spread it over the tax year. The tax due on benefits will then be collected by adding a notional value to the employee’s payroll, rather than reporting the Benefits in Kind separately on the end of year form P11D.

End of Informal Payrolling process

If you have an existing informal payrolling arrangement with HMRC this will stop on 5 April 2016.

If you continue with this process the P11Ds you submit may be processed and your employees may be taxed twice on their benefits. To avoid this you should use the online PBIK service to register the benefits you’re payrolling. This means you’ll no longer need to submit P11Ds for payrolled benefits and expenses.

More about Payrolling Benefits in Kind online service

Please get in touch with us if you would like to use this system for 2016/17 as you will need to register with HMRC before 6 April 2016.
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

Tax Diary Of Main Events - December 2015 & January 2016

Taxes due to be paid on the months of December 2015 and January 2016 for businesses:

UK Tax Deadlines for December 2015 & January 2016

Date	What’s Due
December 19, 2015	PAYE & NIC deductions, and CIS return and tax, for month to 5/12/15 (due 22 December if you pay electronically)
January 1, 2015	Corporation tax for year to 31/3/15
January 19, 2015	PAYE & NIC deductions, and CIS return and tax, for month to 5/1/16 (due 22 January if you pay electronically)
January 31, 2015	Deadline to file 2015 SA tax return online
January 31, 2015	Income tax balancing payment for 2014/15, plus CGT for 2014/15
January 31, 2015	Income tax 1st payment on account for 2015/16

Contact us for all your Tax & Accounting needs!
☎ 020 89310165 | ☏ 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com 
 
Follow us on Social Media at:
    

Tax Relief Under The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

The Enterprise Investment Scheme allows unconnected investors to obtain a 30% set off against their income tax liability up to £1,000,000 investment each tax year. So a £10,000 investment reduces the investor’s income tax liability by £3,000.  In addition, provided those shares are held for at least 3 years, the gain on disposal of those shares is tax free.

However, as illustrated in a recent tax case, the capital gains exemption is only available where the investor has made a claim for income tax relief. In Ames v HMRC (2015) the taxpayer, Mr Ames, invested £50,000 in a new company but unfortunately had very little income that year so did not claim EIS income tax relief. When he sold the shares several years later for £333,000, he found that the exemption did not apply and the gain was taxable!

Note that Seed EIS for small start-up companies provides 50% income tax relief and the same CGT exemption when the shares are sold.

The connected persons rule means that existing employees, paid directors and their associates are not entitled to these reliefs. Shareholders with more than 30% of the company’s shares, together with their associates, are also excluded.

Note that these exclusions do not apply where the investor is merely seeking to defer capital gains tax via their EIS investment.

The rules for EIS and Seed EIS are very complex so please get in touch with us to discuss the tax implications if you are considering making such an investment.

Feel free to contact us for further advice.
☎ 020 89310165 | 📱 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

HMRC Business Records Checks To End… BUT

HMRC have recently announced that they have wound down their business record checks and will no longer initiate new checks using this process. HMRC say that they “remain committed to helping businesses to keep better records”.
 

A HMRC spokesperson said:

“We are honouring commitments made for checks but will not be undertaking any new ones. Best practice from the records checks will be embedded into routine compliance activities.”

He added:

“Our approach to supporting business in meeting their obligations changes over time as technology and the way we use data evolve. Business records checks have successfully helped many businesses to improve their record keeping and over time the checks delivered diminishing returns.

“HMRC remain committed to helping businesses keep better records through online learning packages as well as digital tax accounts which mean businesses can easily interface with HMRC using their own accounting software.”

At the same time HMRC have updated their fact sheet on compliance checks.

…But They Can Still Visit Business Premises As Part Of A Compliance Check

Although HMRC have announced that they have wound down their business record checks, they may still need to visit business premises as part of a compliance check.

HMRC occasionally make unannounced visits to business premises, however they will normally give you at least 7 days notice of such a visit. This can include your home address where the business is run from home. You can ask us to be there when HMRC visit, and we would strongly advise this. If you prefer, we can request that HMRC look at your records at our offices or at HMRC premises.

HMRC do not usually need to talk to people who work for you about their checks but they may ask to speak to the people who keep your records up to date, such as payroll and finance records.

HMRC may also need to speak to some of the people who work for you if they are looking at their employment status and are trying to check whether or not they should be on your payroll.

Contact us if you have any issues or need help:
PJ 
☎ 020 89310165 | 📱 07900537459 | ✉ info@apjaccountancy.com

Apple iPad Pro - Things you need to know from business perspective!

The iPad Pro follows the general design principles of the iPad Air 2, but on a significantly larger scale. Aside from the increase in screen area, there are some key design differences, each corresponding to a functional difference.

One is that there are four speakers, as opposed to the twin speakers on the iPad Air 2. This results in far more volume output of course, and Apple says the device is also smart enough to adjust audio balance between the four units to maintain a consistent performance as you hold the iPad in different ways. There is also a new type of connector on the left hand side. Apple calls it the Smart Connector, and it's designed to fit the new Smart Keyboard accessory. Its not yet known if third parties will produce their own accessories to fit the Smart Connector, but it’s fairly likely that a range of accessories will be available in due course.

 

Source: techgadgetcentral.com

The iPad Pro gets a super-powered A9X processor chip, one that Apple claims is close to twice the speed of the iPad Air 2's A8X. It also comes with a 12.9-inch display, compared to the 9.7-inch display on the iPad Air and the 7.9-inch display on the iPad mini. That's 78 percent more screen space than the next-largest iPad. Apple claims the iPad Pro will last for 10 hours (of video play or web use) between charges. That figure is the same as the quoted battery life for the iPad Air 2.

A diagonal measurement of 12.9 inches makes for a device that is both sharply differentiated from the smaller iPads and a convenient size in terms of productivity and ease of use. The iPad Pro's screen is also pleasingly sharp, with a massive screen resolution of 2732 x 2048, the largest resolution ever seen on an iOS device. That's the same pixel density - 264.68 pixels per inch (ppi) - as the iPad Air 2, stretched across a much bigger screen. 

With a total of 5.6 million pixels on show, Apple boasts that the iPad Pro has more pixels than the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. And it's supposed to be power-efficient too, with the ability to adjust refresh rate as and when the movement on the screen warrants it. "For the first time in any of our devices," says Apple, "iPad Pro knows when the content on your screen is static and cuts the refresh rate in half, to 30 times per second instead of 60. This means that the screen isn’t just big, beautiful and bright. It's also incredibly energy efficient."

Apple has finally given way and launched a stylus, called the Apple Pencil, intended to offer pressure-sensitive drawing and painting rather than a standard control method. The Apple Pencil charges by plugging directly into the the iPad Pro’s Lightening Connector port.

The new iPad Pro will come in 64GB or 128GB versions, the latter coming with or without 4G LTE. The iPad Pro is backed by some new accessories: a detachable fabric keyboard and the aforementioned Apple Pencil stylus.

.