The FSB is concerned that small firms with empty properties could pay thousands extra in rates with changes to the exemption from paying empty property rates due to come into force from April.

The exemption, introduced in 2009, meant that businesses with an empty property in England with a rateable value below £18,000 did not have to pay business rates. The Government plans to cut this threshold from £18,000 to just £2,600, placing a very significant burden on many small firms that are struggling in the current economic climate.

Just as alarming is the fact that the Government will not re-introduce a 50 per cent relief and that small firms will not be able to claim Small Business Rate Relief on the property.

This means that struggling business owners who have had to vacate a property and cannot rent or sell it will have to pay more in rates than if they were running a company from the property.

The FSB has written to local government minister, Bob Neill MP, to express its concerns that this move could put some small firms out of business.  If the threshold is going to be cut then the FSB calls for a return to the pre-April 2008 situation of granting 50 per cent relief or at the very least, allow a business to claim Small Business Rate Relief on their empty property.

Roger Culcheth, Local Government Policy Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said:

“The Government has said that small businesses have a vital role in driving economic growth and getting the recovery on a firm footing, yet for some businesses this additional tax could tip the balance and force them into insolvency.

“The result of this cut in the threshold without restoring the 50 per cent relief will make small business owners worse off than they were prior the 2009 change and significantly more so then they were in 2009 and 2010. We urge the Government to look closely at this matter and, at the very least, allow the business to claim Small Business Rate Relief.”

50% rate tax payers beware…

HMRC have no present system for deducting tax at a flat rate of 50% from second or subsequent employments. The nearest tax code is DO that only collects tax at 40%.

As a result tax payers in this position will be underpaying tax through the PAYE system and should be prepared for an underpayment when they complete their annual tax return.

Beware bogus emails from HMRC

Scammers are capitalising on the recent publicity surrounding HMRC demands for unpaid tax and notification of refunds by sending out spurious emails that seek to obtain personal data and financial information by deception.

HMRC will never email you on any aspect of your tax affairs and all emails purporting to be from HMRC should be ignored. If you are due a refund or have underpaid tax you will be notified by post.

HMRC are presently consulting with interested parties with the intention of changing the rules for the tax treatment of FHL property from April 2011.

We thought readers would be interested in the specific proposals being discussed:

1.Currently, a property must be available for commercial letting to the public for 140 days and be let for at least 70 days. The intention is to extend these periods to 210 days and 105 days respectively.
2.Currently, losses created by the letting of FHL property are available to set off against other income of the same tax year. It is now possible that this will be restricted from April 2011 such that you could only carry losses forwards to set off against future FHL profits.
3.Currently, if you make a claim for capital allowances by concession you are allowed to claim even in years when FHL status is denied. From April 2011 if a property does not qualify a claim for capital allowances will be denied.
Planning opportunity

For those of you who have qualifying FHL property in the UK or EC there is a planning opportunity between now and April 2011 that you should consider.

In particular:

1.If you are considering a significant refurbishment, new furniture, kitchen etc, that will qualify for capital allowances in 2010-11, you may be advised to quantify the tax advantage of doing so. The current Annual Investment Allowance is £100,000.
2.If you made a tax loss as a result of a claim for capital allowances, you may be able to set the loss against other income and recover tax already paid.

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The taxable benefit on the use of company cars and fuel for those vehicles has increased from 6 April 2010. Take for example a petrol-powered car with CO2 emissions of 160g/km. In the tax year to 5 April 2010 you were taxed at 20% of the vehicle’s list price. From 6 April 2010 the taxable benefit for driving the same car will be 21% of its list price.

The tax position for those who have free fuel with their vehicles is even worse. Until 5 April 2010, the value of the fuel-benefit for all company cars was based on a fixed value of £16,900 multiplied by the percentage used to calculate the car benefit. So there is an increase in both the percentage and the multiplier. From 6 April 2010 the value increases to £18,000. This means the taxable benefit of having free fuel for a petrol car with emissions of 160g/km will increase from £3,380 to £3,780.

Company van drivers are also hit by the rise in the fuel benefit. Currently where free fuel is provided in a company van, and the van is used for some non-business journeys, the driver is taxed on £500 per year for the use of that fuel. From 6 April 2010 the van driver will be taxed on £550 per year for use of the fuel.

You can reduce these high tax charges by switching to a low emissions car. Where the CO2 emissions are 120g/km or less the car benefit for petrol cars is just 10% of the list price, and half that amount where CO2 emissions are 75g/km or less. We could only find one car with emissions in that bottom category: Toyota plug-in Prius, which has an official CO2 emissions rating of only 67g/km.

If your vehicle has zero emissions such as an electric car or van, there is no tax charge at all from 6 April 2010. What’s more, when your business buys a new electric vehicle it can write-off the full cost for tax purposes in the year of acquisition.

Now we have 0.01% growth, and the recession is officially ‘over’, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) seems to be toughening its stance on payment and appears to be rejecting an increasingly large number of applications for the scheme.

Chancellor Alistair Darling stated that ‘Time-To-Pay’ will be there “for as long as is needed” but this is questioned by figures obtained by

accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy – the money owed under the scheme has reduced from £1.15billion in April 2009 to £1.01billion at the end of November 2009.

It seems that arranging a ‘Time-To-Pay’ deal in the current climate is now more difficult than ever before.

Some key ‘Time-To-Pay’ statistics:

• To date c. 240,000 businesses have been able to reschedule their crown debt;
• 60 per cent of these arrangements are for three months or less;
• 1 per cent of arrangements are for 12 months or more;
• 8 per cent of businesses which have an arrangement under the scheme have failed to make ANY monthly payments.

Presenting a workable, robust and deliverable case to HMRC will greatly improve your chances of obtaining their support.

’Time-To-Pay’ developments:

• Following the Pre-Budget Report the ‘Time-To-Pay’ scheme has been extended to include partnerships;

• From 31 January 2010 all unincorporated businesses from sole traders to large partnerships will be required to make payment on account for their self-assessment tax;

• The VAT rate has returned to 17.5 per cent leading to a rise in payments due to the revenue;

• The 0.5 per cent rise in National Insurance (NI) contributions will further increase the crown liabilities burdening businesses;

• Where tax arrears exceed £1million there will be a requirement for an Independent Business Review (IBR) to be conducted to establish a company’s needs.

We are happy to assist in arranging time to pay agreements.

If you are a connected person for tax purposes you will be required to substitute the market value of any asset you transfer or acquire when working out the gain or loss on disposal – not the amount you have actually agreed, unless of course this is the same as market value.

The most likely connection is that you are married or in a Civil Partnership. Fortunately if you and your spouse or civil partner are living together at any time in a tax year in which you make the transfer or sale, any gains are deferred until your spouse or civil partner sells the asset.

One consequence of being connected is that any company you control, either on your own or with other connected persons may be treated as associated companies and affect the amount of company profits that qualify for the small company’s rate.

The full list of connected persons for the purposes of transferring assets is set out below:

1. Your spouse or civil partner.
2. Your brothers and sisters, and those of your spouse or civil partner.
3. Your parents, grandparents or other ancestors, and those of your spouse or civil partner.
4. Your children and other direct descendents, and those of your spouse or civil partner.
5. The spouses or civil partners of any of the above relatives.
6. Your business partners and their spouses or civil partners and relatives (except for genuine commercial acquisitions or disposals of partnership assets.)
7. As mentioned above any company you control, on your own or with any of the people listed above, will be connected for tax purposes.
8. The trustees of any settlement where you or any person connected with you is a settlor.

The definition for the purposes of determining associated companies is more limited.

Clogged Losses

If for any reason you dispose of an asset to a connected person and make a loss on the transaction, the loss can only be used in the same year or carried forward and used against future gains, to the same connected person.

It will also be necessary to demonstrate that on the second or subsequent disposal you were still connected.

HMRC refers to these as Clogged Losses!



If you run your own company and are considering an increase in your salary 2010-11 you might like to consider the following points:

1. From 6 April 2010 if your income is in excess of £100,000 you will start to lose your tax personal allowance, initially this can create a marginal tax rate up to 60%.
2. From the same date if your income is over £150,000 you will be subject to the 50% rate of income tax.

Consequently increasing your earnings in 2010-11 may not be a tax effective move if you are a high income earner. Instead you may like to consider paying yourself a bonus in March 2010? You must have a clear and commercially sound reason for a bonus payment. If you were to follow this strategy the bonus would be taxable at the current highest rate, 40% and would have no effect on your current year personal allowance.

There is a timing downside to this arrangement; any tax and NIC due on the bonus would become payable on 19 April 2010 (22 April if you pay electronically) instead of being spread over the year if you settled on a salary increase instead.

Of course, when practical to do so, extra dividends are a better option than bonuses (because of the NIC costs). Dividends voted in March 2010 will mean extra higher rate tax due 31 January 2011.

If you are a high income earner and would like to discuss this and other strategies for minimising the impact of the changes coming in the next tax year please get in touch. There are still options we could look at before 6 April 2010.

For those of you who are organising a well deserved works party this Christmas we have sketched out below the current reliefs available:

The cost of a staff party or other annual entertainment is allowed as a deduction for tax purposes. Also as long as the criteria below are followed, there will be no taxable benefit charged to employees:

1. The event must be open to all employees at a particular location.
2. The cost is only tax deductible for employees and their partners (which would include directors in the case of a company) but not sole traders and business partners in the case of unincorporated organisations.
3. An annual Christmas party or other annual event offered to staff generally is not taxable on those attending provided that the average cost per head of the function does not exceed £150. Partners and spouses of staff attending are included in the head count when computing the cost per head attending.
4. All costs must be taken into account, including the costs of transport to and from the event or accommodation provided, and VAT. The total cost of the event is merely divided by the number attending to find the average cost. If the limit is exceeded then individual members of staff will be taxable on their average cost, plus the cost for any guests they were permitted to bring. No deduction will be allowed for the £150 exemption.
5. VAT input tax can be recovered on staff entertaining expenditure. If staff partners/spouses are also invited to the event the input tax has to be apportioned, as the VAT applicable to non-staff is not recoverable. However, if non-staff attendees pay a reasonable contribution to the event, all the VAT can be reclaimed and of course output tax should be accounted for on the amount of the contribution.

A final note on gifts for employees.

Trivial seasonal gifts for employees!

Employers may find the following Revenue concession useful – we have copied the note directly from the HMRC handbook:

“An employer may provide employees with a seasonal gift, such as a turkey, an ordinary bottle of wine or a box of chocolates at Christmas. All of these gifts are considered to be trivial and as such are not taxable. For an employer with a large number of employees the total cost of providing a gift to each employee may be considerable, but where the gift to each employee is a trivial benefit, this principle applies regardless of the total cost to the employer and the number of employees concerned.”

One final caution regarding VAT and staff gifts. VAT is chargeable by the employer when an employee receives gifts totalling more than £50 in a year. Turkeys however are zero rated for VAT purposes!

Merry Christmas!

Unless you qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief, all taxable capital gains in excess of the annual exemption, presently £10,100, would be taxable at 18%.

There has been speculation that this rate will increase to discourage schemes to have income treated as capital gains. Next year, 2010-11, the top rate of income tax will be 50%, with some marginal rates up to 61.5%. With capital gains tax rates at 18% and in some cases 10% (if a gain qualifies for Entrepreneurs’ relief) and an annual exemption for individuals currently up to £10,100 a year, the temptation to steer earnings towards capital gains and take advantage of legitimate planning devices, seems inevitable.

The Pre-Budget report will no doubt clarify these expected changes and as soon as we have up-to-date information you will be the first to know.

In the meantime a quick reminder of the types of gain that qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief.

The relief has been available since the 6 April 2008 when indexation relief and taper relief were withdrawn for individuals.

Basically the relief is available in respect of:

• gains made on the disposal of all or part of a business (this includes a sale of shares in a qualifying company)
• gains made on disposals of assets following the cessation of a business, and
• gains made by certain individuals who were involved in running the business

The first £1 million of gains that qualify for relief will be charged tax at an effective rate of 10 per cent. Gains in excess of £1 million will be charged at the normal 18 per cent rate.

An individual will be able to make claims for relief on more than one occasion, up to a lifetime total of £1 million of gains qualifying for Entrepreneurs’ Relief.

If you are interested in receiving more information regarding current tax planning in this area please call.