Category: Budget 2015

2015 Autumn Statement main points

12/30/2015

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Tax Credits: All of the planned cuts to tax credits are now cancelled.
Help to buy: For London: a new help-to-buy scheme for first time buyers with a 5% deposit will offer an interest-free loan worth up to 40% of the value of a new-build home.
Stamp Duty: Extra 3% on stamp duty on all buy-to-let properties and second homes from April 2016.
Rise in Council Tax: Local authorities responsible for social care to charge a new social care tax of up to 2% on council tax.
Business Rates: Business rates to be kept by local authorities.
Housing Stock sales: 100% of income from sales of council properties to be kept by local councils.
Student Loans: Loans for new student nurses to create 10,000 training places.
Mental Health: £600m more for mental health services across UK.
School Meals: Free infant school meals to be maintained.
School Funding: Current school funding system to be phased out, with a new formula to be introduced from 2017.
Childcare: From April 2017, 30 hours of free childcare for three and four year old's will be made available. But this is only available to parents working more than 16 hours a week and with incomes of less than £100,000.
Housing Benefit: Housing benefit to be capped at local housing allowance rate.
State Pension: Basic state pension to rise by £3.35 to £119.30 a week from 2016.
Cuts: Department for Transport’s day-to-day budget to be cut by 37%.
Insurance: Reduced car insurance premiums by ending claims for injuries such as whiplash, estimated to save an average of £40-£50 from bills annually.
Flood Defense: The Environment Agency will have £2.3bn preserved for flood defenses but the day-to-day departmental budget falls 15%.
Steel: Steel exempted from cost of environmental tariffs / charges.
Courts: £700m investment in new technology for courts.
Business Rates Relief: 600,000 small businesses to get business rates relief for another year, but no new information on a business rates review.
Apprenticeship Charges: to be set at 0.5% of an employers’ pay bill.
Tax Avoidance: New penalties for the general anti-abuse rules already introduced.
Tax Avoidance: Further clampdown on disguised pay schemes, stamp duty avoidance, and the abuse of intangible fixed-assets regime and capital allowances.

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Budget 2015: The key points for you at a glance.

7/13/2015

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Tax Affinity - experts in analysing Government budgets for small businesses

Budget 2015 the key points for you at a glance:

The Chancellor George Osbourne delivered the first 100% Conservative budget since 1996 and here is the all important quick reference guide for all new and experienced entrepreneurs:

Good News:

Personal Tax free allowance to be £11,000 from April 2016.
Higher rate of 40% tax to apply from April 2017 to £43,000 up from £41,865 in 15/16 and £42,385 16/17.
Inheritance tax free threshold to rise to £1 million for property passed on. On other assets passed on there will be increases also phased in from April 2017 where parents will have an extra £100,000 family allowance on their collective £650,000 allowance to pass on to their children. The allowances are as follows: 2017/18 £100,000; 2018/19 £125,000; 2019/20 £150,000; 2020/21 £175,000.
Corporation Tax Rates to be cut to 19% in April 2017 and 18% in April 2020 from 20% current rate.
No rise is fuel duty.
Annual Investment Allowance to be fixed permanent £200,000 from Jan 2016 rather than dropping to £25,000 as previously planned. But this is still a drop from the current rate of £500,000 set to expire in January 2016. But relief from goodwill and other intangible assets is to be stopped from acquisitions. So if you want to invest in more business equipment now is the time to claim more of it against income.
National Insurance employers allowance to be increased to £3000 from April 2016 a rise from the current £2000. But the allowance will no longer be available for single director employed companies.
Rent a room allowance to rise from £4250 to £7500 from April 2016.

Bad News:

Economy grew by 3% in 2104 and is expected to grow by 2.4% in 2015.
Buy-to-Let mortgage interest payments to be set at 20% from April 2017.
Dividends rates of tax to be changed from April 2016. A new 7.5% for basic rate tax payers and then 32.5% at the higher rate and 38.1% for highest rate band.
HMRC budget increased by £750 Million to help claw back money from tax avoidance and tax evasion. Which may mean that there may be more fines being issued to the self employed and small business owners seen as a soft target.
Insurance Premium tax to rise to 9.5% from November 2015.
Non Domiciled status to be abolished from April 2017. So any person who has lived in UK for 15 out of 20 years will pay same level of tax as UK Citizens.
Tax Credits minimum threshold to be reduced from £6420 to £3850.
Tax credits and new universal credits to be limited to only two children for all those born after April 2017.

Either way News:

Minimum wage rebranded as National Living Wage and will rise from £6.50 to £7.20 for all workers over 25 years old from April 2016. This will be another cost for employers along with the work placed pension law now introduced.
No mention about Alcohol and Tobacco duties.
A consultation to be held into changing Sunday trading laws to allow business to stay open longer.
New Road Tax bands to be introduced from April 2017.

By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants.

Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they provide a bespoke service to client’s right across the UK and are considered in the industry to be experts.

For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends.

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How to make the most of your money in 2015/16

4/10/2015

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As the new tax year begins so with it new tax savings rules and the potential to make more income in 2015/16 as the UK economy moves further away from the recession.

The personal tax free allowance rises from £10,000 to £10,600 per annum and for those born before 6 April 1938 its £10,660. And married couples not using their entire tax free allowance can transfer some tax saving to their partner to help him/her save tax on their tax bill. Make sure to employ a good tax accountant (like Tax Affinity Accountants) that will take this into account as it could mean moving across up to £1060 in tax free allowance in the year.

With the BOE base rate interest rate staying at a record 0.5% for the entire term of the current coalition government. Making any substantial gain on savings is relatively small.

The ISA savings rate has grown to £15,000 per annum tax free but with rates of return at around 2.2% i.e. £330 profit (yes that really is it!). So any real entrepreneur worth his/her salt would never be happy with such low returns.

So what should a UK entrepreneur be doing then? Well the word on the street is ‘expand and grow’ to take full advantage of the economic growth predicted in 2015/16 (2.5% Real GDP). This means plan ahead now and start making changes now, take full advantage of the optimistic uplift in consumer confidence after the general election on 7th May 2015 and the follow through of huge world cup sporting events, falling oil prices and UK growth leading London and the South East regions.

If your business is in property then development is the real boom currently, buying a distressed property or expanding and renovate to a high standard of finish is the where the real money is in property. With older properties, with real potential, being snapped up by developers who have found rising equity easy from their portfolio to use as deposits.

Or if you’re in the service industry then a shift to registering your own Limited company and working through this will mean you can take advantage of the lower 20% tax band for companies as compared to the higher 40% band for individuals earning over £31,865. We’ve seen an explosion in new company registrations in the last 12 months and are seeing more and more people not from just the IT crowd but from NHS staff working through agencies to construction workers and engineers moving into this.

By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants.

Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they provide a bespoke service to clients right across the UK and are considered in the industry to be experts in business advice. They mentor and support members of the public to make their businesses grow and reach their full potential.

For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends.

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Budget 2015 and how it may effect your business

3/25/2015

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With none of the politics and huff that goes along with a budget just before a major election. The media maybe filled with information about the colour of the chancellor's tie and the opposition's facial expressions.

So at Tax Affinity Accountants we know and understand that businesswomen and men simply just want to just know what the effect will be on their business. That's why we have compiled a simple at a glance list to help you.

1. The Income tax personal allowance will be raised to £10,800 starting from 6th April 2015 (from £10,600) and to £11,000 the following year.

2. The higher rate of tax threshold is also raised to £43,300.

3. Plans to abolish annual tax return and move to a more automated digital accounts system.

4. Plans to abolish Class 2 national insurance contributions for the self employed in next Parliament.

5. Growth of the economy forecast to be up to 2.5% this year. Then 2.3% next year before reaching 2.4% in 2019.

6. Inflation is forecast to be at 0.2% for this year and the same for the next three years.

7. Fuel duty to remain the same as before as September's planned increase is cancelled.

8. Plans to sell get money back when banks were bailed out. £13bn of mortgage loans still owned by the government from Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley will be sold. Plus £9bn of Lloyds Banking Group shares to be sold this year.

9. Alcohol duty changes see 1p off a pint of beer and a 2% cut in cider and whiskey duty. While wine duty is to same as before.

10. Changes in ISA's. Total annual savings limit for ISAs has been increased to £15,240. With some types of ISA which will allow savers to draw money and put it back in the same year without losing any part of their tax free allowance. And a new help to buy ISA for first-time buyers will allow government to top up by £50 every £200 saved for a deposit. (speak to your bank for more details).

11. Changes so that pensioners will now be able to trade in their annuities for cash, with the 55% tax abolished and tax being applied at a marginal rate.

12. Plans to review inheritance tax avoidance through "deeds of variation".

13. A new personal saving allowance where the first £1,000 interest on savings income will be tax free for 20% basic rate taxpayers and £500 for higher 40% tax rate payers.

14. New tax on diverted profit to come into effect next month. This is aimed at companies moving profits artificially off shore.

15. There are plans to review of business rates to help businesses.

16. And for charitable donations the gift aid limit for charities to be extended up to £8,000.

By Omar Tahir Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants.

Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they provide a bespoke service to clients right across the UK and are considered in the industry to be experts in business advice. They mentor and support members of the public to make their businesses grow and reach their full potential.

For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends.

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2015 Autumn Statement main points

Budget 2015: The key points for you at a glance.

How to make the most of your money in 2015/16

Budget 2015 and how it may effect your business

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