With only a few working days left. This is an important reminder that if you have not already had your 2021-22 personal tax return done. All 21/22 tax returns (self assessments) need to be calculated & submitted to HMRC before the 31st January 2023 and any tax payable for the year to be paid by that date also. And we recommend this is urgently done and you contact us today. If you had it done or do not need it then ignore this reminder.
As per last year HMRC is saving money & will not send postal reminders. They now choose instead to collect money through letters of fines for missed deadlines saying 'all tax payers should be aware of the self assessment deadline, and not expect HMRC to remind them'. With fines starting at £100 rising to £1300 plus interest for late filing and payment even if you had no tax to pay, there really is no excuse to not have it done as soon as possible so get in touch today and ensure its calculated and declared by professional tax accountant, someone who will make sure to look after your best financial interests while freeing you up to concentrate on the things your love. To complete the 2021/2022 self assessment you will need the following information:
Tax Affinity Accountants are experts Business, Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for both individuals and small & medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting both individuals and limited company owners / self employed people throughout the UK and the world, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. 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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HMRC relishes the idea that tax payers will make errors in their tax returns and then they will pay higher taxes or be fines for making errors. The number of errors by members of the public doing their own self assessments has been rising steeply in the last few years and HMRC has been raking in fines for errors. So its very important to try to ensure you make none.
Why? - Well simply mistakes on your tax returns could cost you a lot of hard earned money. Solution? - Avoid HMRC penalties and charges by making sure you don’t commit these mistakes during tax return time by getting an expert like Tax Affinity Accountants (one the most highly recommended accountants in the UK) to do calculate and submit the return for you and sleep easy at night knowing you paid the least tax and everything was correct according to HMRC rules. Key things to keep in double check:
A good tax accountant should save you much more in tax than what he/she charges. And having a Tax Affinity accountant calculate your personal and business tax situation will lead to zero mistakes on your return and a lower tax bill first time every time. Fill out our contact us page to find an office near you and we will be happy to help you sleep easier at night. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts Business, Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for both individuals and small & medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting both individuals and limited company owners / self employed people throughout the UK and the world, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. 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. Last year over 30,000 people filed their tax returns between christmas eve and boxing day12/19/2021 Did you know last year more than 30,000 people in the UK did their tax return between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day?
As of writing this, there are only 20 working days left until HMRC's self assessment deadline of 31st Jan 2022. Each year millions of people leave their tax return (self assessment) to the last minute and then stress out if they declared the info correctly and if the tax due is correct. Statistically the number one worry tends to be if their submission may trigger an HMRC investigation into their tax affairs... death and taxes being the fear we suppose. Plus in the last tax year due to Covid 19 and lockdown's there were many other sources of income e.g. council support grants, SEISS (self employed grants), furlough, bounce back loans, universal credit, tax credits etc. Making tax returns more complicated and resulting with higher taxes due for most tax payers. If your worried we recommend you get in touch with one of our tax experts. Because we have seen a lot more investigations this year than previous years as HMRC starts it claw back to try to shore up the UK government income and focuses even more on tax avoidance and incorrect information. So if you have not had your 2020/21 (6.4.20 to 5.4.21) tax return (self assessment) completed then you urgently need to get in touch today as the number of working days are fast decreasing and before you know it the time will be gone and you may end up facing badly caclulated tax return paying more tax than you need to or worse a fine by HMRC for missing the deadline. Contact us today by clicking this link or calling us on the number above. And share this page with your friends and family. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for small and medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting limited company owners and self employed people throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. 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. UK Spring Budget 2021 key points for business owners & SME's
At Tax Affinity we believe in improving the financial lives of every person in the world. Each time the UK treasury government makes budget announcements we spend time reading through the information to help our clients support our clients with the best information to drive their businesses forward even during a down turn. The key points are listed below for a quick guide:
By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts Business, Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for both individuals and small & medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting both individuals and limited company owners / self employed people throughout the UK and the world, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. 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. Only 20 working days left until HMRC self assessment deadline.
Did you know this year over 2700 people did their tax return on Christmas day this year according to HMRC. Those that did know that they have to get it done before the deadline of 31/01/2021 and that there is only 20 working days left (as of today 31/12/20). So if you have not had your 2019/20 (6.4.19 to 5.4.20) tax return completed then you urgently get in touch today as the number of working days are fast decreasing and before you know it the time will be gone and you may end up facing a fine by HMRC for missing the deadline. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for small and medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting limited company owners and self employed people throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. 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./ With more and more people each year passing assets and money to friends and family, its important to know that passing on items with monetary value in the wrong way can incur higher taxes if not done the most tax efficient way.
The individual circumstances for each person are unique and as such you should always seek expert tax advice from an expert like Tax Affinity Accountants - considered one of the Industry leader's with regards to their tax and accounting knowledge and experience. However we have also listed the basic rules below as a guide:
By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Surbiton , Worcester Park , Kingston upon Thames , Cheam and Epsom they are considered in the Industry to be expert accountants and tax advisors for small businesses. Helping and supporting business throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. 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. Simply put Capital Gains Tax is a tax by HMRC on the profit you make when you 'dispose' of something of physical presence and value (an asset) eg a rental property, stocks and shares or a piece of art.
Eg you sell a piece of buy-to-let property for £300,000. Which you bought it for £200,000. Equals a capital gain of £100,000. A lot of people think it is only applicable in the case of a sale but according to HMRC it is applicable in other actions such as giving it away as a gift, transferring it to someone else, swapping for something else and getting compensation eg Insurance payment if it is damaged or stolen. Certain types of assets are eligible for capital gains tax while others are not. Your primary residence ie your home is not eligible for capital gains while a second property is. Some of the things on which you may need to pay Capital Gains Tax on are as follows:
But please note that depending on actual type of asset, you may be able to reduce any capital gains tax due by claiming a relief's that are available. There are many different types of reliefs and it usually best to visit a reputable accountant like Tax Affinity Accountants to make sure you take advantage of all the reliefs available to you. To help you HMRC has given everyone a tax free allowance after which capital gains tax will apply. Currently this is £11,100 for a Person and £5550 for a Trust for the 2015-16 Tax Year. Eg If your personal gain is £12,000 then deducting your personal allowance of £11,100 from the gain leaves you £900 on which capital gains tax can be charged. If you have any overseas assets then you may still have to pay Capital Gains Tax. There are however special rules if you are a British citizen or UK resident and are not domiciled in the UK whereby you can claim the ‘remittance basis’. If you living abroad then unfortunately you still have to pay tax on any gain you make on a residential property that is in the UK. This is even if you are declared as non-resident to HMRC. But the good news is that you do not have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any other UK assets, eg stocks and shares in UK companies, piece of art and business assets etc unless you return within 5 tax years of the gain. As capital gains tax rates can be either 18% or 28% of the gain depending on your personal income, it is a really good advice to speak to a qualified accountant as a good accountant should save you much more money than he/she would ever charge. At Tax Affinity Accountants we are one of the most recommended experts in Capital Gains Tax, due to our detailed knowledge of tax reliefs available and of the HMRC tax system. 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 in capital gains tax advice. 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. As experts in property tax we often get asked by clients who are landlords and property developers how to save tax - especially so as the cost of letting a property rises year on year.
With our experience and special insider knowledge that HMRC in 2014 - 2015 is especially looking at checking landlords who are not declaring the correct rental income and correct capital gains on second homes. This is something that is becoming more important as people realise it is harder and harder to hide their untaxed property incomes. Landlords or their accountants are required to fill the the land and property section on their self assessment tax return showing all the rental business income they have made and as many want to make sure they pay the least amount of tax possible. We have have created a simple list to help guide you. Here are Tax Affinity Accountants top tips to save property tax. 1. Claim for all your property related expenses. Its important to make sure you claim for all your expenses when submitting your tax return. These should include: • Travel costs incurred when travelling back-and-to the investment property • Estate Agent or private advertisement costs • Mobile or landline telephone calls made (or text messages sent) in connection with the rental property • Payments for safety certificates eg Gas Safety • Bank charges (i.e. overdraft, interest on mortgage) • Professional fees e.g. Architect, Solicitor, Accountant etc • Monthly payments to property investment related products and services eg Insurances etc 2. Dividing your rental income between partners. A top tip is to consider putting your buy-to-let property into joint named ownership. Then the total income can be divided into each person's income and multiplying the personal allowance claimable on the income. 3. Claim all empty period expenses. Often there are periods between lettings that the buy-to-let property is empty and the owner has to pay for council tax or utlity bills. These should be noted and claimed. 4. Claiming the home office allowance. £4 per week (ie £208 per year) can be claimed for the use of your home to manage and run your rental property income. This amount can be claimed without evidence and more can be claimed if it can be justified. 5. Interest and finance costs. Most properties are on mortgages and the interest part of any mortgage is claimable as an expense. So if you have an interest only mortgage then the whole amount is claimable per month paid. Often landlords also forget to claim for money borrowed from friends or family or taken on a credit card or personal loan for the buy-to-let property and the interest on these can also be claimed. The principal can only be claimed when selling the property against capital gains tax. 6. Dont forget to carrying forward loss from previous year Most of the time a new buy-to-let property will not breakeven in its first year and so many landlords have significant rental losses for that year. Then when they start to make income from the property most forget about this loss which can be offset against the current years income. This could even mean no tax to pay in the current year if the losses are great enough. This requires detailed technical knowledge and so any lanldord in this situation should contact an experienced accountant such as Tax Affinity Accoutants. 7. Capital gains avoidance If landlords who are planning to sell their property, need to plan months or even a year ahead to increase their options of minimising capital gains tax which will arise on the sale of the property. This is usually best done getting expert advice from an accountant experienced in tax and property such as Tax Affinity Accountants. What top property developers and landlords know that mostly the fees paid to a good accountant are far less in comparison than the tax he/she will save you. 8. Wear and tear allowance Letting your property as furnished as opposed to unfurnished can allow you to claim up to 10% of the gross income as a valid expense for the upkeep and repair of furtniture in the tax year. 9. Make Sure to avoid HMRC interest and penalties Sound obvious but far to often, we see penalties and interest charges for late filing of tax returns and missed deadlines for documents to HMRC. The deadline for a paper return to HMRC is 31st Oct and online 31st Jan each year. Please also not that landlords will not be able to submit their return electronically if there are any capital gains elements on the return. ie the sale of any property. An experienced accountant needs to be contacted for this purpose which if knowledgable enough could ensure all capital expenditure is claimed to reduce the capital gains liability as low as possible. By Andrew at Tax Affinity Accountants. Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they are considered to be property tax experts helping and supporting ladlords across the UK. They regularly help new landlords and property developers and provide valuable ongoing support. 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. How do you save money on Capital Gains Tax? For an Accountant this is a question which is asked regularly. But as you can always find a way to save money. Below I give you a basic insight into how CGT (Capital Gains Tax) works, some tips, exceptions and how to avoid it completely:
How does it work? CGT is run through the tax year (6th April one year to 5th of April the following year). It is worked out on the total of your taxable profit from any capital assets that you hold. For instance, property, bonds and shares on the stock exchange. Furthermore, it is when the amount exceeds the purchase price of a property, bond and shares/stock. The amount that is exempt (tax free) annually is £10,900 for 2013 to 2014 (which increases to £11,000 for 2014 to 2015). At present there are two different types of CGT. The basic rate taxpayers pay is 18%, although the higher rate tax payers pay is 28% and if the capital gains goes over your threshold you will pay the higher tax. Tips to save money Below are some tips to keep the CGT Low as possible:
Exceptions Any profit made on selling your home is tax exempt, unless you did one of the options below:
You can also get away with not paying tax if you make a profit on selling a car, ISA’s, Peps, UK government gifts, savings certificate, premium bonds, personal belongings that are worth £6,000 or less when you come around to selling them. Furthermore there is a 10% tax rate with the entrepreneur’s allowance, which is aimed to help people that are selling their businesses they have built up. It has a lifetime limit of £5m. Avoid it completely If you want to avoid paying the higher threshold of 28% there are some suggestions below:
You can defer your CGT by reinvesting it into the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). You would have a limit of £200,000. Furthermore, any profit made will be exempt if you meet the qualifying standards. Finally, while tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion is illegal. So do not be tempted to sell assets without declaring any profit to HMRC. Defrauding the tax man can land you with a large fine or even a prison sentence. But the advice and support of an experienced tax accountant and some sound forward tax planning can save you thousands of pounds. By Tahir Malik at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they are considered in the Finance Industry to be the experts in all types of Tax including Capital Gains Tax. Helping and supporting businesses and individuals throughout the UK, they regularly help people with their CGT tax issues. 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. Saving Inheritance tax
Inheritance tax can be a tricky issue to deal with for most people but it is generally considered a “voluntary tax” as good tax planning can greatly reduce your inheritance tax liability or erase it completely. Assets exceeding the current inheritance tax threshold of £325,000 (for tax year 13/14) are taxed at 40%. That’s basically half of your excess assets going straight to the government and not to your loved ones. This is why inheritance tax can be extremely costly for those who have not done sufficient planning. Fortunately, there are many exemptions and allowances to utilise which would significantly reduce the amount of inheritance tax you have to pay. Here are a few things to consider that can help you save some inheritance tax:- Make a Will Making a will allows you to know that your estate is divided exactly as you want it to be when you die. In the absence of a will, people that you wish to benefit from your estate such as an unmarried partner may not be entitled to any share in the event of intestacy. What is a gift? A gift is something of value given unconditionally to someone without any reservations. The biggest asset that most people are in possession of is their house. However, giving away your house yet trying to live in it may allow HMRC to invalidate the gift as genuine and apply tax on it. Give away sooner Majority of gifts you make are classified as “potentially exempt transfers”. If you survive more than seven years after making the gift, no inheritance tax is due on that gift. The amount of tax can be reduced depending on how long you lived after making the gift due to taper relief. Gifts made less than three years before death have no reduction in tax. If the gift was made three to four years before death then tax is reduced by 20%. This increases by 20% for every extra year the donor lives up to seven years where the whole amount is exempt. Therefore it can help relief some financial burden on your death estate if you make gifts sooner rather than later. Allowances to take advantage of You can give away gifts worth up to £3,000 in total per person every tax year and these gifts will be exempt from inheritance tax when you pass away. Any unused part of this annual allowance can be carried forward to the following year, but if you don’t use it in that year, the carried-over exemption expires. You can also give up to £5,000 to your children when they marry as a wedding gift. Grandparents can give up to £2,500 and others up to £1,000. Regular Gifting Regular gifting can dramatically reduce your inheritance tax bill as long as they meet the following criteria: they must be from your income, they must be regular and they must not decrease the standard of living of the donor. Be generous on birthdays Gifts under £250 to any recipient per tax year are exempt from inheritance tax. This means that it might be worth giving your boy a big birthday present even if he’s been naughty as it helps reduce the tax bill. Gifts to charities and political parties are tax-free It’s good to know that any donations you make to charities or political parties are inheritance tax free at least. Getting Tax Advice While it is generally more economical for you to do things by yourself, if you have sizeable assets then seeking professional tax advice is well worth your money. You may end up paying a few hundred pounds to potentially save over hundreds of thousands of pounds. I’m no bargain hunter but that sounds like a good deal to me. By Wilson Law at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they are considered in the Finance Industry to be the experts in all types of Tax including Inhertance Tax. Helping and supporting business and individual throughout the UK, they regularly help people with their Inhertance tax issues. 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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