Autumn Statement 2014 Review

So you would all have seen some sort of media coverage of the Chancellors Autumn Statement but most of what is in the press is just the headline grabbing key items.  In fact as usual there was a vast array of tax areas covered.  A lot, in fact most, of the changes do not affect the majority of people hence you won’t have seen them mentioned in the press.

Here’s my review of the main topics that will cover most of you and the topics that will cover at least one of my clients but there was much more.

If there are any areas that anyone wants me to elaborate on please email me directly.

Income Tax        

The Personal Allowance for 2015/16 will increase to £10,600.

As this exceeds the age allowance this will apply to everyone born after 6 April 1938.

The Personal Allowance for those born before 6 April 1938 will be £10,660.  As this is only £60 more than the standard personal allowance, those whose income exceeds £27,700 will only lose £60 from the age allowance write down.

20% rate band increases to £31,785 meaning the 40% rate band starts at earnings from £42,385, a much needed increase.  Threshold for the 45% rate band remains at £150,000.

National Insurance

No rate changes for Class 1 & Class 4 but the upper earnings limit has been bought into line with the 40% income tax threshold of £42,385.

The rates for Class 2 & Class 3 will be increased.

Class 2 will be bought into the self assessment tax system and be paid with your tax bill from 2015/16 so no more monthly or quarterly direct debits for the self employed.

Employers will not have to pay secondary Class 1 NIC on the pay of employees under the age of 21 years unless they earn over £815 per week.  This is extended to apprentices under 25 years old.

Extension to the £2000 employment allowance which reduces employers secondary Class 1 contributions.  This will now also include domestic care and support workers.

Pensions

Abolition of the 55% charge on death.

• When an individual dies before age 75, the pension fund may pass tax free to the nominated beneficiary.
• When an individual dies over the age of 75, the pension fund, when withdrawn, will be taxed at the beneficiary’s marginal rate of income tax or 45% if taken as a lump sum.

This is extended to Annuities as well.

Overseas Matters

The proposal to restrict the personal allowance to non residents has been delayed until at least 2017.

Non-domiciliary  Remittance Basis Charge (RBC)

Resident in the UK but not domiciled here for:

•    7 out of last 9 years – charge £30,000 per yr unchanged
•  12 out of last 14 years –charge now £60,000 per yr
•  17 out of last 20 years – charge now £90,000 per yr

Property Owners

Stamp Duty Land Tax on residential property has been reformed.  Before if you were buying a property which falls into the 3% bracket you would have to pay 3% on the whole value, now you just pay the appropriate % on the value over each threshold.  Rates as follows:

• Upto £125,000                                 0%
• £125,001 to £250,000                      2%
• £250,001 to £925,000                      5%
• £925,001 to £1.5m                         10%
• £1.5m +                                          12%

Annual tax on enveloped dwellings (ATED)

Came into effect in 2013 and has raised 5 times more revenue than the government expected.

Applies to properties owned by ‘non-natural persons’ ie companies.  These businesses are structured in a way to avoid paying Stamp Duty on purchased and/or Capital Gains Tax on sale.  The ATED charge fills this gap.  Rates as follows:

• Properties worth £2m to £5m       – charge £23,350
• Properties worth £5m to £10m     – charge £54,450
• Properties worth £10m to £20m   – charge £109,050
• Properties worth £20m+                – charge £218,200

Business Owners

Intangible assets transferred on incorporation.  2 measures bought in to reduce the amount of tax relief available on incorporation of a business.

• Entrepreneur’s relief will not be available on the disposal of goodwill where an individual or partnership incorporates their trade.
• Corporation Tax relief is restricted on internally generated goodwill and customer-related intangible assets acquired from a related party on incorporation.

Employees

Simplification of expenses and benefits system.

Business Rates

The current doubling of Small Business Rate Relief will continue as will the 2% cap on the multiplier.

Shops, pubs, cafes & restaurants with a rateable value of less than £50,000 will see their current £1000 discount rise to £1500 pa.

Corporation Tax

The main rate will be bought into line with the small profits rate – both will be 20% from 2015/16.

Capital Gains Tax

Threshold increases to £11,100 for 2015/16

Inheritance Tax

No changes, it’s expected the current nil rate band will stay frozen until at least 2018/19.

ISAs

The annual savings allowance will increase to £15,240, currently £15,000.

ISAs are currently exempt from inheritance tax if passing to a surviving spouse but are taxable in the hands of the spouse.  Now the spouse will receive a tax free allowance to cover the ISA amount so no income or capital gains tax will be payable.

Travel Expenses for Local Authority Councillors

Mileage allowance will now be capped at the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates.

Peer to Peer Lending

Growing in popularity due to various new websites

New relief to offset losses from bad debts against other P2P profits.

Other

Numerous other areas which have had some reform, if you want to know more please contact me.

• Non tax-advantaged share schemes
• Anti-Avoidance, Fee income on fund managers
• Special Purpose Share Schemes
• Miscellaneous Loss Relief
• General anti-abuse rule (GAAR)
• Serial tax avoiders
• Offshore tax penalties – now 200%
• Disclosure of tax avoidance schemes (DOTAS)
• Venture Capital schemes
• High risk promoters
• HMRC direct recovery of debts and the power to close aspects of an enquiry.
• Research and Development relief schemes

VAT

VAT on Prompt Payment Discounts – you normally calculate vat assuming customer will take the prompt payment discount.  Now you will have to account for vat on the amount actually paid so will have to re-invoice for the extra vat if discount wasn’t taken.

VAT refunds for search & rescue and air ambulance charities, hospices, various government departments and the Highways Agency which will shortly be replaced by a government owned company.

Air Passenger Duty exemption for under 12 year olds, extending to 16 year olds in 2016.

Fuel duty of 7.9p per litre put on Aqua Methanol.

 

Data from Tolley via Association of Accounting Technicians

Picture courtesy of Unsplash

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A Bit On The Side

A Bit on the Side

No, not what you’re thinking, I’m talking about the Side Gig, Side Hustle, Moonlighting, Homers, whatever you want to call it, it can be a very good idea.

Initially I built up my accounts practice on the side of my day job before leaving that job to grow my business full time.

More and more people are moonlighting on the side of their day job – so why is this such a good idea?

Test the waters

If you eventually want your side job to become your full time job, growing it on the side gives you time to test the waters, experiment and learn.  It lets you try out different strategies to see what works and allows you to fail, all whilst keeping the financial security of your day job.

Not having to rely on your side gig for income allows you to focus on the long term success rather than short term income.

Extra Income

You’ll no doubt make some money from your side gig to compliment your full time income.  Whether you use this extra income to grow the business, save or dig yourself out of debt is up to you but the extra cash will always be nice.

Cash lets you fund your own start up or take a pay cut when you eventually want/need to ditch the full time job and make your side job the full timer.

Money can make you feel that you have options, that you have some backup, that you can afford to fail.  In other words it makes you feel safe, and if you feel safe you are more likely to take the small risks necessary to start up.

What to do

You need to establish what your side gig is going to be – what are you good at, what do you know how to do, what would you like to do, what would others pay you to do.

Getting started

Once you’ve decided what you are going to do you need to work out how you are going to get clients/customers.  How are you going to get the word out about what you are doing and what platforms are you going to use to do this.

Keeping it going

Office management – even if your side job is something low tech such as dog walking, don’t think you don’t need to get involved in office management.

A side gig doesn’t have to be about money.  It can be for fun, to gain experience or self education.   However, if money is the main objective you need to take it seriously.  Dealing with administrative tasks, paperwork, income, expenses, taxes and marketing all need to be done.  If you are making money you have a legal obligation to declare this for tax which requires some record keeping.

Stay Organised

If you’re working 9–5 and then moonlighting on the side, you are going to be busy.  You must stay on top of the admin and if you are making money you need to stay on top of the finances.  Keep track of all income, expenses, bank and paypal accounts.  You may need to develop systems for tracking this, customer/client relationship management and other items relevant to your line of work.  These systems can be anything from notebook scribbles or spreadsheets to specialised software.  The more you have going on, the more you need to attend to these back office tasks.

Word of warning

If your side gig is something that could tread on the toes of your full time employers business, you should get their permission first as there may be clauses in your employment contract to stop employees setting up in competition against them or stealing their clients.

Photo Credit: Splitshire.com

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HMRCs Home Office Policies

How much can you claim, for using a room in your home for business purposes?

HMRCs guidance uses typically vague words such as ‘fair & reasonable’ and ‘modest or excessive’. The trouble is someone earning mega money will think one figure is fair and reasonable but to most of us the same figure would seem excessive.

HMRC believes just £4 per week is all that should be claimed for the use of a home office. This measly amount is deemed as a ‘significant’ expenses and any claim over this amount must be justified by providing records or demonstrating your calculations.

How to can claim over the £4 per week

One way to prove your claim is reasonable is to calculate your monthly outgoings for gas, electric, rent, water etc then divide this by the number of rooms in the property (excluding kitchens & bathrooms).  For example if you have 5 rooms (Lounge, Dining Room, 3 Bedrooms) and one is used as an office take 1/5^th of these bills.

If this amount seems too substantial for your business use you could divide it down further by the number of hours you spend in it working each day eg, 8/24 hrs or by the number of days per week that you work or by square meterage if known.

Beware

Be careful if claiming for more than one room as you will need more justification but it is possible ie a photographer could have an office and a darkroom (days before digital).

You should never claim the room is ‘solely’ for business purposes as this could lead to a business rates claim by the local council for part of your home or even Capital Gains Tax when you sell your property. Most people’s home office also doubles as a spare bedroom or is home to the unused exercise bike or the kids use it for doing their homework.

If you run your business through a Limited Company you can draw up a lease agreement so your company is reimbursing you for the costs of the room thus reducing your Corporation Tax but again, to be exempt from Capital Gains Tax when you sell the property make sure the agreement doesn’t state that it is solely and exclusively for business purposes.

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For the Love of Lists

Lists – I love them, always have done. There’s something deeply satisfying about ticking off items on your lists. I guess that’s why I took to accountancy, it’s basically just lists of income & lists of expenses.

When you have lots to do or lots to remember and everything is whizzing around in your head it can seem like double the amount of tasks you actually have to accomplish and can seem quite overwhelming. By writing the tasks down in a list it helps to clarify, organise and prioritise the tasks and then when you can see exactly what’s to be done and you know you won’t forget anything, it suddenly all seems less overwhelming.

As humans, we tend to have a natural state of ‘slackness’, lists help to focus the mind. Shopping lists, reminders and ‘to do’ lists are all variations on productivity based lists that we use to help us stop procrastinating. The ‘to do’ list is the one we spend most time on. We don’t seem to struggle to write a shopping list and then buy everything on it but getting tasks on a ‘to do’ list done is a whole different matter.

Tips for your ‘To Do’ list

Don’t make tasks too large, break them down into smaller tasks, you’ll have more to tick off and will feel like you are achieving more.

Prioritise – put the list in order of urgency.

Be realistic with your planning. It will have a negative effect if you are unable to accomplish your tasks in the time you set yourself.

If you can’t get motivated try doing the simplest, quickest tasks on your list first. Ticking off some items will help you get going.

Find methods that work for you. You may need a list of long-term tasks and then make sub lists for smaller more immediate or daily tasks.

My Lists

In my personal life I have lists for everything, shopping (I have an app for that one), packing, camping, finances, birthdays, bucket lists etc, etc but we won’t go into those as some may think it’s a bit sad.

In work, although I have many lists to organise and keep track of things in my business, my ‘to do’ list is the most essential. (That and the list that shows who owes me money.)

I do a monthly to do list so on the first day of each month a new blank list complete with tick boxes is printed off. First I put on everything that was left to do from the last month. I draw a red line under these so I know they were from the previous month and that these items must be done by the end of the new month, that way I am never too far behind with anything. Then in a separate section I write in anything that I know has to be done in the month and the date it has to be done by, items such as PAYE submissions, Companies House annual returns, VAT returns etc. Again a line is drawn under these, then any new work that comes in during the month is listed underneath and whilst I try to get as much completed in the month, I know it’s ok if these have to be carried over to the following month.

Click link to my blankTo do list

Some days when there seems to be a lot of little bits & pieces to do, I will write a sub list just for the day. You need to be flexible, I do not always do the items in order of the list, if you know you only have 20 mins to spare, just chose a quick task to tackle, it’s not always practical to start a task you won’t be able to finish.

Lists can help a lot but don’t be ruled by them, sometimes life just gets in the way of your goals.

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Tax Payments on Account

So 31^st January has long passed which means most of you Self Employed have paid your tax bill. This is never going to be good but when Payments on Account kick in, it’s doubly rubbish and you’ll be currently saving to pay the 31^st July bill. So why do some just pay in January and some have to pay in January and July? It is simple but always seems quite complicated when you start to explain how this works but here goes.

Firstly payments on account kick in when your tax due for the year is in excess of £1000. Each payment on account is for half your previous tax bill and the payments are due on 31^st January and 31^st July.

So for example, if your tax is £999 for the year ending 5^th April 2014 that is how much you need to pay by 31^st January 2015. No payments on account needed, simple.

However, if for the first time your tax bill for the year ending 5^th April 2014 comes to £1000, you will not only have to pay the £1000 by 31^st January 2015 but you will also have to pay £500 on account of the next tax year, so £1500 by 31^st January 2015 then another £500 by 31^st July 2015.

Then once your tax bill for the following tax year ending 5^th April 2015 is calculated, and for example, it comes to £1200 due 31^st January 2016, you have already paid £500 twice on account of this so only the balance of £200 is due but you also have to pay half of the £1200 on account of the following year so your payment for 31^st January 2016 would be £200 + £600 with another £600 due by 31^st July 2016.

Clear as mud!!!

Any tax overpaid in advance will be refunded with interest and if you know in advance that your next year’s tax bill will be lower, the payments on account can be reduced.

It’s always best to get your tax bill calculated as early as possible so if you do have a nasty bill, you have longer to save for it or if you have overpaid, you get your money back earlier.

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