December 2011

Our Human Resources Winter Quarterly Update includes proposals for changes to employment law, announced in November by Business Secretary Vince Cable, case studies of the Bribery Act and Wrongful Dismissal and information on managing your staff through tough times.

CLICK HERE FOR - HR Winter Quarterly Update

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

The Government has published the draft clauses of the Finance Bill 2012 three months prior to the Budget on 21 March 2012. The clauses are intended for consultation until 10 February 2012. Many of these provisions have been pre-announced in the 2011 Budget, but there are still a few surprises.

CLICK HERE FOR - Summary of the Finance Bill 2012 draft clauses

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

Most businesses must now submit their VAT returns online, and this will apply to all VAT registered businesses from April 2012. Online filing gives you an extra 7 days to file, but the VAT due must also reach HMRC by the end of the extended filing period. The VAT payment will take at least 3 days to reach HMRC, even where it is made electronically (see link below for what HMRC regard as electronic means). Don’t leave your VAT form filing and payment to the last possible day as you will receive a surcharge for late payment.

CLICK HERE - How to pay VAT

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

HMRC are writing to over 2,500 doctors and dentists who did not take advantage of the Tax Health Plan disclosure opportunity in 2010, but who may have received undisclosed income from pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies or locum agencies. HMRC has details of the payments made by these bodies, and will issue tax assessments to those medical practitioners who do not respond to their letter within 21 days. If you receive such a letter from HMRC, contact us immediately for assistance in sorting out any misunderstanding with HMRC.

CLICK HERE FOR - Tax Health Plan follow-up

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

If you run a caravan site read the Revenue & Customs brief 37/11. This sets out a change in the VAT rules that will to apply from 1 January 2012. Essentially when you recharge council tax, water rates or utility connection fees to your site residents, you will have to apply the VAT rate applicable to the caravan pitch. This will be 20% for holiday pitches, but residential sites will be exempt from VAT.

CLICK HERE - R&C brief 37/11: Caravan sites

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

This scheme allows mortgage providers to check income details of mortgage applicants directly with HMRC. However, the scheme is only supposed to used when the mortgage provider has inadequate evidence of the applicant’s declared income, and they suspect mortgage fraud. When a taxpayer’s details are requested under the mortgage verification scheme, HMRC will mark that taxpayer’s file for further investigation.

Please beware that if your mortgage application is tested using the mortgage verification scheme, this will significantly increase your risk rating with HMRC, and may lead to a tax investigation.

CLICK HERE - Council of Mortgage Lenders announces verification scheme

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

If your business is not already VAT registered you need be aware of the current VAT registration threshold (£73,000), to check when your turnover is approaching that limit. However, if you buy business services from abroad, you need to understand the VAT rules for cross-border services. Essentially your UK business must treat the cost of the internationally-supplied service as if you both purchased and sold that service. The cost of the service is added to your turnover for VAT registration purposes, which may mean you have to register for VAT in the UK.

CLICK HERE FOR  - Cross-border services: VAT 741A

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

If you are VAT registered, but your turnover has dropped below the VAT deregistration threshold (£71,000 from 1 April 2011), you can apply to cancel your VAT registration. This is done on form VAT 7, which has recently been reissued. Cancelling your VAT registration may also be appropriate if you change the type of goods you sell, so most are subject to VAT at the zero rate.

CLICK HERE - Application to cancel VAT registration form: VAT 7

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

There is a long list of non-taxable state benefits. Also some state benefits, such as the Widowed Parent’s Allowance (WPA) have taxable and non-taxable elements. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), which responsible for paying most state benefits, should inform your tax office (HMRC) of amount of taxable state benefit you receive. However sometimes DWP sends the wrong figures to HMRC, including perhaps the non-taxable amounts of your benefit payments. Check your PAYE code to see if the right taxable amount of your state benefit has been included. We can help you with this. 

CLICK HERE - List of non-taxable state benefits

CKLG Accountants in Cambridge are here to help.

HMRC has set up an R&D relief assurance pilot to encourage small companies to claim R&D tax relief. Companies who use this pilot will be assigned an R&D relief expert within HMRC, who will help the company agree the basis for its first R&D claim. Once this basis is agreed the R&D claim should be accepted without query from HMRC, unless a significant issue arises.

CLICK HERE - R&D advance assurance pilot

CKLG Accountants on Cambridge are here to help.

CKLG Acountants in Cambridge are here to help