The Equality Act 2010 replaces all previous equality legislation, including the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. The Equality Act covers age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity. These are now called ‘protected characteristics’.
Continue readingChild Benefit Charge
The High Income Child Benefit charge applies to a taxpayer who has income over £50,000 in a tax year where either they or their partner, if they have one, are in receipt of Child Benefit for the year. We set out below the main points of the charge and illustrate some of the practical issues.
Continue readingEmployee Expenses
This factsheet considers the operation and reporting of employee expenses and benefits. An exemption may apply to the reporting of employee expenses on forms P11D as long as the necessary conditions are met. Under the exemption the business must satisfy itself that the employee would be entitled to full tax relief on the expenses reimbursed.
Continue readingIR35 Personal Service Companies
The ‘IR35’ rules are designed to prevent the avoidance of tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) through the use of personal service companies and partnerships. The rules do not stop individuals selling their services through either their own personal companies or a partnership. However, they do seek to remove any possible tax advantages from doing so.
Continue readingPayroll Real Time Information
Under Real Time Information, employers or their agents are required to make regular payroll submissions for each pay period during the year, detailing payments and deductions made from employees each time they are paid. There are two main returns which an employer needs to make which are detailed below.
Continue readingSecuring Business Success
As many as half of all businesses fail in their first three years of trading. A contributor to ensuring business success and avoiding failure is to know your enemies. Generally the main reason for the high failure rate of small newly established businesses is when the owner lacks experience in managing all aspects of the business.
Continue readingVAT – Bad Debt Relief
It is quite possible within the VAT system for a business to be in the position of having to pay over VAT to HMRC while not having received payment from their customer. Bad debt relief allows businesses, that have made supplies on which they have accounted for and paid VAT but for which they have not received payment, to claim a refund of the VAT by reference to the outstanding amount.
Continue readingAgency Workers Regulations
Regulations which took effect from 1 October 2011 mean that workers supplied to a company, or to any other entity, by an agency will become entitled to receive pay and basic working conditions equivalent to any directly employed employees after a 12 week qualifying period.
Continue readingCommunity Amateur Sports Clubs
Local amateur sports clubs may wish to register with HMRC as Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) and benefit from a range of tax reliefs including Gift Aid. This factsheet considers the tax benefits and the registration requirements that clubs have to satisfy.
Continue readingEmployer Supported Childcare
Employer Supported Childcare (ESC), commonly by way of childcare voucher, is for many employers and employees a tax and national insurance efficient perk. We consider the implications of this type of benefit on the employer and employee. ESC, which allows a limited tax and NIC exemption for employer-contracted childcare and employer-provided childcare vouchers, has been very popular with both employers and employees alike.
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