Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) is payable by the purchaser in a land transaction which occurs in Scotland. These types of transaction would include a simple conveyance of land such as buying a house but also creating a lease or assigning a lease.
Continue readingPensions – Automatic Enrolment
What is automatic enrolment? Automatic enrolment places duties on employers to automatically enrol ‘workers’ into a work based pension scheme.
Continue readingSeed Enterprise Investment Scheme
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) provides tax relief for individuals prepared to invest in new and growing companies. It is the junior version of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). Investors can obtain generous income tax and capital gains tax (CGT) breaks for their investment and companies can use the relief to attract additional investment to develop their business.
Continue readingVAT – Cash Accounting
Cash accounting enables a business to account for and pay VAT on the basis of cash received and paid rather than on the basis of invoices issued and received.
Continue readingBribery Act 2010
The Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) applies across the UK and all businesses need to be aware of its requirements. The Act includes a ‘corporate’ offence of ‘failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery’. The defence against this offence is to ensure that your business has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery.
Continue readingCompany Secretarial Duties
Company legislation provides an opportunity for a business organisation to benefit from the protection of limited liability, separating the legal persona of the organisation from the individuals who own and run it. In return for this protection a certain amount of information about a company must be publicly available including, for example, the company’s annual accounts, registered office address and details of directors, company secretary (if there is one) and members.
Continue readingEmployment Benefits
Today the remuneration of many directors and employees comprises a package of salary and benefits. Essentially two tests must be applied in determining the tax implications of any benefit: is the benefit taxable and, if the benefit is taxable, what is its taxable value?
In this factsheet, we give guidance on some of the main benefit in kind rules and outline some common types of benefits.
Continue readingLand Transaction Tax
LTT is payable by the purchaser of residential or non-residential property in a land transaction occurring in Wales. Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is payable on land transactions in England and Northern Ireland and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) on land transactions in Scotland.
Continue readingPensions – Tax Reliefs
There are two broad types of pension schemes from which an individual may eventually be in receipt of a pension: workplace pension schemes and personal pension schemes. A workplace pension scheme may either be a defined benefit scheme or a money purchase scheme.
Continue readingShare Ownership for Employees – EMI
Retaining and motivating staff are key issues for many employers. Research in the UK and USA has shown a clear link between employee share ownership and increases in productivity. The government has therefore introduced a variety of ways in which an employer can provide mechanisms for employees to obtain shares in the employer company without necessarily suffering a large tax bill.
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