Latest Business News from Chichester Accountants Evans Weir

July 19, 2018

No hiding for Freelancers using offshore-based umbrella schemes

Over 20,000 freelancers and contractors that used offshore-based umbrella schemes to disguise their income over the last 20 years will have to repay an average of £50,000 in unpaid taxes, HMRC says. Responding to a deadline of 31st May to register earnings held or managed in these trusts, almost 21,000 people had declared their involvement in the schemes with some calculating their unpaid tax bill to be ‘in the hundreds of thousands’. The impact of the impending tax bills may see some... read more

Making Tax Digital – Guidance for Digital VAT Announced

Earlier this month, HMRC announced its detailed guidance for the introduction of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT transactions which comes into force from April 2019. Whilst other elements of the wider Making Tax Digital project have been put on hold because of the need to focus on implementing changes as a result of Brexit legislation the requirement for VAT registered businesses maintain digital records is still progressing. The guidance sets out in more detail exactly what HMRC expects by... read more

HMRC Announces Record Tax Take in 17/18

Amid much talk of further tax rises in the pipeline, to help offset the impact of Brexit and to support the Governments planned spending increase on the NHS, HMRC has announced that it had a record tax take in the 17/18 tax year. The total take of just over £605 billion is up 5.4% on the previous year, an increase of nearly £1 billion over 16/17 revenues. With the exception of tax on hydrocarbon oils and capital gains tax, all other taxes registered an increase in the year. Capital... read more

June 26, 2018

The Future of the High Street

Yet another month of 2018 has brought news of more major high street names disappearing or facing the risk of closure, and this time the axe fell on Chichester with news that House of Fraser in West Street is to close. So what next for the high street in general and Chichester in particular? Has the affluent South East bubble that seemingly protected the likes of Chichester from looking like many other high streets up and down the country, burst? There is much commentary on what has gone... read more

Getting VAT right with multiple VAT registered companies

If you have multiple VAT registered businesses, it is worth checking that you are claiming the right VAT in each instance to avoid HMRC disallowing claims for input/output tax. When reviewing returns from each business, HMRC will not only want to see a clear line of documentation relating to each transaction but will also seek to establish ownership of the goods. So if business A uses the credit account of company B in order to purchase goods and take advantage of credit terms or margins,... read more

Contractors beware – Pimlico ruling has far reaching implications

The decision by the Supreme Court, to uphold the earlier findings of other courts, against Pimlico Plumbers, in the case brought by a former contractor, could have far reaching implications for the wider contractor market. For those of you that have not followed this case, which has rumbled on for several years now, or if you missed the detail, the Supreme Court judges have effectively ruled that the nature of the contract between Pimlico and Mr Smith constituted that of employer/employee,... read more

May 14, 2018

One-in-ten small businesses under investigation by HMRC

Having identified that they are responsible for almost 50% of the £34billion of uncollected tax in 2015-16, HMRC has confirmed that it is focusing its efforts on around half-a-million small businesses at any time. There are some 5 million small businesses in the UK and the move by the tax man has been criticised by business organisations and MPs alike due to the impact of a tax investigation in terms of the time and cost versus the likely benefit to UK PLC. The criticism of HMRC is... read more

Making Tax Digital Rollout Delayed

With just 12 months until it was meant to be fully launched and having already suffered delays to what was an ambitious roll out plan, HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) strategy has now been put on hold, indefinitely. In a statement to tax professionals in April, HMRC made it clear that the impact of preparations for Brexit, which had a similar implementation date to MTD, was overwhelming and so the decision had been taken to shelve much of the MTD project. Businesses will still be required... read more

April 16, 2018

Increased Employer Payments

The start of April marked increases for the compulsory payments applicable to employees with the national minimum wage, the national living wage and the minimum contributions for auto enrolment all changing. But there was a curveball to be aware of... Auto Enrolment Minimum Contributions Increased on 6th April With the final staging date for auto enrolment passing in February and over 1 million companies and more than 9 million employees now opted in, the process of increasing the amounts... read more

VAT Review in Spring Statement – Impact on Small Businesses

In his first Spring Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond launched a consultation on a proposed review of the UK’s VAT scheme. The Chancellor had been tipped to announce wholesale changes to VAT thresholds last November as part of the budget, but because of representations from business organisations he swapped hard and fast plans for change in favour of a consultation process. The basis of the proposed changes would see the threshold being frozen or dropped to bring more companies into the... read more