As the sole owner/director of your company you face a dilemma over how to extract income from that company. If you pay yourself a salary of more than £8,060 per year you will have to pay class 1 NIC at the rate of 12% on the excess pay above that threshold up to £42,385 pa. However, income tax is not due until your salary tops £10,600 (the value of your personal allowance for 2015/16). One solution is to take a salary of up to £8,060 and any further income as dividends of up to £30,892 pa (£34,325 gross including the [...]

If you provide clothes for your staff to wear at work you need to be aware of the tax and VAT implications which may vary according to the items provided. Where the items provided constitute a uniform or protective clothing which is needed to perform the job, the cost is tax deductible for the business and the VAT can be reclaimed. There is no taxable benefit in kind for the employee. If the clothes are not considered to be a "uniform" and can't qualify as protective clothing, the tax treatment depends on whether the employees are permitted to keep the [...]

Q. I work as a self-employed air-conditioning engineer, which involves servicing and maintaining air-conditioning units and occasionally fitting new units. I would like to take advantage of the flat rate VAT scheme for small businesses, but I am confused as to what business category to choose. Do you have a suggestion? A. It is crucial to choose the right business sector when registering for the flat rate scheme, as the sector can't be changed retrospectively. The higher the flat rate percentage (which is determined by the business sector), the more VAT you have to pay over to HMRC each quarter. [...]

If you registered for UK VAT in order to operate VAT-MOSS for your overseas sales of digital services to non-business customers, you may now find that the administration for such sales is just not worth the hassle. If so you may want to deregister for both UK-VAT and VAT-MOSS, and restrict your sales to UK-based consumers, or businesses located anywhere outside the EU. The deregistration process for VAT-MOSS must be done online and it will take effect from the end of the calendar quarter in which notice to deregister is given. Thus to deregister from VAT-MOSS with effect from 1 [...]

Have you received a letter from The Pension Regulator (TPR) telling you to "ACT NOW" to prepare for auto-enrolment? The letter gives you just a few weeks to nominate a contact to receive communications about auto-enrolment, with the threat of fines or prosecution if you don't take action. The "staging date" for your business will be stated in the letter. This is the date by which you must have a pension scheme ready for your employees to join, if you do indeed need one. A large number of small companies will be exempt from auto-enrolment, if they don't technically have [...]

Q. I live in France and I am about to sell my former home in the UK, which has been let out since I emigrated in August 2001. Do I have to pay tax in the UK on the gain? A. As you have lived abroad for nearly 14 years you will probably be treated as "non-resident" in the UK for tax purposes, but we need to check that with a few more questions. If you are a non-resident, the gain would generally be exempt from UK capital gains tax (CGT). However, a new non-resident CGT applies to gains made [...]

If you help to run a charity you need to keep on top of the tax and audit regulations that apply to charities, and the gift aid scheme. A person with earnings or pension income of less than £10,600 and interest of up to £5,000 will pay no income tax in 2015/16. These individuals should not make gift aid declarations for donations made on or after 6 April 2015, as they do not pay the income tax which the charity reclaims in respect of that donation. As a charity you can reclaim tax online which has been deducted from bank [...]

Pension freedom is a GOOD thing. The change in law from 6 April 2015 means that members of defined contribution pension schemes who are aged 55 or more should be able to draw what they want from their pension schemes. But "pension liberation" is a BAD thing. This is when scammers use confidence tricks to separate taxpayers from their pension savings, and the taxpayer has to pay high charges and tax penalties. Can you tell the difference? If you are thinking about taking funds from your pension plan, you need to think carefully about all the implications. The Government has [...]

If you are married or in a civil partnership, and born on or after 6 April 1935 you can now apply for the new marriage allowance. This is not an extra amount of tax free allowance, but a transfer of £1,060 of unused personal allowance from one spouse or civil partner to the other. It will save the couple tax of £212 for 2015/16. The marriage allowance can only be claimed where one person has unused personal allowance and the other partner/spouse is taxed at no more than 20%. The transferred allowance is treated as belonging to the recipient for [...]

Do you know when your younger workers will reach their key birthdays: 18 and 21? It is essential to know exactly when these dates fall, as reaching such a milestone will change the level of national minimum wage (NMW) which must be paid to that worker. The current and proposed NMW hourly rates are: Age or status of employee: From 1 October 2014 From 1 October 2015 21 and over £6.50 £6.70 18 to 20 £5.13 £5.30 Under age 18 £3.79 £3.87 Apprentices under 19 or in 1st year £2.73 £3.30 An employee's pay must be increased from the beginning [...]