Tax

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will be targeting 6,000 Swiss bank accounts for further enquiry following the completion of the preliminary review resulting from the co-operation agreement in the area of taxation between Switzerland and the UK, which was...

The Supreme Court has denied HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the right of appeal in a tax case involving a series of transactions that were carried out for no commercial purpose but which led to a tax saving by the taxpayer. The decision represents a blow for...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced that, from 1 January 2012, supplies made by employers under salary sacrifice schemes (schemes whereby an employee accepts a lower salary in return for receiving certain benefits) will be treated as taxable...

The Government is proposing to integrate the operation of the Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions systems, as announced in the 2011 Budget. Following an initial consultation with businesses and other interested parties, to gather evidence on the...

If you are used to taking part of your company income by way of dividends (a common tax planning device, the main advantage of which is savings on National Insurance Contributions), but you require time to pay your taxes because of cash-flow problems,...

Operators of Amusement With Prizes (AWP) machines who receive VAT refunds as a result of a review carried out by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the wake of a court reverse in 2009 are advised to ensure that they are able to repay the refund if necessary,...

News that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are to create a dedicated team of investigators to ‘target’ restaurants suspected of evading their tax liabilities is no real surprise: the sector offers them rich pickings in terms of under-declared...

Readers are reminded that an application to reclaim VAT incurred in another EU country can be made to that country via HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) provided the claimant business is registered for VAT in the UK and is not VAT registered, or does not have to...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have won a major battle in the Supreme Court which may have severe implications for tax planning exercises. HMRC have persuaded the Court that a tax avoidance scheme, which was based on the wide definitions that apply to the...

When it comes to contesting tax assessments, the playing field is far from level, as a recent VAT case shows. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made assessments on a trader based on discrepancies between recorded sales and cash in the tills on two visits. The...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced a probe into under-recording of takings and cash tips at restaurants of all sorts, commenting that payments made in cash for sales and tips make tax evasion a high risk. The move forms part of HMRC’s plan...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) look carefully at the documentation supporting all investment schemes that have a tax advantage, such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). One of the rules for an investment to qualify for EIS relief is that the...

VAT penalties are not set at a level which provides compensation to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), but are intended to penalise the taxpayer’s error, as is illustrated by the decision of the First-Tier Tribunal in a case in which a careless mistake,...

A recent decision of the European Court of Justice will come as good news for hard-pressed hoteliers and has led to HM Revenue and Customs issuing new guidance on deposits. The decision confirms that there is no relationship between a deposit taken for a...

Avoiding penalties for under-declarations of output VAT is a tricky business, even when the mistakes are innocently made. The VAT legislation allows penalties to be forgiven when there is a ‘reasonable excuse’, but HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)...

There are hundreds – possibly thousands – of companies listed as ‘dormant’ at Companies House and often these are retained rather than wound up because although they do not trade, they do contain assets. For more than a quarter of a...

The guidance relating to the tax legislation that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use to determine whether a contractor who uses a limited company to carry out contracts should be treated as employed by the end-user client is contained in HMRC leaflet IR35. ...

The Supreme Court has ruled that a director of a company that was itself the corporate director of a second company was not a de facto director of the second company. He was not therefore liable for the misuse of the second company’s assets, if his...

The recession has brought many changes to the way HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) deal with taxpayers. A generally more aggressive approach on the part of HMRC has coincided with the much-touted ‘time to pay’ agreements for businesses experiencing...

Input VAT is normally only available for deduction with respect to motor cars in very limited circumstances and subject to extremely tight criteria. One of the exceptions is where a car is used wholly for private hire (e.g. a taxi or a self-drive hire car). ...

Over the years, a number of ‘tax-efficient’ methods of giving remuneration have been developed, such as Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) and Employer-Funded Unapproved Retirement Benefit Schemes (EFURBS). The Government has recently published...

Following the announcement in last June's budget of 'National Insurance (NI) holidays' for new businesses, HM Revenue and Customs have now published a Technical Note detailing the conditions of the scheme. In order for the NI holiday to apply, the new...

All the positive publicity generated about ‘time to pay’ agreements has increasingly been shown to be misplaced as new research shows that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are now leading the way in bringing insolvency proceedings. Recent research...

The Government has announced that from April 2011 the maximum pension contribution which will attract full tax relief is being restricted to £50,000 per year and the lifetime allowance (LA) will be reduced to £1.5 million from April 2012. Where...

If your business has followed the common practice of giving trade samples, your VAT returns will have been prepared on the basis that a single sample could be supplied to a person as a VAT-free supply but where a larger number of samples was given, output...