HMRC

HMRC is now looking at landlords who incorporated their property business but have not reported a capital gain on their 2017/18 self-assessment tax return and are sending out letters. The letters ask the tax payer to check they have correctly calculated the tax relief available, along with HMRC guidance on technical areas and reliefs available to them, and gives the tax payer 30 days to respond. If the tax payer does not respond then the next step may be a tax enquiry, and the issuing of a discovery assessment by HMRC.

It has been advised that any landlord who receives a letter should reach out to their accountants immediately so please do contact us if you receive one of these. Also, for any landlords who transferred their properties to a company since 2017/18 should take steps to review their financial statements to ensure they correctly reported any capital gains tax.

Scunthorpe United FC Club Partner

We are excited to announce that we are the main club partner of Scunthorpe United FC for the 2023-24 season!

Keep a look out for updates and images on our social media pages. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

To read the full partnership release, click the link: Jackson Stapleton Accountants become main club partner ahead of 2023-24 season – News – Scunthorpe United (scunthorpe-united.co.uk)

HMRC Scams

Please be aware that scam letters are starting to appear for overdue self assessment payments due to be paid to HMRC. These letters look very realistic so if you receive any correspondence from HMRC regarding overdue payments then please be vigilant.

Here are some steps you can take to check if a letter is a scam or not:

Send a copy of the letter to us and we can check it for you
Log on to your online account with HMRC and check your outstanding balance
Call HMRC on 03002003310, not the number on the letter

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Government’s Spring Budget 2023

Today the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt announced the government’s spring budget.

The main points announced were:

The energy price guarantee will remain for 3 months.
From the 1st August, duty on draught in pubs will be up to 11p lower.
Fuel duty will be frozen and the 5p reduction will remain for a further year.
Corporation Tax will increase from 19% to 25% meaning that firms that make over £250,000 will pay 25% tax on their profits from April.
Small or medium sized businesses will be able to claim £27 for every £100 they spend if they spend 40% or more of their total expenditure on Research and Development.
Disabled benefit claimants will always be able to seek work without fear of losing financial support.
Sanctions will be applied to those who claim Universal Credit and fail to meet strict work-search requirements or choose not to take up a reasonable job offer. For those working low hours, he says the Administrative Earnings Threshold will rise from the equivalent of 15 hours to 18 hours at the National Living Wage.
The pensions annual tax-free allowance has increased from £40,000 to £60,000 and will abolish the Lifetime Allowance which was previously set at £1.07m.
Childcare reforms including incentive payments of £600 for childminders joining the profession or £1,200 if they join through an agency, and 30 hours of free weekly childcare to cover children under the age of 3 for households where both parents are working.

If you have any questions regarding this email then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Big Announcement!

JSA has formed a strategic alliance with ECS Group to provide our clients with a free business finance comparison tool 🤝

This will make it easier for clients to find the best rates and save money when seeking business finance 💰

More information to follow next week!

Pictured are Mark Jackson-Stapleton, Managing Director of Jackson Stapleton with Andrew Craggs, Managing Director and Jordan Craggs, Business Development Manager of ECS Group.

New Service

As of February 2023, we will be introducing something new for clients, plus space permitting for those who are not clients of the practice.

Our new service is for those whom are thinking of starting their own business, those who are new to business, or perhaps those whom feel they just need some help with their business.

We will be holding live sessions at the office or on a virtual meeting, free of charge, for anyone who feels they’d benefit. During the sessions we will go through a range or topics and any questions you may have. Examples of topics being, what different contracts should look like, tax planning, what you should be looking for when it comes to searching for a premises to run your business and many more topics.

If this is of interest to you or someone you know, or you would like further information then please do not hesitate to contact me (sophie@jacksonstapleton.co.uk).

MTD ITSA Delayed

In December it was announced that MTD for ITSA (Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment) is being delayed for 2 years to give people more time to prepare and adapt to the new ways of working.

The following changes were announced in the statement:

A 2 year delay until April 2026 or mandatory MTD ITSA filing.
Minimum income reporting level has been increased to £50,000, with people earning more than £30,000 joining the scheme in 2027.
The situation for landlords and sole traders earning less than £30,000 will be reviewed to see if it can be modified to meet the needs of smaller businesses
Partnerships will not be brought into MTD for ITSA as previously planned in 2025.
The points-based penalty system will be extended to MTD ITSA filers when they join.

If you have any questions regarding this email then please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Government’s Budget

Yesterday, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt announced the government’s financial plans in the budget.

The main points announced were:

Personal Taxes – there will be a reduction in the 45p tax threshold for people paying the top rate of tax from £150,000 to £125,140. People earning more than £150,000 per year will pay just over £1,200 more in tax per year.
The personal tax threshold will be frozen until 2028 which means that millions of people will end up paying more in tax. It was previously frozen until 2026.
The Chancellor has confirmed that the energy industry’s windfall tax will increase from 25% to 35% from January 1.
Electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from the Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2025 to make the motoring tax system fairer.
The Chancellor says he is committed to helping people raise their income, find work and become financially independent. He has announced that he will ask over 600,000 more people on universal credit to meet with a work coach so they can get the support they need to increase their work hours or earnings.
Another £280m will be invested to help the Department of Work and Pensions to crack down on benefit fraud and errors in the next two years.
The government will review the pension age which will be published in early 2023.
£155 billion will be spent on helping households and businesses.
There will be support for those on low incomes, disability benefits and pensioners. These being: £900 to people on benefits, £300 to pensioners, and £150 to people with disability benefits.
The living wage for over-23s will increase to £10.42 from April next year, it is currently £9.50.
Benefits will rise in line with inflation, including Universal Credit, next April.
Pensions will rise in line with inflation, seeing an increase by 10.1% from April.

If you have any questions regarding this email then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dividend Tax

We are now starting to see reports regarding the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt’s possible plans to increase dividend tax. Whilst this is currently only a rumour, we feel we should provide you with the details we know so far.

Jeremy Hunt has reportedly asked officials to look at raising the dividend taxation rate, as well as cutting the tax-free allowance for dividends. No decisions have yet been made on this.

Under the option being looked into by the Treasury there would be a 1.25 percentage point increase in dividend taxation across the UK’s three tax bands, currently 8.75% for the basic rate, 33.75% for the higher rate and 39.35% for the additional rate.

He is considering halving the tax-free dividend allowance from £2,000 to £1,000. According to a government tax ready reckoner that move would raise £455mn in the next tax year.

The budget is currently due to be announced on Thursday 17th November. Until this date we expect to receive no confirmation from the government in response to what their plans are. We will be holding a live stream for when the budget is released.

Bank of England Base Rate

The 0.75 percentage points increase from 2.25% to 3% means a £73.49 monthly rise for the average tracker mortgage, and £46.22 for the average standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage.
Since December, when the base rate was 0.1%, the average monthly mortgage payment has increased £284.17 for the average tracker, and £178.70 for the average SVR.