​

• An increase in the National Insurance threshold to £12,570 from 6th July 
• The planned increases in National Insurance will continue from 6th April
• A planned increase in corporation tax from 2023 for some companies continues
• New temporary loss reliefs for companies and the ‘super deduction’ for qualifying capital expenditure continue
• The standard rate of Vat for hospitality resumes
• No changes in tax allowances
• Increased wages as previously published

The VAT threshold will continue at £85,000 and the lower rate on hospitality will continue at 5% to 30 September and then be subject to an interim rate of 12.5% until 31 March 2022. 

​Care will be needed on using software for VAT returns with Vat quarters that do not coincide with these dates

A number of restaurants and take aways have become pretty clued up at home delivery service or indeed delivering restaurant meals for you to reheat.  Why not use a £50 trivial benefit to send something like this to an employee (or indeed yourself if you are an employee) – remember maximum 6 of these benefits per year and it must never exceed £50.  A well known restaurant chain is doing a menu where you can get food for 2 (sometimes with house wine) by mail order costing less than £50 including delivery!

If that doesn’t work for you or your employees a gift upto £50 for Christmas is perfectly allowable.  Don’t go over the allowance!  You can’t get the VAT back on the gift.

Until 1 April (5 April 2021 for income tax) a low or zero emission car can qualify for a 100% first year allowance (FYA) if its CO2 emissions do not exceed 50g/km and the car is purchased new and unused.  A similar 100% FYA applies for zero emission vans, where the vehicle is purchased new and unused before 1 April 2021, or 5 April 2021 for income tax.  However, as all commercial vehicles qualify for 100% relief under the AIA, this special FYA for zero emission goods vehicles is not needed by the majority of businesses.

This is where it gets more interesting, for Company Director owners of businesses, I have been advising that the taxable benefit for a car is becoming prohibitive in many cases (and fuel is a definite no), however draft legislation (bearing in mind the forthcoming budget) suggest the following benefit for electric only cars:

• The 2019/20 taxable benefit for a zero emissions car is 16%
• From April 2020 cars with an emissions rating of 0 will reduce to 0% (draft legislation)

Charging points also qualify for Capital Allowances.

The planning point here is that your business can buy outright an electric car by April 2021, claim 100% first year allowance and the driver does not have a taxable benefit from April 2020.  Let’s see what the budget brings but it’s definitely worth considering going green!

Clients preparing their own VAT returns:

1. You will need to check with your software supplier that they are MTD compliant – most of the major names are working on this but people using older Sage desktop versions should check for upgrades that are MTD compliant
2. You may need to activate your software
3. You will need to check your HMRC log in and ensure it is MTD ready

 
For clients who use book keepers and myself, we are in the process of setting up agent services accounts and securing additional software as we’re ready in good time.
 
So in reality a business filing a quarterly return from April to June 2019 is likely to be first affected by the change with the filing date of 7 August 2019 being unchanged.
 
HMRC have issued guidance on this link.

• Property Allowance – £1,000
• Trading Allowance - £1,000
• Rent a room relief - £7,500

 
Property and Trading Allowance - Where the £1,000 allowances cover allof the income (no expenses are ever allowed) then you don’t need to declare it.  In the case of these being your only other source of income it means you don’t need to do a tax return anymore.
 
So for example, you’re a teacher and you do some tuition earning £15 a week then previously you should have completed a tax return and provided you don’t have any income other that your PAYE salary then you probably don’t need to do a tax return.  There is quite a bit more to this particularly where people have a main sole trade and a ‘hobby business’ and the detail can be found on this link.
  
The Rent a Room Scheme lets you earn up to a threshold of £7,500 per year tax-free from letting out furnished accommodation in your home. This is halved if you share the income with your partner or someone else.  You can let out as much of your home as you want. If income falls below this limit (as with the above reliefs, you can’t deduct costs), then the relief is automatic and provided there is no other reason to complete a tax return, you don’t need to do one.
Follow this link for more information. 

As a reminder if you need to complete a tax return you must register by 5thOctober to be sure to avoid a penalty.  It’s important to note that if you do need to complete a tax return and fail to do one, HMRC ‘not sending you one’ is not considered a reasonable excuse if you are subject to a compliance check.