24 January 2020
AIA – Annual Investment Allowances – are cut
The AIA – the Annual Investment Allowance – will drop to £200,000 at the end of 2020. If your accounting year crosses that date, then you can expect the new transitional rules to unexpectedly restrict your entitlement further. Are there any steps can you take to work around this? (Spoiler alert: yes)
1 November 2019
Payments on Account – what are they?
Payments on Account are the way in which HMRC get you to pay next year’s tax bill in advance. As a result, the idea is very simple but, inevitably, there are added complications that leave everyone scratching their heads.
17 January 2019
VAT Registration tips and hints
The main VAT registration test for an unregistered trader is based on traders checking historic sales on a rolling twelve-month basis to ensure they have not exceeded £85,000. But there is also a second test to consider.
4 January 2019
Not claiming Child Benefit could mean no NI Number for your child
If their parents do no claim Child Benefit, then children born since 2013 may miss out on automatically receiving a national insurance (NI) number that entitles them to work and study in the UK.
27 December 2018
Leases and IFRS 16
IFRS 16 is a new international accounting standard for reporting lease transactions. This will become effective for periods commencing 1 January 2019 if your business prepares its accounts under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or FRS 101.
5 August 2018
Directors, their address, and legal requirements
If you form a limited company there are many responsibilities as a director. One of these is about accounting and one is about transparency of your address. All company directors need to report certain addresses to Companies House, and these will appear on the public record.
11 June 2018
High Income Child Benefit charge
Anyone who is responsible for a child should claim Child Benefit at a rate of £20.70 per week for the first child, and £13.70 for each subsequent child. What’s quoted are the 2018/19 rates and changes should be updated on the HMRC Child Benefit pages once they occur.
2 March 2018
Capital Gains Tax and PPR relief
Capital Gains Tax is chargeable on all gains, including your Principal Private Residence (“PPR”), but there are some allowances and deductions which can reduce the tax you have to pay.
26 December 2017
Scottish Asian Business Awards
Nicolson Accountancy were delighted to have sponsored an award at the 2017 Scottish Asian Business Awards.
12 November 2017
OSCR accounts are an advert
For a few years now we have been advising our clients to treat their OSCR accounts as advertisements for their activities.
23 May 2017
CIS Refunds
Nicolson have recovered around £1,000,000 in CIS for clients in the past 18 months with one client receiving a cheque in excess of £300,000 that their previous agent told them they weren’t due.
14 May 2017
Victory at a VAT Tribunal
Angus Nicolson recently represented a client at a VAT Tribunal. The following is an anonymised account of what happened.
21 April 2017
Limited Cost Traders – FRS VAT implications for FRS
A new flat rate category for limited cost traders will be introduced on 1 April 2017. What are the detailed rules, and are there ways to avoid having to apply the new punitive rate?
17 April 2017
Cyber Security – keeping your data safe
At Nicolson Accountancy we take our Cyber Security very seriously and it is a key part of our business. We know your data is precious so that when you send us information we want you to know that we always keep it safe and secure.
15 December 2016
Scottish Tax rates differ from the rest of the UK
In the Scottish Budget today, Finance Secretary Derek MacKay set the Scottish Tax levels. He announced that the higher rate tax band for individuals resident in Scotland would not increase by as much as that in the rest of the UK.
1 December 2016
British Accountancy Awards – we were winners!
Sue and Angus attended the British Accountancy Awards in The Brewery, London this week, where Nicolson Accountancy was selected as the “Independent Firm of the year – Scotland“.
22 October 2016
Companies must check their CT600 online
“Making tax digital” is the latest change to CT600 forms that will affect taxpayers and although it is some distance away HMRC is making major structural changes in preparation. The latest moves, which it announced on 19 September 2016, include withdrawing tax return confirmations for companies.
30 August 2016
Personal bank statements can be business records
The First-tier Tribunal has confirmed that a taxpayer’s statutory records can include statements for a personal bank account if the account is used for business purposes. As a result, HMRC’s information notice requesting those statements was not appealable. Akrill v HMRC [2016] UKFTT 0550 (TC).
29 May 2016
Attention – Judge & Co clients
If you were formerly a client of Judge & Co and you receive a penalty notice for Kate filing of any tax, then please let us know immediately. We cannot promise to have the penalty waived, but we will submit the outstanding returns and lodge our very best appeal against the penalties.
24 April 2016
Acquisition of Judge & Co
We are delighted to announce that we have acquired the practice of Judge & Co, Chartered Accountants, of Glasgow with immediate effect. Judge & Co was founded in 1999 and serves over 200 clients across Scotland, providing personal tax and accounting services, very similar to our existing clients.
21 April 2016
Changes to dividend tax
We have circulated a newsletter for clients to outline the changes in dividend tax which will occur in April 2016, and you can download a copy of the newsletter.
18 February 2016
Limiting access to Altinn?
If you have received a letter this week from DIFI (who manage the electronic systems for Skatteetaten), you might think that your access to Altinn may be being limited significantly.
5 February 2016
Auto Enrolment penalties surge
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) said that it made 1,021 £400 fixed-penalty notices between 1 October and 31 December on employers that did not automatically put workers into a pension scheme.
9 November 2015
Years of farming losses disallowed
The First-tier Tax Tribunal has refused to allow trading tax relief on the losses of a farmer’s sheep-breeding business, because it had made a loss in several successive years and so had no ‘reasonable expectation of profit’ as required by s68 of the Income Tax Act 2007.
8 November 2015
Disqualified director
It is possible for an individual to be disqualified as a director of any limited company. This can arise where the company has been badly mismanaged; where someone has continued to trade and lose money for their creditors, when they should have taken professional advice.
10 October 2015
Scottish Rate of Income Tax
I read this article in the Tips & Advice Tax newsletter. I think it might be of interest to you too.
14 September 2015
Buy to let loans
Over the four years starting on 6 April 2017 tax relief at higher rates will be progressively phased out for interest on loans which were used to purchase buy-to-let residential properties. From 6 April 2021 the maximum rate of tax relief available will be the basic rate.
3 September 2015
SA302 – tax computations
The following is the update from HMRC contained in the Agent Update 48, at pages 11 and 12. It is dry, but very important if you are seeking a mortgage.
1 September 2015
How to double your Annual Investment Allowance
At present the Annual Investment Allowance is £500,000, but it is due to be cut to £25,000 from 1 January 2016. Is there a possible way to legally increase your claim?
19 August 2015
Tax saving on company loans
The personal tax cost of any company loan you receive is currently low. When the time comes to repay the loan there’s a simple trick you can use to reduce it further. What is this trick and how does it work?
12 August 2015
Maximising your claim for pre-registration VAT
It’s common for new businesses to incur hefty vat liabilities on start-up costs. While you can claim a tax deduction from profits for these, tricky rules mean you might not be entitled to reclaim all the VAT. What steps can you take to maximise the tax recovery?
3 August 2015
What is an Annual Return?
An annual return is a snapshot of certain company information at the made-up date. It is a separate document from a company’s annual accounts.
26 July 2015
Leaving the UK
The introduction of the statutory residence test provides more certainty over residence status now that lifestyle factors are less important.
17 July 2015
R&D tax deductions for capital costs
SMEs can claim enhanced tax relief for research and development (R&D) costs. The bad news is that this doesn’t apply to the equipment used for the project. However, you can make use of a different tax break. What is it?
10 July 2015
VAT on e-services (MOSS)
January 2015 may just have come, but for businesses supplying e-services, broadcasting and telecommunications to consumers cross border, now is the time for the introduction of the MOSS.
9 July 2015
2015 Summer Budget
The 2015 Summer Budget contained a few surprises for everyone, and whilst we all await the fine print in the actual legislation, there are three main issues that are likely to affect our clients.
5 July 2015
Island Games success
Everyone at Nicolson Accountancy wants to congratulate Donnie MacLeod after his triple success in the 2015 Island Games in Jersey last week.
15 June 2015
All Scottish residents to pay new devolved income tax rate from 2016
The new Scottish rate of income tax to be controlled from Holyrood has moved a step nearer with the publication by HM Revenue and Customs of the technical advice on who will need to pay the new tax when it comes into effect from April 2016.
4 April 2015
New VAT rules on customer discounts
New rules on prompt payments came into effect on 1 April 2015. New rules apply to the VAT treatment of prompt payment discounts (PPDs). VAT can only be reduced to reflect the discounted price if the customer pays within the discount period. Previously it applied whether or not the customer paid on time.
2 April 2015
National Insurance for under 21’s
From 6 April 2015 employers with employees under 21 years old will no longer have to pay Class 1 secondary National Insurance contributions (NICs) on earnings up to the Upper Secondary Threshold (UST) for those employees.
15 March 2015
Benefits and expenses tax reform
Radical changes to the benefits and expenses rules have been announced. What are they and when will they come into effect?
24 February 2015
Paperwork is vital with shareholdings
A tribunal was asked to rule on whether some of the shares apparently owned by a director were actually his wife’s. What did the tribunal rule and what useful tax planning tips can shareholders take from it?
