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New Guidance on Gift Aid declarations for Charities

Posted by: edwinsmith on March 30th, 2012

HMRC published revised guidance on Gift Aid declarations on 24 February 2012. This was to ensure that the donor pays enough tax to cover all their charitable donations and not just the donations made to the particular charity at the time. This has been the case but the mandatory information on the new model gift aid declaration form ensures that the donor is making an informed declaration and understands the consequences if they have not paid enough tax to cover the declarations e.g. donor pays income tax or capital gains tax in the relevant tax year at least equal to all the tax that charities etc will reclaim in that tax year on the donors charitable gifts.

Charities do not need to change their existing gift aid forms immediately and HMRC will continue to accept Gift Aid claims on donations made using old HMRC model declaration forms until 31 December 2012.

Full details of the new guidance on gift aid declarations can be found on the HMRC website.

The HMRC website also has details of the new model forms.

Please contact us for more details.

Filed under: Tax

[Archive] VAT returns online for all VAT-registered businesses

Posted by: edwinsmith on March 27th, 2012

From 1 April 2012, all VAT-registered businesses must send their VAT returns online and pay their VAT electronically. Currently, only newly-registered businesses, and those with turnovers of more than £100,000, have to file and pay their VAT online. The new rules will cover VAT returns filed for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2012.
To file your VAT return online, you'll need to register for HMRC Online services. Further help and advice is available from the HMRC website or contact us.

Filed under: VAT

Budget 2012

Posted by: edwinsmith on March 22nd, 2012

Below are the 2012 Budget highlights.

  • Personal allowance to be increased to £9,205 in 2013/14, and the higher rate threshold reduced by £1,025 to £41,450.
  • Age allowance to be frozen from 2013/14 and then phased out.
  • Limit on maximum amount of income tax reliefs that can be claimed from 2013/14.
  • Additional rate of income tax reduced to 45% from 2013/14.
  • 7% SDLT rate for residential properties valued at over £2 million and new measures to counter ownership through corporate entities.
  • No changes to main pensions tax reliefs.
  • Restrictions on the tax relief available on benefits from regular premium life assurance policies.
  • Child benefit to be phased out where income is over £50,000.
  • Corporation tax main rate cut to 24% from April 2012 and to 22% by April 2014.
  • Voluntary cash basis based on turnover for tax on profits of small unincorporated businesses. In consultation but likely to start from 6 April 2013.
  • An increase from £120,000 to £250,000 in the individual grant limit for EMI schemes.
  • A further tightening of the car benefit rules through to 2016/17.

Please contact us if you would like to know more.  However, a more detailed analysis will be published soon.

Filed under: Budget Report

Electricians’ Tax Safe Plan Campaign

Posted by: edwinsmith on March 9th, 2012

HMRC have announced their latest campaign to target rule breakers and home in on tax evaders - the Electricians’ Tax Safe Plan (ETSP) campaign.  If you are an electrician and you've not yet told HMRC that you have started working for yourself or you've not disclosed all your income, you can use the ETSP to enable any unreported income to be declared and the related tax paid to. By making a disclosure under the ETSP you may benefit as follows:

  • you may only have to pay for a maximum of six tax years
  • you can tell HMRC how much penalty you should pay
  • you may be able to pay what you owe by instalments

If you owe tax in respect of anything else such as capital gains or rental income you can use the ETSP to tell HMRC about that too and make a full disclosure.

Under the ETSP an electrician is anyone who installs, maintains and tests electrical systems, equipment and appliances under stringent safety regulations.

If you wish to use the plan to bring your affairs up to date you will need to tell HMRC by 15 May 2012 that you intend to make a disclosure and follow this up with a full disclosure and payment of the tax liability by 14 August 2012.

If you think that you have not paid the correct amount of tax or would like advice please contact us.

Filed under: HMRC campaigns, Tax