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Chartered Accountants | Business Development Specialists | Registered Auditors.
Abbey House, 342 Regents Park Road, Finchley, Barnet, London, N3 2LJ
(Also offices in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire)
Growing your business is our business
The end of the tax year is fast approaching and it will soon be time to start filling out the dreaded forms P9D and P11D. The area of PAYE and benefits compliance is something that HMRC focus on. It can be complicated, easy to make mistakes and can raise substantial extra tax and national insurance for HMRC over many years.
There are certain areas that HMRC commonly review and you may wish to look at these to ensure a clean bill of health.
Do you pay anyone on a self employed basis? Are you confident that they are not an employee for tax purposes? You may wish to review the arrangements, both contractual and otherwise, to ensure the self employment position can be maintained.
We are in times where redundancies and lay offs are becoming more commonplace. It may be possible to make a payment on leaving of up to £30,000 tax free. However, the rules are complex and the conditions for tax free status are not easy to meet. Please contact us before any payments are made.
Private use of an employer provided van is tax free provided that as well as business use, it is only used for 'ordinary commuting' and no other form of private use. 'Ordinary commuting' has a particular tax meaning. In addition, HMRC may want to see evidence that other private use is prohibited and documentary evidence that it actually does not happen. Review your van policies to ensure these tests are met.
Where the employer provides an employee with a car, then a benefit in kind generally arises. If fuel for private purposes is also provided to that employee, then a further benefit in kind arises! Unless private mileage is high, the benefit on the free fuel generally makes this policy uneconomic to the driver and business. HMRC also look closely at situations where a business pays for all fuel and the employee reimburses the private element - good policies and records are needed to avoid problems.
The rules exempt certain payments made to employees to cover incidental expenses that they may incur while staying away from home overnight on business, such as newspapers, telephone calls, etc. However, the maximum amounts of that an employer may pay tax free are £5/night in the UK and £10/night abroad on average. If payments exceed these limits, the whole of the payment becomes liable to tax and national insurance and, these days, £5/night doesn't go very far!
Staff entertaining, such as taking staff out for lunch as part of the appraisal process, is an allowable business deduction but may well be taxable as a benefit in kind.
Tax is not charged in respect of awards made to employees as testimonials to mark long service which take the form of tangible articles (not cash). The tax free limit is £50 per year of service once the period of service reaches 20 years.
Where an employee is provided with a car by their employer, then no benefit in kind will arise if it is a 'pool' car. A car only qualifies as a pool car if it is available to, and used by, more than one employee; any private use by an employee is merely incidental to its business use; and it is not normally kept at home overnight. HMRC interpret these tests strictly and good evidence is needed to avoid a charge arising.
And finally, the most common sort of payment that employers generally make to employees is to meet the cost of travel and subsistence costs, including hotels, whilst the employee is working. Often such payments will be tax free but the rules are not simple - HMRC explain them in a 100-page booklet (IR490)!
Forward planning, including good records and policies, will avoid trouble with the taxman in these areas. Please do contact us if this is an area that you would like to discuss further.
Autumn 2011 headlines
We provide four Quarterly News Journals packed with useful breaking news, all intended to keep you up to date with the latest information. We display one years worth of news, just in case you have missed something.
We provide four Quarterly News Journals annually, packed with useful breaking news, all intended to keep you up to date with the latest information. We display one years worth of news, just in case you have missed something.
We offer of all four of our quarterly news editions (AND the Budget Edition) in printed form to all our clients free of charge. Call us on 0800 146134 or contact us to subscribe.