Since April 2016, the amount of tax-free income you can earn from letting a room in your home has increased to £7,500 per annum, or £3,750 if two persons own a property jointly.

You can use the scheme if:

• you let a furnished room to a lodger
• your letting activity amounts to a trade, for example, if you run a guest house or bed and breakfast business, or provide services, such as meals and cleaning

You can’t use the Rent-a-Room Scheme if:

• not part of your main home when you let it
• not furnished
• used as an office or for any business – you can use the scheme if your lodger works in your home in the evening or at weekends or is a student who is provided with study facilities
• in your UK home and is let while you live abroad

If your gross receipts from letting aren’t more than the Rent-a-Room limit of £7,500 (or £3,750 if jointly owned), you don’t pay tax on your profit. If they’re more than the limit, you may still be able to benefit under the Rent-a-Room Scheme.

Gross receipts include:

• rental income (before expenses)
• any amounts you receive for meals, goods and services, such as cleaning or laundry
• any balancing charges

If your gross receipts are less than £7,500 (or £3,750), you are automatically exempt from tax on that income.

If you’ve made a loss, however, it may be better for you to pay tax in the normal way – that is, on your receipts less expenses.

If your gross receipts are more than £7,500 (or £3,750), you can choose how you want to work out your tax. It can be the actual profit made (rents less expenses) or the gross rents received less the £7,500 (£3,750) allowance; whichever produces the better result.

You would be hard pushed to find a tax payer who was happy to pay tax. Whatever the economic benefits of taxation, we would all prefer that someone other than ourselves paid the bill.

Companies are obliged to disclose their corporation tax liabilities in the year in which they are charged. Profits are stated net of tax due and any retained profits are available for the shareholders to draw as dividends.

Sole traders and partnerships do not have to disclose current year’s taxation in current year’s accounts. Therefore, conversations about profitability and income tax can be separated.

Hopefully, readers who are self-employed will have settled any income tax due 31 January 2018. If not, HMRC’s debt collectors will no doubt be calling in their dues. There is also the second payment on account for 2017-18 which is due 31 July 2018.

If you have difficulty paying your tax? What is the best strategy?

Without a doubt, it is not burying your head in the sand. HMRC are quite clear in their advice:

Contact HMRC as soon as possible. You will have to pay interest if you pay tax late and you may avoid penalties by contacting HMRC.

If you can’t pay before the deadline, call the Business Payment Support Service. Anyone can use this service, not just businesses.

Business Payment Support Service
Telephone: 0300 200 3835
Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm
Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 4pm
 

Nominated partners in business partnerships can negotiate time to pay with HMRC on behalf of the partnership or individual partners.

So, if you’ve missed your payment date, or if you’ve received a payment demand, like a tax bill or a letter threatening you with legal action, call the HMRC office that sent you the letter.

Call the Business Payment Support Service if you haven’t received a bill or letter about payment yet.

You will need to convince the person you speak with at HMRC that you have genuine reasons for late payment, so it pays to get your ducks in a row before you call.

The government is looking at ways to incentivised users of vans to go green. According to the statistics, less than one in every two hundred vans (0.4%) bought in 2016/17 was an ultra-low emission model.

To tackle this issue, the government is seeking views on reforms to vehicle excise duty, currently charged at a flat rate of £250 for all vans, to make it more affordable to buy greener models.

In a related matter, the reduced duty rate for red diesel – believed to be holding back the use of cleaner fuels by non-road vehicles and machinery in towns and cities (for example cranes or generators used on construction sites) – is also under the reform microscope.

Red diesel, which accounts for 15% of all diesel consumption in the UK, currently benefits from a reduced rate of 11.14p per litre compared to the standard charge of 57.95p.

A government spokesman is quoted as saying:

“We want to help ‘white van man’ go green. We appreciate that buying a new van is a major investment for small businessmen and women and want to help make environmentally friendly choices more affordable.”

It will explore creating a graduated first year rate for vans, as is already in place for cars. Most van purchases would pay less tax in the first year as a result of the change.

These proposed changes are part of wider proposals to improve air quality in our towns and cities.

For example, red diesel contributes to air pollution by producing nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas that inflames the lining of the lungs. It is particularly harmful for the most vulnerable in our society, such as children with asthma living in urban areas where it is used by non-road vehicles and machinery.

The reduced rate of duty for red diesel costs around £2.4 billion a year in revenue compared to if duty was charged at the main rate. Red diesel for agricultural use, fishing vessels, home-heating and other static generators, will be out of scope.

HMRC is launching a new consultation to make sure that people who effectively work as employees pay the right amount of tax.

As announced at the Autumn Budget, the consultation will look at how to increase compliance with the existing ‘off-payroll’ working rules. These rules mean that contractors such as IT and management consultants who work through their own company, but are in practice employed by a third party, pay the right tax as employees.

Evidence suggests that the tax will be lost of up to £1.2bn a year by 2023 as a result of people getting the rules wrong, and incorrectly paying tax as if they were self-employed. The consultation will look at how to make these rules work better. The genuinely self-employed will not be affected.

Last April, the government reformed off-payroll working in the public sector, successfully increasing compliance. The change has meant £410 million in additional revenue. This new consultation includes the option of extending those reforms to the private sector, although no decisions have been made. It draws upon the lessons from the public sector change, by consulting on how the rules can be improved for the private sector and includes alternative options for addressing non-compliance.

Existing off-payroll working rules (IR35) were introduced in 2000 and are intended to stop individuals avoiding employment taxes by working through their own company. IR35 affects contractors including IT consultants, management consultants, and project managers.

HMRC estimates that in 90% of cases within the private sector, the IR35 rules are not applied correctly and we should probably expect that this consultation will result in tightening of the IR35 regulations.

Genuinely self-employed persons will not be affected.

Readers may remember that in April 2017, the government reformed the off-payroll working rules for engagements in the public sector. Public authorities are now responsible for determining whether the rules apply and deducting and paying the appropriate taxes.

Apparently, external research on initial implementation shows that the reform has had relatively little impact on projects or vacancy filling in the public sector.

The consultation will close on 10th August 2018 and we will add further commentary on this topic as and if changes are subsequently made.

There is something uniquely satisfying about a tax refund. Of course, you must first overpay tax before it can be refunded, but there is a universal joy in receiving a cheque or direct payment to your bank account from HMRC.

Occasionally, HMRC will volunteer the information, they may even send you a formal assessment and advise you that a refund can be claimed. A more likely prompt will come from your accountant as we have an eye for these things…

A selection of situations that may lead to an overpayment are published on HMRC’s website, and we have to say, the list is not complete. They include the following.

You may have overpaid tax if you:

• are employed and had too much tax taken from your pay, perhaps due to inaccurate coding of your tax allowances, benefits or expense claims;
• have stopped work;
• have submitted a tax return that discloses that too much tax has been paid;
• have paid too much tax on pension payments you have received;
• or if you have bought a life annuity.

You may also be able to reclaim tax if you have:

• used your own money for your job, for example, if you have paid for car fuel costs, work clothing or other expense that you have incurred specifically for your work;
• paid tax on savings interest if you’re on a low income
• if you live in one country and have income in another – how you do this depends on whether you’re a UK resident with foreign income or a non-resident with UK income.

You may also have been entitled to claim an allowance, say the Marriage Allowance, and were slow to make the claim – in our experience HMRC will advise you that such allowances exist, but not that you could make a claim.

More of HMRC’s systems are being computerised, and surprise, surprise, accidents do happen. Without the watchful human touch, it is down to taxpayers or their advisors to spot the faux pars.

If you have that itch, that maybe you have paid too much tax, we would be delighted to cast an eye over your numbers and fire off a few pointed questions to narrow down the possibility that maybe you too have paid too much tax.

We have all heard of individuals who have been affected by the nefarious antics of loan sharks, lenders that breach the normal fiscal rules by taking advantage of needy persons who do not qualify for support from mainstream banking sources.

The government has announced additional funding to crack down on this activity. Their announcement, published 25 April, is worth a mention.

Loan sharks face a fresh crackdown today (25 April), with more funding to tackle unlawful lending, and an increase in the amount of money seized from loan sharks to support those most vulnerable to their nasty tactics.

• over £5.5 million will be spent to fund the fight against loan sharks, helping to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and support their victims
• £100,000 of money already seized from loan sharks will also be spent to encourage people in England at risk of being targeted by loan sharks to join a credit union, helping them to access a safer form of finance and get their lives back on track
• and for the first time in Northern Ireland a new education project will be created to raise awareness of the dangers of loan sharks and to support vulnerable communities

In total, £5.67 million of funding will be provided to Britain’s Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLT) and bodies in Northern Ireland to tackle illegal lending – a 16% increase compared to the previous year. The money will be used to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and to support those who have been the victim of a loan shark.

Since the Illegal Money Lending Team was established in England in 2004, they’ve made over 380 prosecutions, leading to 328 years’ worth of sentences, and have written off over £73 million of illegal debt, helping over 28,000 people to escape the jaws of the loan sharks. Similar teams operate in Scotland and Wales.

In Northern Ireland, the Consumer Council will lead its first ever education and awareness campaign to help prevent the most vulnerable from being bitten by loan sharks, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will get funding for a specialised officer who will lead on illegal lending within the Paramilitary Crime Task Force.

Whilst government action in these areas is to be applauded, there seems to be no concerted action to assist organisations that do provide credit to individuals who would find it difficult to obtain credit from a High Street bank or other regulated sources.

A typical two parent, two child family can claim £34.40 per week in Child Benefit (CB). In a tax year this would amount to £1,789.

Often, this becomes part of the family housekeeping and is spent.

Consider Mary and John and their two children. John collects the CB, it is paid into his current account and used to fund the household budget. John elected to stay at home and look after the management of the family. Mary is a solicitor and has a full-time job in a local practice.

In the current tax year, Mary will receive bonuses that increase her salary to £60,000. This is £10,000 more than her previous year’s salary which amounted to £50,000. After a 40% income tax deduction, Mary will receive an additional £6,000. Mary and John decide to use the extra cash to part finance a holiday in Florida and top up their ISAs.

Imagine their surprise when Mary discovers her self-assessment tax bill is £1,800 more than she expected. The culprit, the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC).

The HICBC levies an additional tax charge on families that claim CB and where one of the parents earns more than £50,000 in a tax year. Effectively, CB must be repaid at the rate of 1% of CB received for every £100 the highest earner’s income exceeds £50,000. In Mary’s case, this excess income was £10,000 and therefore 100% of any CB received will have to be repaid. Accordingly, Mary’s self-assessment included a £1,789 HICBC.

Reluctantly, Mary and John had to withdraw the £1,789 from their ISAs.

Mary thought that receiving just £6,000 of her £10,000 bonus was bad enough, but she now realises that the true “tax” cost was £5,789 (£4,000 income tax and £1,789 HICBC). The combined tax hit was not 40% of her income but 58%.

Parents who exceed the £50,000 income limit for the first time and draw CB will find themselves in a similar position to Mary and John and will need to plan accordingly.

1 May 2018 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 July 2017.

19 May 2018 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 May 2018. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 May 2018)

19 May 2018 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 May 2018.

19 May 2018 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 May 2018 is payable by today.

31 May 2018 – Ensure all employees have been given their P60s for the 2017-18 tax year.

1 June 2018 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 August 2017.

19 June 2018 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 June 2018. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 June 2018)

19 June 2018 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 June 2018.

19 June 2018 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 June 2018 is payable by today.

If you are claiming tax credits make sure that you keep an eye on changes that may affect the amount you receive.

Your payments can go up if:

• your income goes down by more than £2,500
• your benefits stop or go down
• you start getting personal independence payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or other disability benefits for yourself or a child
• you have a child
• your childcare costs go up

You should report these changes within 1 month to make sure you get everything you’re entitled to. Payments can’t usually be backdated any further than this.

Your payments can go down or stop if:

• your income goes up by more than £2,500 – report this straight away to reduce the amount you’re overpaid
• you haven’t renewed your claim
• your award notice shows you’ve been overpaid
• you stop getting PIP, DLA or other disability benefits for yourself or a child
• your child is now 16, 18 or 19 and you haven’t told the Tax Credit Office they’re in approved education or training
• your childcare costs go down
• you or your partner start claiming Universal Credit

As you would expect there are a range of conditions that affect the answer to this question. We have reproduced below a summary of the main conditions to be observed.

Workers must be at least school leaving age to get the National Minimum Wage. They must be 25 or over to get the National Living Wage.

Contracts for payments below the minimum wage are not legally binding. The worker is still entitled to the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.

Workers are also entitled to the correct minimum wage if they are:

• part-time
• casual labourers, for example someone hired for one day
• agency workers
• workers and homeworkers paid by the number of items they make
• apprentices
• trainees, workers on probation
• disabled workers
• agricultural workers
• foreign workers
• seafarers
• offshore workers

Apprentices are entitled to the apprentice rate if they’re either:

• under 19
• 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship

Apprentices over 19 who have completed the first year of their apprenticeship are entitled to the correct minimum wage for their age.

The following types of workers aren’t entitled to the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage:

• self-employed people running their own business
• company directors
• volunteers or voluntary workers
• workers on a government employment programme, such as the Work Programme
• members of the armed forces
• family members of the employer living in the employer’s home
• non-family members living in the employer’s home who share in the work and leisure activities, are treated as one of the family and aren’t charged for meals or accommodation, for example au pairs
• workers younger than school leaving age (usually 16)
• higher and further education students on a work placement up to 1 year
• workers on government pre-apprenticeships schemes
• people on the following European Union programmes: Leonardo da Vinci, Youth in Action, Erasmus, Comenius
• people working on a Jobcentre Plus Work trial for 6 weeks
• share fishermen
• prisoners
• people living and working in a religious community

Up to 5 April 2018, certain payments in lieu of notice were not taxable, primarily, those not contractually required to be made.

This is no longer the case.

Employers will now need to pay Income Tax and Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) on an element of all termination payments from 6 April 2018, whether or not they are contractual payments.

The element that is now chargeable to Income Tax and NICs is the amount of the termination payment that represents payment in lieu of notice (PILON). This change applies to payments, or benefits received on, or after, 6 April 2018 in circumstances where the employment also ended on, or after, 6 April 2018. This follows an announcement at Budget 2016 that government would introduce rules to prevent employers from manipulating the system.

This measure is intended to bring fairness and clarity to the taxation of termination payments by making it clear that all PILONs, rather than just contractual PILONs, are taxable earnings.

All employees will pay Income Tax and Class 1 NICs on the amount of basic pay that they would have received if they had worked their notice in full, even if they are not paid a contractual PILON.

This means the tax and NIC consequences are the same for everyone and are no longer dependent on how the employment contract is drafted or whether payments are structured in some other form, such as damages.

Now that Wales and Scotland have devolved powers for taxation purposes, residents that live and work in the border areas with England have more planning options.

Wales have their own stamp duty regime from April 2018, the Land Transaction Tax (LTT), and Scotland, from April 2015, the Land & Building Transaction Tax (LBTT). Scotland have devolved powers to set their own rates of Income Tax.

Regarding property purchases, this can create interesting differences for individuals buying in the border areas of Wales/England and Scotland/England. For example:

Consider Llanymynech, a village that straddles the border between Powys (Wales) and Shropshire (England). The amount of stamp duty payable on an identically priced house, say £179,000, would cost the buyer £1,080 in Stamp Duty Land Tax if bought in the English side of the village, but no Land Transaction Tax would be payable for an equivalently priced house on the Welsh side of the village. A definite incentive to buy in this price bracket the Welsh side of the border.

If you live in the Scotland/England border areas and you are contemplating the purchase of an expensive property and your budget is £1m, you may want to consider the following numbers:

• Buying in Scotland would cost you £78,350 in Land & Building Transaction Tax, and
• Buying in England would cost you a mere £43,750 in Stamp Duty Land Tax.

Scotland has also set its own Income Tax rates for 2018-19. So, depending on the amount of your income, you may pay variable rates of Income Tax depending on which side of the border you choose to live.