The following announcement provides encouragement that a replacement for the EU State Aid process is in development. Details from a recent Government press release are set out below.

A new UK-wide system for providing more flexible and tailored financial support to businesses has been set out under plans by the Business Secretary, taking advantage of the UK’s newfound freedoms as an independent trading nation.

The new subsidy control system, which will be the long-term replacement for the EU’s prescriptive state aid regime, will allow the UK to be more dynamic in providing support to businesses, including in innovative, R&D-focused industries, to encourage job creation and growth across all parts of the UK.

Previously, public authorities had to follow a bureaucratic, detailed set of EU controls – and may have needed prior approval from the European Commission before providing vital funds to viable businesses or pursuing key domestic policy objectives.

Under the proposed UK system, local authorities, public bodies and the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast will be empowered to decide if they can issue taxpayer subsidies by following a set of UK-wide principles. These principles will ensure subsidies are designed in such a way that they deliver strong benefits and good value for money for the UK taxpayer, while being awarded in a timely and effective way.

The new system will be designed to be more flexible, agile and tailored to support business growth and innovation as well as maintain a competitive market economy and protect the UK internal market. At the same time, it will help protect against wasteful spending.

The system would also better enable the government to deliver on key priorities such as levelling up economic growth in the regions, tackling climate change, as well as supporting our economic recovery as we build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is doubtful that HMRC will change the tax year end date. The current tax year will therefore come to an end on 5 April 2021.

Which means that tax-payers still have two months (February and March 2021) to take advantage of any tax planning strategies that may advantage their tax liabilities for 2020-21.

As COVID disruption is likely to take most of 2021 to unwind – and may spill over to 2022 – any action you can take to reduce a drain on cash flow by saving tax should be considered.

For example:

• If your self-employed business income has dropped significantly during 2020-21, any tax losses created may be available to carry back to previous tax years when you paid tax. As a result, it may be possible to boost your cash flow with a tax repayment.
• You still have time to fully utilise any capital gains tax exemptions for 2020-21.
• Have you considered the annual gifts allowances that are basically tax-free for 2020-21?

If your finances allow, have you considered:

• Topping up your pension contributions?
• Making further charitable donations to reduce higher rate tax?
• Strategies to reduce your income below £100,000 and thus avoid losing all or part of your personal tax allowance.
• If you or your spouse has increased their taxable income to more than £50,000 during 2020-21, and you claim child benefits, this may trigger an additional tax charge to recover all or part of the child benefits you have received.

To check out these and numerous other tax-saving opportunities please call so that we can discuss your options. Your chance to take advantage of tax planning ideas for 2020-21 will end for individuals on 5 April 2021.

During the last week of January, HMRC finally accepted that many tax-payers would not make the filing deadline – 31 January 2021 – for their 2019-20 self-assessment tax return; due, in the main, to continuing COVID disruption.

As a gesture, they have confirmed that:

Self-Assessment tax-payers who cannot file their tax return by the 31 January 2021 deadline will not receive a late filing penalty if they file online by 28 February.

Whilst this a welcome recognition of the difficulties many tax-payers face as they struggle with lock-down or are actually infected by the virus, the filing deadline has not changed, only the date from which late filing penalties will apply.

Accordingly, any tax or NIC due on 31 January 2021 – determined when 2019-20 returns are finally filed – will still be payable by 31 January 2021. Payments made after this date will be subject to interest charges.

If COVID has depleted your cash reserves and you are struggling to pay any tax due on 31 January, you can apply to HMRC to spread the payments up to twelve months. In their press release issued 25 January 2021, HMRC said:

Tax-payers are still obliged to pay their bill by 31 January. Interest will be charged from 1 February on any outstanding liabilities. They can pay online, or via their bank, or by post before they file. More information on how to pay is at GOV.UK.

Tax-payers who cannot afford to pay their tax bill on time can apply online to spread their bill over up to 12 months. But they will need to file their 2019-20 tax return before setting up a time to pay arrangement, so HMRC is encouraging everyone to do this as soon as possible.

In other words, to make a formal agreement to spread the cost of any tax payments, tax-payers will need to file their 2019-20 return.

The late filing penalty deferred is the automatic £100 fine. This will now be applied if your tax return is still outstanding after 28 February 2021.

1 February 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax payable for the year ended 30 April 2020.

19 February 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 February 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 February 2021)

19 February 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 February 2021.

19 February 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 February 2021 is payable by today.

1 March 2021 – Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 May 2020.

2 March 2021 – Self assessment tax for 2019/20 paid after this date will incur a 5% surcharge.

19 March 2021 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 March 2021. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 March 2021)

19 March 2021 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 March 2021.

19 March 2021 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 March 2021 is payable by today.

If you took advantage of the offer to defer VAT payments falling due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 – to help out with the impact of COVID disruption – your now have three choices. You can:

• pay the deferred VAT in full on or before 31 March 2021
• opt in to the VAT deferral new payment scheme when it launches in 2021
• contact HMRC if you need more help to pay

If you want to opt in to the new payment scheme

You cannot opt in yet. The online opt-in process will be available in early 2021. You must opt-in yourself, we cannot do this for you. Instead of paying the full amount by the end of March 2021, you can make up to 11 smaller monthly instalments, interest free. All instalments must be paid by the end of March 2022.

The scheme will allow you to:

• pay your deferred VAT in instalments without adding interest
• select the number of instalments from 2 to 11 equal monthly payments

To use this scheme, you must:

• still have deferred VAT to pay
• be up to date with your VAT returns
• opt-in before the end of March 2021
• pay the first instalment before the end of March 2021
• be able to pay the deferred VAT by Direct Debit

If you opt-in to the scheme, you can still have a time to pay arrangement for other HMRC debts and outstanding tax.

Get ready to opt in to the new payment scheme

Before opting in you must:

• create your own Government Gateway account if you don’t already have one
• submit any outstanding VAT returns from the last 4 years. You will not be able to join the scheme if you have not done so
• correct errors on your VAT returns as soon as possible. Corrections received after 31 December 2020 may not show in your deferred VAT balance
• make sure you know how much you owe, including the amount you originally deferred and how much you may have already paid

You should also:

• pay what you can as soon as possible to allow HMRC to show the correct deferred VAT balance
• consider the number of equal instalments you’ll need, from 2 to 11 months