Archive for September, 2021

Dividend tax increase 2022

Thursday, September 30th, 2021

As well as increasing National Insurance contributions from April 2022 – the 1.25% increase announced earlier this month – the Treasury also increased the hybrid income tax rates applied to dividends received, by the same amount and from the same date.

The changes from April 2022 are:

  • The first £2,000 of dividends received are free of any additional tax charge, no change here.
  • If you are a basic rate tax payer, your dividend income in excess of £2,000 will be taxed at 8.75% (presently 7.5%).
  • If you are a higher rate tax payer, any dividend income that falls into the higher rate band will be taxed at 33.75% (presently 32.5%).
  • If you are an additional rate tax payer, any dividend income that falls into the additional rate band will be taxed at 39.35% (presently 38.1%).

These increases are unlikely to influence the present planning options available to director/shareholders of smaller companies that have adopted the high dividend, low salary approach to reduce exposure to NIC charges.

However, after tax income from dividends will reduce.

Other share owners who have their funds in tax-exempt wrappers, ISAs for example, will be unaffected by these changes.

Investors who have fairly significant portfolios outside tax exempt investments may suffer tax increases on these income sources.

With average dividend yields running at approximately 3.5%, you would need to have a portfolio in excess of £57,000 to breach the £2,000 tax-free limit.

HMRC warns students of tax scams

Tuesday, September 28th, 2021

HMRC is warning university students new to the world of working to be wary of potential scams.

With higher numbers joining university, we are likely to see more students take on part-time work. As many young people may be unfamiliar with HMRC and legitimate contact from the department could make them vulnerable to scams.

There have been almost one million reported scams to the HMRC over the past year, with nearly half including offers of false tax refunds or demands for tax payments – HMRC does not offer refunds or request personal data or payments by SMS or email.

Those behind such scams are generally trying to steal money or access personal information to sell on to others. Being a familiar brand, scammers abuse HMRC’s name to add credibility to their crimes.

Links, files and attachments can also download dangerous software onto a device. This can then gather personal data or lock the recipient’s machine until they pay an un-lock ransom.

Between April and May this year, 18 – 24-year-olds reported more than 5,000 phone scams to HMRC.

 

Head of Cyber Security Operations at HMRC, Mike Fell, said:

“Most students won’t have paid tax before, and so could easily be duped by scam texts, emails or calls either offering a ‘refund’ or demanding unpaid tax.

“Our advice is to be wary if you are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or personal information. We see high numbers of fraudsters contacting people claiming to be from HMRC. If in doubt, our advice is – do not reply directly to anything suspicious, but contact HMRC through GOV.UK straight away and search GOV.UK for ‘HMRC scams’.”

NIC and Levy high jinks

Thursday, September 23rd, 2021

No surprises when the Prime Minister announced a hefty 1.25% increase in NIC Class 1 and Class 4 rates from April 2022. The announcement was widely predicted.

Effectively, this is a tax increase on earnings (employed or self-employed) and on costs for employers. It is odd that a 1.25% increase in Income Tax would have created a virtual storm of protest, not only from Conservative politicians and voters aggrieved by the back-peddling on election promises, but by tax payers generally. Whereas, an equivalent increase in National Insurance sails through parliament with hardly a ripple from back-benchers on the blue side of the room.

The Treasury seem wedded to this belief, that a rise in NIC is to be preferred to a rise in Income Tax.

So how will this increase affect business owners?

Employees will bear the brunt of this increase. Smaller employers may escape liability for employers’ contributions by claiming exemption proffered by the Employment Allowance (EA). The EA exempts employers from their Class 1 contributions if they do not exceed £4,000 in the current tax year.

Unfortunately, employers will have to pay the increase in Class 1A NIC which is payable as a fixed percentage of taxable benefits in kind it has provided to employees and staff. The current rate of 13.8% will increase to 15.05% from April 2022, although this charge is an allowable deduction for corporation tax purposes.

There is no equivalent of the EA for the self-employed. Profits chargeable to the Class 4 NIC charges will be subject to a 1.25% increase in the main rate (from 9% to 10.25%) and the higher rate (from 2% to 3.25%) from April 2022.

Surprisingly, from April 2023 this 1.25% increase is withdrawn from NIC rates, and instead morphs into the new Health and Social Care Levy. Does this mean that the Treasury now have two soft candidates for future tax increases on income?

Employed persons who have passed their State Pension age do not presently pay Class 1 NIC on their earnings. This will continue to be the case but, when the 1.25% increase becomes the Health and Social Care Levy from April 2023, this Levy will be deducted from their earning, presumably based on similar criteria to Class 1 NIC.

What about dividends?

Director/shareholders in private companies tend to take the bulk of their earnings as dividends in order to trim NIC costs (dividends are not subject to NIC). However, dividends are subject to a hybrid form of Income Tax and these hybrid rates will also increase by 1.25% from April 2022.

Is tax going to become less complicated as a result of these changes, clearly not. At a single stroke the government has created extra work for HMRC (to develop systems to calculate and collect the new Levy); created similar activity for payroll software developers and managed to introduced a new tax – something that we have not seen for some time – and that will be earmarked for the NHS and Social Care budgets, a so-called hypothecated tax.

Government backs UK entrepreneurs with six hundred million of Start Up loans

Tuesday, September 21st, 2021

The UK Government’s Start Up Loans scheme has now provided £600 million in loans to small businesses outside London, providing extensive support for entrepreneurs across the UK.

The initiative, run by the British Business Bank, was created in 2012 to provide a wide range of smaller businesses with more opportunities to create jobs, expand and develop.

Businesses and entrepreneurs in the North West of England received the most loans outside of London, totalling over £94 million, with those in the South East receiving over £81 million.

Aspiring business owners receive up to £25,000 through the Start Up Loans Scheme, providing support and mentoring services.

Small Business Minister, Paul Scully, said:

“There is so much creativity and dynamism across the UK, but without access to funding and support it’s difficult to fully unlock the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country great.

“The Start Up Loans programme has helped a diverse range of entrepreneurs across the UK to get their business off the ground, levelling up the entire country and enabling talented business leaders from all backgrounds to flourish.”

 

Recipient of the £600 millionth pound

The recipient of the Start Up Loans programme’s £600 millionth pound was Will Smith, from Northern Ireland. Taking out a loan of £6,000 in January 2020 to launch a bespoke wooden furniture company – Woodwork by Will – the business owner was able to invest in essential machinery and a table saw.

With his own machinery (he was using a friend’s prior to receiving the loan), a job that would have taken three days can now be completed in less than one, enabling him to produce more high-quality artisan products.

Will Smith, Founder of Woodwork by Will, said:

“The support I have received from the British Business Bank has accelerated my business 12 months beyond where it would have been.

I found the whole process with the Bank very straightforward and would have no hesitation in recommending Start Up Loans to other entrepreneurs.”

What is round the corner?

Thursday, September 16th, 2021

Having glimpsed the light at the end of the COVID tunnel, many of us will have everything crossed that progress towards normality will continue. The winter months are not a brilliant time for infection and we should expect the usual rash of flu, and now COVID, cases to increase.

In the past two years words such as unprecedented and exceptional have become widely used. But do we need to redefine the new normal to include these uncertainties?

What is round the corner?

Government, apparently, is bending to medical opinion that the October, half-term break should be extended and compulsory mask wearing extended if, as is likely, infections rise and threaten the ability of the NHS to cope.

Regional variations will continue to plague a consistent approach even though the borders can be crossed with impunity.

Business owners – having spent the summer reasonably free of restrictions – will dread the thought that compulsory homeworking will return or that their last-ditch attempts to recover from lockdown closure are about to be reversed.

We live in uncertain times and to survive we need to react and reshape our business plans based on current challenges. Strategies need to be developed and implemented that acknowledge the disruption of the past two years and plan, albeit reluctantly, for their unwelcome return.

We recommend that business owners keep an eye on the following in order to minimise any exposure to these disruptive influences:

  • Staffing – now is not a good time to operate with surplus capacity.
  • Cash flow – you should have forecasts for at least six months to a year ahead so you can see when dips in funding require action.
  • Investment – are there investments in IT, software, equipment or other assets that will improve your ability to trade in a stressed market?
  • Financials – are you profitable? Can you sustain loss-making periods? If so for how long? Are you solvent? How long can you sustain loss-making activity before you become insolvent?

We can help you create and maintain vigilance in these areas. Call if you need more information.

Aside from COVID issues, supply lines continue to be stretched due to transport delays – not enough drivers – and locally grown crops may become food for the birds if “pickers” cannot be found at harvest time. The transfer of goods back and forth from the EU continues to be an issue as border controls struggle to deal with the Brexit enforced end of free movement.

There is much in the “uncertainty” pot to consider. To quote yet another cliché, we are not out of the woods, just yet.

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