Essential monthly tax news and marketing strategies for busy accounting and tax professionals.

3 minute read.

Even if a benefit is not exempt from tax and National Insurance, it can still be beneficial from the employee’s perspective to choose the benefit rather than cash salary, as this will save the employee Class 1 National Insurance contributions.  

8 minute read.

The appellant was taxable on 50% of rental profits from a property jointly owned with her husband, notwithstanding that all the net rents were paid to and retained by him.

1 minute read.

We’re exhibiting at Accountex today and tomorrow (1 – 2 May) at ExCel London. Come visit us at Stand 1231 to meet our team and get exclusive offers!

If you can’t make it to the show you can still access our Tax Insider Professional newsletter offer – check it out here.

5 minute read.

Andrew Needham considers whether claiming bad debt relief is as straightforward as it seems and looks at two areas that can cause confusion.

The basics of claiming bad debt relief (BDR) are contained in VATA 1994, s 36, and permit BDR to be claimed from HMRC when an invoice remains unpaid, or partly unpaid, for six months after the due date for payment on the VAT return covering the period when the BDR becomes claimable.

4 minute read.

Although the alternative valuation rules for benefits provided under optional remuneration arrangements (OpRAs) apply generally from 6 April 2017 (see Tip 3), transitional rules applied to arrangements in existence on 5 April 2017, the effect of which is to delay the date from which the alternative valuation rules apply.

1 minute read.

This is quick tip number 2 in our series of marketing for accountants guides.

An audience persona is a profile of your target client that describes them as though they are a real person. An audience persona is different to a target audience, this persona is your ideal client and considers the decisions they make before committing to a service.

6 minute read.

The taxpayer was not entitled to private residence relief on the disposal of a property because she did not occupy it with the intention that it would be her permanent home.

4 minute read.

Reducing the ‘tax gap’ is at the heart of HMRC’s strategy towards full digitalisation. The ‘tax gap’ is the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid and what is actually paid. According to HMRC’s Official Statistics Release of June 2018 the ‘tax gap’ is estimated at £55bn which is 5.7% of the total current tax take, equivalent to half of the annual defence budget.

Approximately 10% of this is estimated as being lost via tax evasion. Although HMRC stress that any taxpayer could be the subject to an enquiry, the reality is that enquiries are either based on computer generated ‘behavioural technology’ risk-based selections or as a result of information received from sources.

3 minute read.

The benefits of using a salary sacrifice or other optional remuneration arrangement (OpRA) were seriously curtailed from 6 April 2017 following the introduction of alternative valuation rules that apply where a benefit or expense is provided via an OpRA. The definition of an OpRA includes not only salary sacrifice schemes, but also flexible benefit arrangements and arrangements, such as cash or cash, where the employee is offered the choice between a non-cash benefit and a cash alternative.

4 minute read.

Digital marketing covers any form of marketing that uses electronic devices. In this blog we list some simple and free digital marketing for accountants strategies that you might not have thought of but are easy to implement to increase your reach online without having to dedicate too much of your time to.