RS Accountants

The end of wear and tear allowance will affect the property tax

by Russell Smith | Nov 2, 2015 | Tax

If you have an investment property, you are probably familiar with the wear and tear allowance. It is used to provide tax relief to landlords for the cost of replacing furnishings in rented residential accommodation. This was a set 10% of your net rental income and...

Is overnight accommodation a tax deductible expense?

by Russell Smith | Oct 16, 2015 | Tax

If you have to stay away in your business, the hotel accommodation and reasonable costs of overnight subsistence are deductible. This does not extend to overnight accommodation and subsistence at your office, even if there is a contractual requirement for the trader...

Have You Put Tax Aside for January 31st? 4 Reasons to Save

by Russell Smith | Oct 14, 2015 | Tax

It’s always tax season when you work for a chartered accountancy firm. We’re constantly thinking about how to make things easy for our clients. Don’t know how much to save for tax? Here’s what we recommend. January 31st is a day all accountants have marked on their...

Getting statutory maternity pay in advance

by Russell Smith | Oct 13, 2015 | Tax

If you are 1-2 person limited company and one of you is about to have a baby you can claim back statutory maternity pay. Statutory maternity pay is paid as follows: 90% of your average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks The remaining 33 weeks is paid as £139.58 or...

New NI exemption for 2016/17 for apprentices

by Russell Smith | Oct 8, 2015 | Tax

If you employ someone, you pay them a salary. You also have to pay National Insurance on top, which is currently 13.8% over the first £8,112. If you employ apprentices, then here is something new… HMRC have confirmed that starting from 6 April 2016, you...

Have you completed your personal tax return yet?

by Russell Smith | Oct 4, 2015 | Tax

It’s now just less than 4 months to get your personal tax return. How about doing a new year’s resolution now and resolve to get your personal tax return in to your accountant by the end of the month. We all have tasks that we don’t really want to...

One of the most expensive fines you can pay HMRC – not submitting a tax return

by Russell Smith | Oct 3, 2015 | Tax

There are many fines that you can pay to HMRC. Fines for not submitting tax returns or accounts or VAT returns. If you don’t hit the deadlines or get things wrong it can be expensive. In my list of ‘worst fines ever’, I’d have to nominate the...

Reducing the risk of an HMRC tax investigation….

by Russell Smith | Sep 30, 2015 | Tax

I have heard a few stories recently of HMRC making random calls to businesses. The HMRC staff member has appeared nice, chatty but has begun to ask a number of questions. These calls appear to take place on Friday afternoon when people’s guards are down (I...

HMRC computer glitch on P11D notices

by Russell Smith | Sep 29, 2015 | Tax

P11D forms to declare any benefits that your employees may have (including yourself). In July 2015, HMRC had a few problems with their computers and did not send out reminder notices to companies to tell them to submit the P11Ds. Now despite this, HMRC say that they...

Transferring your limited company shares to your spouse

by Russell Smith | Sep 28, 2015 | Tax

One of the many tax advantages of a limited company is that you get a degree of planning around what your income is. If you are employed or self-employed, your income is virtually set and then taxed on, not so in a limited company. The best way to plan your tax in a...