Beyond Compliance: Technical & Advisory Insights

An Extra-Statutory Concession (ESC) is a relaxation that may give the taxpayers a reduction in their tax liability, which they would not be entitled to under the strict application of the law. Most of these concessions are made to meet cases of hardship at the margins of the law where

Businesses, regardless of size, have been able to claim the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) on their expenditure each year on plant and machinery from April 2008 onwards. AIA is a 100 per cent allowance that applies to most qualifying expenditure (apart from cars) subject to an annual cap. Where the

The deadline for filing the self-assessment tax return for the tax year ended 05 April 2011 is 31 January 2012. If you miss this deadline you will have to a penalty of £100. This penalty is due even if you have no tax to pay. The longer the delay, the

Entrepreneurs’ relief (ER) allows individuals and some trustees to claim relief on qualifying gains made on the disposal of a) all or part of a business, b) the assets of a business after it has stopped trading, and c) shares in a personal company. There is a cap on the

Recovery of input tax on business entertainment expenses was never allowed ever since the introduction of VAT in the UK. However, such input tax on entertaining an overseas business customer was allowed until1988 when the law was amended to block recovery of input tax on all business entertainment expenses including

In yet another case allowing the appeal against HMRC’s P35 late filing penalty the First-tier Tribunal has once again decided in favour of the tax payer (HD Response International v HMRC [2011] UKFTT 472 (TC) – TC01322) The facts and circumstances of the case were similar to an earlier one

Continuing with our previous example (http://www.taxpartnersuk.com/news_detail.php?news_id=66) we would now consider situations where the following services should choose FRS over the standard rate: Services VAT Flat Rate Any other activity not listed elsewhere 12.00 Boarding or care of animals 12.00 Business services that are not listed elsewhere 12.00 Estate agency or

The VAT flat rate scheme (http://www.taxpartnersuk.com/news_detail.php?news_id=19) offers taxpayers with the option of using a simplified VAT accounting scheme called the Flat Rate Scheme (FRS) provided their businesses turn over less than £150,000 in a year. The rate of VAT payable to the government under FRS would differ depending on the

‘Residence’ for the purpose of UK taxation is not currently defined by law and its interpretations are largely based on judicial pronouncements. Normally a person is regarded as resident in the UK if s/he is physically present in the country for 183 days or more in a tax year, which