Archive for the ‘Bennetts Company News’ category

Income tax – for 2013/14 the personal allowance increases to £9440 for those aged under 65, £10500 for 65-74’s, and £10660 for those aged 75 and over. The next £32010 will be subject to tax of 20%, income between £41450 and £150000 will be taxed at 40%. Income over £150000 will be taxed at 45%. Where income exceeds £100000, the personal allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of income above £100000.

National Insurance – for the self-employed, class 2’s increase from £2.65 to £2.70 per week from April 2013. Class 4’s are 9% on profits between £7755 and £41450. For employees, the rate is 12% of earnings between £149 and £797 per week, and 2% above £797. Employers N.I. is 13.8% on employees earnings above £148 per week.

Corporation tax – from 1.4.13 the small companies rate remains at 20% (on the first £300k of profit). The large companies rate drops from 24% to 23% from April 2013, 23% to 21% from April 2014, and 21% to 20% from April 2015. Large companies are those where profits exceed £1.5m. There are marginal rates of tax on profits between £300k and £1.5m.

VAT – from 1.4.13 the registration limit increases from £77000 to £79000.

Capital allowances – the Annual Investment Allowance increased from £25000 to £250000 from 1.1.13 for a period of 2 years only. Writing down allowances remain at 18% (main rate) and 8% (lower rate including cars above 130 g/km CO2 emissions). A rate of 100% is available for cars below 96g/km and certain energy efficient plant.

Capital Gains Tax – the annual allowance for individuals increases to  £10900 from April 2013. The CGT rate remains at 18% (or 28% if the gain takes you into the higher rate band). The Entrepreneurs relief rate stays at 10% for the sale of businesses for the first £10 million of lifetime gains.

Inheritance tax – the nil rate band of £325000 (£650000 for married couples and civil partners) remains the same.

Business mileage – rates remain the same at 45p for the first 10000 miles, and 25p per mile on those miles exceeding 10000.

ISA’s – for 2013/14 the cash allowance is £5760 per person.

Future – the personal allowance is set to increase to £10000 in April 2014. A National Insurance subsidy for employers of up to £2000 will commence in April 2014.

The biggest change to payroll procedures for over 60 years will come into force from April 2013.

Employers will be required to submit online to HMRC after each payroll run. Those employers who currently pay weekly may want to consider moving to a monthly basis

The submission will be similar to that currently performed at year end (P35).

One man limited companies will be included in the requirements.

If we don’t currently run payroll for you and you think you will require assistance please get in touch as soon as possible.

Just a reminder that the annual investment allowance (allowing 100% claim in year 1) on capital equipment (excluding cars) reduces from £100,000 to £25,000 with effect from April 2012. If you are therefore planning on purchasing any large capital items in the near future it would be best to do so in March rather than April.

The new NMW rates from 1.10.11 are as follows:

16-17 years old – £3.68 per hour

18-20 years old – £4.98 per hour

21 and over – £6.08 per hour

Apprentices – £2.60 per hour – aged under 19, and those 19 and over but in the first year of their apprenticeship.

The deadline for P35 submissions is 19.5.11, and 31.5.11 to issue P60’s to employees. Please contact us if we don’t normally submit for you, and you require assistance.

From 1.4.11, corporation tax returns must be submitted electronically, including statutory accounts, in an electronic format known as IXBRL.

If you have not yet brought in your books for your 2009/10 tax return please do so as soon as possible. The tax return deadline is 31.1.11.

The new NMW rates from 1.10.10 are as follows:

16-17 years old  – £3.64 per hour

18-20 years old – £4.92 per hour

21 and over – £5.93 per hour

Please note the main rate now starts at 21 years old whereas in the past it was 22 years old.

There will also be a new apprentice rate of £2.50 per hour which will apply to apprentices aged under 19, and apprentices aged 19 and over but in the first year of their apprenticeship.

New businesses who are employing people and who set up between 22.6.10 and 5.9.10 will qualify for a subsidy of their Employers National Insurance contributions. They must be outside London, the South East, and East of England, and will obtain exemption for the first 10 employees they take on during the first year of business.

The exemption for each employee lasts for 1 year but the scheme ends on 5.9.13.

New businesses who qualify will automatically receive information with the PAYE starter pack.

You have probably heard about the 5.7 million tax code errors by HMRC. If you are one of the unlucky ones please contact us. We may be able to defend it under an extra statutory concession called “A19″.

Watch out for e-mails supposedly from HMRC. Fraudsters are jumping on the bandwagon by sending out e-mails to obtain your personal details. HMRC do not contact you by e-mail.