Passing on the Business: One Owner's Story
Peter Rayney shares a succession planning story (anonymised, of course). On a sweltering bank holiday Monday, Kylie was having a rare moment in her deckchair. She would be 64 next week and this led h...
Company Paying Personal Bills: A Common Practice With a Tax Sting
Sarah Bradford looks at how the fiscal rules apply where a company meets an employee’s or a director’s personal bills. In a personal or family company, it may be commonplace for the compa...
Running a Family Investment Company: Where the Settlements Rules Bite
In the third of a five-part series on family investment companies (FICs), Nick Wright considers the day-to-day operation of FICs, including the taxation of investment income, extraction of value thro...
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Bank Receipts From Gambling: Can You Prove It to HMRC?
Mark McLaughlin warns that explaining bank receipts as gambling winnings might prove difficult when it comes to convincing HM Revenue and Customs. Many people enjoy a ‘flutter’ on the out...
Using Trusts to Pay School Fees: The Traps to Avoid
Chris Thorpe outlines some of the potential traps in using trusts to pay school fees. Given the increase in school fees over the last 20-30 years, and more particularly since January 2025 with the ap...
Business Entertainment: The Deductions Most Businesses Overlook
Jennifer Adams considers when business entertainment is allowable and circumstances in which it is not. HMRC has stated that expenditure on business entertainment cannot be claimed as a deduction aga...
Property in Your Children's Names: The Plan That Can Backfire
Tristan Noyes highlights some of the potential difficulties in transferring a property interest to family members, from both a tax and non-tax perspective. Putting a property in someone else's na...
Gifting Assets: Is It Really That Simple?
Malcolm Finney considers whether giving assets away is always easy for inheritance tax and pre-owned assets tax purposes. In this article, PETs refer to potentially exempt transfers for inheritance t...
Missed an Input Tax Claim? Can You Still Get the VAT Back?
Andrew Needham looks at the procedures for making late claims for input tax. When a business incurs input tax on its purchases, it’s entitled to reclaim it from HMRC, provided the business has ...
Bank of Mum and Dad: The Tax Bill Nobody Sees Coming
Richard Curtis considers some of the inheritance tax implications of parents helping their children pay mortgages. The difficulties of affording a house and the potential for help from the ‘ban...
Business Property Relief: The Allowance You Could Quietly Lose
Mark McLaughlin warns of a potential risk for business owners seeking inheritance tax business property relief and highlights a possible solution. Business property relief (BPR) is a valuable inherit...
Write Off or Leave Outstanding? The Section 455 Trade-Off
The following article is an excerpt taken from the guide 101 Business Tax Tips 2026/27 edition. ------------------------- Beware of the special rules that apply where a loan to a participator in a clo...
Seven Years of VAT Voucher Rules: Where Do We Stand?
Fabian Barth examines the state of the law seven years after the introduction of the VAT voucher rules, discussing where the case law has clarified their operation and which gaps remain. By the begin...
Backing a Family Business: Should You Buy Shares or Lend?
Sarah Bradford considers the implications of buying shares in a company and making a loan to a company. A person may wish to offer financial help to a family member or friend to get their business of...
Family Investment Companies: The Set Up Mistakes That Cost You Later
Nick Wright examines the practical and tax issues that arise when establishing a family investment company. This second article in a five-part series looking at family investment companies (FICs) con...
HMRC Acted Unreasonably? Can You Claim Costs?
Mark McLaughlin looks at claims for costs against HMRC for unreasonable behaviour in appeal hearings. Disputes between taxpayers and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that reach the First-tier Tribunal (...
Restructuring a legacy portfolio: Incorporation
Nick Wright explains why incorporating a property portfolio triggers two costly tax charges, capital gains tax and stamp duty, and why Ramsay v HMRC leaves the business test genuinely uncertain for m...
When Does a Property Business Start and End?
Sarah Bradford explains how to determine when a property business starts and finishes. For tax purposes, profits from UK land or property are treated as from a business. While the profits and losses ...
Form 17: Tips and Pitfalls for Jointly Owned Property
Debbie Reyland highlights tips and pitfalls to look out for when using Form 17 for jointly owned property. Unsurprisingly, income received from jointly owned property is usually allocated between the...
Personal Ownership or Company: Which Works Best for Your Portfolio?
Paul Davies looks at some of the options for owning rental property and considers to what extent they can be used to help minimise taxes. The question of how best to minimise taxes on income or gains...