Tax Insider

A proposal as part of the Finance Bill 2020 is to amend the capital gains tax (CGT) principal private residence (PPR) relief legislation to allow for a ‘back-dating’ effect. This is  where one spouse transfers an interest in a dwelling-house to the other spouse (or if such an interest passes on the death of a spouse) but only if at the time of transfer the dwelling-house is their only or main residence. 

Malcolm Finney looks at the often misunderstood and overlooked impact of inter-spouse  residence transfers. 

The employment allowance (EA) is a valuable relief, which currently benefits more than a million smaller businesses in the UK. Broadly, the relief works by allowing an employer to offset up to a pre-set annual threshold against their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) liabilities. 

 Sarah Laing highlights three changes to the employment allowance (EA) of which employers need to be aware. 

As a business that deals with the public (e.g. a plumber or hairdresser) approaches the VAT registration threshold they realise that when they register for VAT they will either take a 20% pay cut in order to remain competitive, or increase their prices by 20% and lose customers.  

Andrew Needham looks at whether business splitting is a good idea and considers what needs to be done to make it effective. 

Prior to the budget in March 2020, the rumour mill about the future of entrepreneurs’ relief (ER) for capital gains tax (CGT) was red hot; talk of restrictions and even abolition in order to fulfil the government’s election spending promises.  

Chris Thorpe takes a look at the relief formerly known as entrepreneurs’ relief following the budget in March 2020.  

Had George Osborne got to complete his reform of pensions, there would probably no longer be any higher rate tax relief on pension contributions. However, the restrictions he introduced on top rate tax relief (i.e. via a tapering of the normal £40,000 annual allowance) are still with us and, in the context of defined benefit schemes for doctors, they received a lot of bad publicity in the months before the Budget. 

 Kevin Read discusses the recent changes to the tapering of the pension annual allowance and reminds readers of the importance of ‘scheme pays’ elections. 

HMRC has already announced the deferral of quarterly VAT payments due before 30 June 2020 until 31 March 2021, and a delay to self-assessment payments on account due by 31 July 2020 to 31 January 2021.  

Iain Rankin looks at how businesses and individuals may make use of ‘time to pay’ arrangements to defer payment of tax bills, in light of the current coronavirus crisis. 
 

It is said that inheritance tax (IHT) is the UK’s most hated tax. Nevertheless, the transferable nil rate band (TNRB) is a welcome facility for married couples or civil partners (references to spouses in this article include civil partners). 

Mark McLaughlin points out that inheritance tax nil rate bands can sometimes be multiplied - or lost inadvertently.