The recent first tier tribunal decision in the Wagstaff case brings welcome news for anyone who has come to a financial arrangement with an parent or in law in regard to their house.

The old lady sold her house to her daughter and son in law on the condition that she could continue to live there. When the house came to be sold it was accepted that an implied trust had been created and therefore private residence relief was available.

More details here

If you live in Cumbria and have a tax question then please give me a call on 075 1391 7997

The £2000 employers NIC relief will kick in from April

Basically it is

Available to all sizes of business, with certain exceptions.
Claimed via the payroll software.
From 6 April 2014 onwards.
This measure was announced in the 2013 Budget
So for instance

a single employee a salary of £22,448, or
two part-timers on salaries of £15,202, or
three part-timers on £12,786, or
four part-timers on £11,579 per annum and
pay no ER’s NICs at all.
From 2015/16 there will also be exemption for any employee under 21 and earning less than £813 a week.

Do you live and work around Carlisle? Why not give me a call for free a consultation.

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When houses became harder to sell the government brought in a relief for owners who basically had to buy a new house without selling their old one.

They allowed you 3 years to sell the old house without any reduction in the private residence relief for the capital gain on sale.

From April 2014 this period will be reduced to 18 months.

So if you own 2 or more houses and they are both potentially your residence then you might need to reassess which is your main one and let the tax man know.

Tax advice and bookkeeping in Cumbria? – Give me a call on 075 1391 7997

The Upper Tier Tribunal has upheld the rulings in the Dr Samadian case.

The main point seems to be that travel between a home base and anywhere which is a regular place of business will now be disallowed under duality of purpose.

This is potentially very significant and claims for business mileage should now be reviewed.

Do you live in Carlisle? Would you like tax advice? Please give me a call.

There has always been a degree of uncertainty around whether or not some people are resident in the UK for tax purposes. The recent changes to the rules are meant
to improve this situation. Why is this important? Well if you are resident for tax purposes then you are liabel on worldwide income and capital gains.
If you are not resident then foreign income and gains should usually escape the UK tax man.

This is a very brief simplification of the rules

You are non resident for a tax year if

1) You spend less than 16 days in the UK; or
2) You were non-resident in all of the previous 3 tax years and this year you spend less than 46 days in the UK; or
3) You are working full time abroad.

If none of the three points above apply then you will be resident in the UK if either

1) You spend 183 days or more in the UK; or
2) You have your only or main home in the UK; or
3) You work full time in the UK.

If none of the above six tests apply then we look at a combination of the number of days spent in the UK along with the strength of your ties to the UK.The more
ties you have then the fewer days you can spend here if you want to escape the UK tax regime for foreign earnings and gains.

Holiday cottages ( or furnished holiday lets ) are a funny creature. For NIC purposes they are not a business but for some really important reliefs they have always been regarded as a business.

One of these reliefs, business property relief, means that traditionally there would be no inheritance tax to pay on a holiday cottage. With IHT rates as high as 40% this was a valuable concession.

However the recent Pawson case looks as if all this has been overturned.

Basically the executors of the estate will need to show that the business activities have been much more than maintenance and taking bookings. You have to look to what a hotel or B&B would provide as an idea. So these might include

1. Cooking and provision of meals ( think a courtyard of cottages and maybe a tea room attached)

2. Activities on site such as organised trips.

3.On site services such as massages or baby sitting.

To me it looks like this level of service would be tricky for single cottages and ones which are remote or isolated.

If you have a number of houses close to many attractions and you or a manager live on site or nearby then there is a chance for you but otherwise?

So if you think that you can’t meet these conditions then what are the alternatives?

1. Make a PET ( potentially exempt transfer). Gift the cottages to your beneficiaries. As long as you live more than 7 years after the gift then there is no inheritance tax. Death earlier than 7 years might attract taper relief to help reduce the tax.

2.Life insurance to cover any IHT liability.

3. If the cottages are merged with a larger business, for instance farming, then the whole might well be considered a business.

A very interesting post here on how HMRC can use the issue of a self assessment tax return to collect tax now due and to enforce collection across the years ahead.

I guess it also highlights how tricky it can be to get out of self assessment.

Don’t forget that once you have been issued with a Self Assessment return you have until 31st October following the tax year to file the paper return and 31st January after this for an online return.

If you file late then the penalties are

£100 immediately

£10 per day after 3 months for up to 90 days ie £900

£300 at six months or 5% tax due if higher

£300 at 12 months or 5% tax due if higher

At the 12 month point there are then options of further tax due based penalties depending upon the usual scenarios of

Careless

Deliberate

Deliberate and concealed