R&D relief slashed – Time to plan

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a series of changes to the UK research and development (R&D) tax credit regime, including a cut to the deduction and credit rates for the SME scheme.

The R&D SME scheme enhanced deduction rate will be cut to 86 per cent from the current 130 per cent, and the payable tax credit rate cut to 10 per cent from 14.5 per cent.

However, the rate of the separate R&D expenditure credit – also known as RDEC – will increase significantly, from 13 per cent to 20 per cent.

The changes to the SME scheme mean that if you are a loss-making company, you will now only receive £18.60 for every £100 spent from April next year, compared to £33.35 per £100.

These changes are intended to reduce abuse in the R&D tax system, particularly claims for SMEs, which have been the spotlight of several investigations by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

They are scheduled to take effect from 6 April 2023, so there is still time to plan, and it may make sense to bring forward R&D expenditure, where possible, to benefit from more favourable deductions and credits.

April 2023 also sees changes to the review and approval process for R&D claims. For any claim commencing on or after 1st April 2023, companies will need to notify HMRC within six months of the end of the accounting period that they intend to make a claim for R&D tax relief. If you have claimed R&D tax relief within the last three years you are not required to pre-notify HMRC.

Companies House goes fully digital

Companies House has gone fully digital after the announcement of the closure of its office in London and all filing being transferred online.

It has also permanently shut the public counters in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh.

Online services will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Changes have taken place with improved security features, which include:

  • Multi-factor authentication
  • The ability to link your company to your WebFiling account to give you more control over your filings
  • Being able to digitally authorise people to file on your behalf on WebFiling, and to remove authorisation
  • To view who’s digitally authorised to file for your company
  • An option to sign up for emails to help you with the running of your company

WebFiling is an online service that Companies House provides, designed to make the submission of official paperwork easier and paper-free.

Once you’ve linked your company to your account, you will not need to enter your authentication code every time you file online.

Key changes, which form part of the 2020 to 2025 strategy and part two of the Economic Crime Bill, are expected to go through Parliament this spring and will include:

  • Filing deadlines will not be shortened at the moment, but legislation will be introduced to facilitate future changes.
  • Small companies will no longer have the option to prepare and file abridged accounts and will be required to file both their profit and loss account and directors’ report.
  • Micro-entities will also be required to file their profit and loss accounts but will continue to have the option to not prepare or file a directors’ report.
  • Dormant companies will be required to file an eligibility statement.
  • All companies will be required to file accounts digitally, with full tagging.

Be prepared for changes to Capital Gains Tax thresholds

The exemption for paying Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is changing.

The CGT annual exemption will fall from £12,300 to £6,000 from April 2023, before being cut in half again to £3,000 from April 2024.

CGT is what you pay on any gains that you make when you come to sell an asset, such as a second home or shares.

However, the annual CGT exemption allows you to make a certain value of gains before you pay tax on any additional gains.

Higher-rate or additional-rate taxpayers pay 28 per cent on gains from residential property and 20 per cent on gains from other chargeable assets.

If you are a basic-rate taxpayer, you will be charged 18 per cent on residential property and 10 per cent on other gains.

Steps that could reduce your CGT liabilities include:

  • Ensuring you use your allowance for the current year as soon as possible.
  • If you are married or in a civil partnership, you can utilise your partner’s unused allowance. You can transfer your assets into joint names if you are married or in a civil partnership without triggering a tax event. This doubles your £12,300 allowance to £24,600 in one year.
  • Utilise tax-efficient investments such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts.
  • Using Business Asset Disposal Relief when selling a business.

Now is a great time for investors to review their portfolios and decide whether they should transfer or dispose of certain assets before these changes take place.

If you want to take advantage of the current CGT tax rate it is best to seek advice from a qualified tax adviser.

Autumn Statement 2022

The message from the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in the days before he rose to the despatch box in the House of Commons to deliver the Autumn Statement was clear; he would be outlining billions of pounds of tax rises and spending cuts.

These spending cuts and tax rises, he said, would affect everybody and were necessary to re-establish the markets’ trust in the future health of the public finances.

What was less clear was exactly who the announcements would affect the most and how they would be impacted.

Of course, the challenges for the Chancellor extended well beyond winning the trust of the markets in relation to his stewardship of the public finances. He will also have been thinking about inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, interest rates and promoting economic growth, not to mention the political optics.

These are competing but intricately related pressures; action to address the cost of living carries with it the risk of further inflation; action to reassure the markets brings the twin dangers of not addressing the cost-of-living crisis or promoting economic growth. Different economic considerations do not exist in a vacuum.

Further underscoring the scale of the challenge, just a day earlier, the Office for National Statistics announced that inflation had reached a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent.

This followed warnings from the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, as it increased interest rates to three per cent in early November, that the UK faces a “prolonged” recession.

The only real questions concerned the detail of what the Chancellor would do. Which taxes would be affected? Will they rise now or in the future? Would tax rates rise? Would the focus be on freezing thresholds? How much pain would there be? Who would bear the brunt?

And, most importantly, would it work?


Public finances

Addressing the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) economic forecasts, the Chancellor said that the economy is now in recession and is expected to shrink by 1.4 per cent in 2023/24 before growing in 2024/25.

Meanwhile, he said unemployment is expected to rise to 4.9 per cent in 2024, up from 3.6 per cent now, before falling to 4.1 per cent the next year.

Borrowing this year stands at 7.1 per cent of GDP, according to the OBR. Debt as a percentage of GDP is expected to peak at 97.6 per cent in 2025/26 before falling to 97.3 per cent in 2027/28.


Personal tax

Beginning with personal tax, the Chancellor said that the threshold for the additional 45p rate of Income Tax will fall from £150,000 to £125,140 from April 2023.

At the same time, National Insurance, Inheritance Tax and Income Tax thresholds and Allowances will be frozen at their current levels for a further two years to 2028.

He said the Dividend Tax Allowance will fall from its current level of £2,000 to £1,000 in 2023/24 and then to £500 in 2024/25.

Turning to Capital Gains Tax, the Chancellor said the current Annual Exempt Amount will fall from £12,300 to £6,000 in 2023/24 and then to £3,000 in 2024/25.

He then turned his sights to electric vehicles, saying that a road tax will apply to them from 2025.

Finally, on personal tax measures, he said that the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) cuts announced by his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in September 2022 will end on 31 March 2025 and will not be permanent.


Business Tax

Turning to business taxes, the Chancellor said he would reduce the enhanced deduction rate for Research & Development (R&D) Tax Relief for SMEs from 130 per cent to 86 per cent of qualifying expenditure from April 2023. The tax credit for loss-making SMEs will fall from 14.5 per cent to 10 per cent.

On Business Rates, he said that the revaluation exercise will go ahead as planned in April 2023. £13.6 billion of support will be provided over five years to help businesses transition to the new bills.

He said the Business Rates multipliers will be frozen in 2023/24 and there will be extended and increased relief for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. That relief will increase to 75 per cent.

The National Insurance Secondary Threshold will remain at £9,100 until April 2028.


National Living Wage, Energy and Pensions

Turning to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW), the Chancellor announced he would increase the rates for those aged 23 and over by 9.7 per cent to £10.42 an hour from 1 April 2023.

Meanwhile, the rate of NMW for those aged 21 and 22, 18 to 20, and 16 and 17 will rise to £10.18, £7.49, and £5.28 an hour respectively. The apprentice rate will also rise to £5.28 an hour.

Moving to address energy costs, the Chancellor said the current Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) will remain in place until April 2023, limiting typical energy bills to £2,500 per year. From April 2023, the EPG will rise to £3,000 for the typical household.

Concluding his speech with pensions, the Chancellor said that the State Pension Triple Lock will remain in place, meaning the State Pension will rise in April 2023 in line with September 2022’s rate of CPI – 10.1 per cent.


Conclusion

The economy is a complex and dynamic system, and there are limits to what can be known about how it will respond to any particular intervention – it is the sum of the ever-changing actions of millions of individuals.

What is more, the Chancellor only has his hands on some of the levers of economic influence, not all of them, and moving one of the levers he controls can stop him from moving another.

Mr Hunt will be hoping he has pulled the right levers by the right amount and that the factors out of his control move in the direction he wants them to.

For businesses and business owners, the impact of the changes is likely to vary considerably and a renewed focus on tax planning is likely to be needed.

Link: Autumn Statement 2022

 

How to protect your business from inflation

Inflation has been described as paying £15 for the £10 haircut you used to get for £5 when you had hair.

It is soaring at the moment and leaves business owners facing real problems. If they increase their prices, they risk losing customers, but if they peg prices, they put their profits and potentially their business at risk.

Inflation hits just about everything, from raw materials to higher fuel and energy costs to customer confidence.

The hope is that it will be short-term, but with borrowing costs spiralling as interest rates rise, businesses should look at practical savings and decide:

  • Are you paying for services you no longer use regularly?
  • What measures can you adopt to cut energy bills?
  • Can you achieve discounts with bulk ordering or cut costs by reducing excessive orders?
  • Are you making efficient use of your staff?

Maximise technology use

Accounting and financial technology can give you instant information on sales, costs and products and allows cloud-based apps to reduce the time needed for vital but time-consuming tasks.

This can include invoicing systems that tell you what’s been paid and other apps that help you keep track of your cashflow.

Examine your products and workforce

  • Can you abandon or suspend certain products which deliver weak margins? At the same time, can a best seller withstand a price increase and boost profitability?
  • Are you overstaffing shifts?
  • Do you have lengthy processes with unnecessary steps?
  • Do you really need those temporary workers?

Stay competitive and prioritise customers

Check out the competition, both locally and nationally, to see what they are charging for similar products and services.

This can often depend on different areas of the country and levels of relative prosperity. Can less well-off consumers withstand price increases?

Make maximum use of your accountant

Accountants offer a wide range of services, including strategic advice and money-saving and revenue-boosting ideas, including:

  • Advising on business strategy
  • Addressing your cashflow
  • Debt management and credit control.

Link: Effect of inflation on business

How to keep workplace gifts tax-free this Christmas

The season of goodwill is just around the corner as Christmas approaches.

It is a time of year when employers look to reward their staff for their efforts throughout the year.

But they should be aware that certain tax, National Insurance and reporting obligations could apply.

We want to ensure that you enjoy the festive season just as much as your team, so we’ve put together our top tips to ensure that you stay on the right side of the taxman this Christmas.

What about staff parties?

According to HMRC, the total cost must not exceed £150 per head and must be for your employees and any members of their family and household who attend as guests. The total needs to include VAT and other costs, such as transport and accommodation.

All staff must also be invited. If you spend more than £150 per person, the entire amount is a ‘benefit’ and must be declared on the P11D and tax will be due.

Getting gifts right

Trivial benefits are items of value given to an employee that do not count towards taxable income or National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

To qualify, the gift must meet ALL of the following conditions:

  • The gift isn’t in the terms of the employee’s contract
  • It is below the value of £50
  • It isn’t a performance-linked reward
  • It isn’t cash or a cash voucher.

A trivial benefit in kind could include a Christmas lunch, a small Christmas present, or a gift on the day of an employee’s wedding.

If the gift does not meet all of the above criteria, it must be reported as a benefit in kind to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and tax must be paid as appropriate.

What about incidental expenses?

Incidental expenses, as described by HMRC, are expenses “incurred by an employee while travelling overnight on business”.

These may include purchasing newspapers, paying for laundry or using the hotel telephone.

As long as the value of the expenses does not exceed more than £5 per night for travel within the UK and £10 per night for travel outside the UK, they do not have to be reported to HMRC.

Link: Tax on trivial benefits

IR35 rules – What they are and why they matter

The status of IR35 or off-payroll working has caused some confusion since the repeals to reforms put forward by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng were subsequently scrapped by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

IR35 is tax legislation designed to deal with a form of tax avoidance known as disguised remuneration, where individuals attempt to avoid paying the full rate of Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs), by providing their services through an intermediary, such as a Personal Service Company (PSC).

Engagers now responsible

The IR35 rules, which originally changed in April this year under the 2021 reforms in the private sector, exist to ensure that an individual providing services via a PSC, and who would have been an employee if they were providing their services directly to an end client, pay broadly the same income tax and NICs as a ‘regular’ employee would.

Under this legislation, all medium and large-sized private sector end clients are responsible for deciding a contractor’s employment status, as opposed to previous rules, where freelancers decided their employment status themselves.

The official guidelines for businesses affected by these rules are as follows:

  • Pass your determination and the reasons for the determination to the worker and the person or organisation you contract with
  • Make sure you keep detailed records of your employment status determinations, including the reasons for the determination and fees paid
  • Have processes in place to deal with any disagreements that arise from your determination.

If the determination results in a contractor being within the IR35 rules, it is your responsibility to deduct and pay tax and National Insurance contributions to HM Revenue & Customs via PAYE.

Where an employer fails to correctly identify a disguised employment scheme, the worker’s tax and National Insurance Contributions become their responsibility.

What businesses does this apply to?

According to the Companies Act 2006, a business is defined as ‘medium’ or ‘large’ if it meets two of the following criteria:

  • The company has a turnover of £10.2 million or more
  • The company has a balance sheet total of £5.1 million or more
  • The company has 50 employees or more.

Link: Understanding off-payroll working

New rules to address the soaring cost of card payment fees

Card payments rocketed during the pandemic and that trend has continued since then.

According to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), card payments account for four out of every five payments made.

But as consumers switch, the soaring cost of accepting card payments is hitting retailers and adding to the cost of doing business.

According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), in October last year both Visa and Mastercard raised their cross-border interchange fees on purchases made by UK consumers to European businesses from 0.2 per cent to 1.15 per cent for debit cards, and 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent for credit card transactions.

Move to improve services

Meanwhile, transaction fees on digital wallets are also on the up as PayPal increased its fees for payments between businesses in the UK and Europe from 0.5 per cent to 1.29 per cent in November 2021.

Following a review by the Payments System Regulator (PSR), the Government watchdog announced new rules in October to improve card services and help businesses shop around and switch to more cost-effective services.

From January next year, 14 of the most significant providers of card-acquiring services will be required to remind businesses at the end of their contract term that they could compare prices to get a better deal.

In addition:

  • Providers will also have to provide information to businesses about their charges and provide an initial online quotation tool of key charges to help businesses make a choice.
  • Following concerns that businesses were being locked into lengthy contracts for card readers, the regulator is also limiting point-of-sale (POS) terminal contracts to 18 months.

Link: Mitigating card payment costs

When can you take a dividend from your business?

If you are an owner of a limited company, taking money out of your business using dividends is a mainstay of effective tax planning, thanks to an additional £2,000 annual allowance and lower rates than apply when taking money in the form of salary.

However, there are restrictions on the circumstances in which a limited company can pay a dividend.

Crucially, the company must have sufficient profits from the current and previous financial years to cover the dividend payment.

The company will also need to pay a dividend to all eligible shareholders, so you will need to factor this into any calculations.

Dividends must be declared by the directors and minutes of the meeting must be kept, even if there is only one director.

A dividend voucher will need to be prepared, including the date, the company name, the names of the shareholders receiving the dividend and the amount.

Copies must be given to the shareholders receiving the dividend and retained on the company’s records.

Link: Running a limited company: Your responsibilities