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When is a share not a share?

So we know about Business Asset Disposal Relief don't we?  10 per cent Capital Gains Tax rate for shares in a trading company when they are sold.  We have to own the right amount (5 per cent) of shares (voting) for the right period (24 months before sale). That's it, isn't it?But what if the shares you think you own aren't really shares at all?I've recently had an experience where I had to tell a potential client that, no, he wasn't going to get the 10 per cent tax rate on the shares h...

Get the detail right – it pays dividends!

Back in the day, when all sort of wild and wonderful tax avoidance schemes were on the go, HMRC always used to go through the implementation documents in some detail.  They knew that even if the idea worked in theory, it was often the implementation that let the client down.In my work with accounting firms and especially when I look at their new corporate clients, I always have a nose around their Companies House filings and see what the previous accountant might have done. Quite often we s...

Tackling the Social Care problem - tax impacts for SME owners

So,  we have some tax increases and a proposed new tax!  Yesterday, the Government announced increases in National Insurance Contributions for employees, employers and the self-employed and an increase in the rates at which dividend income will be taxed from April 2022.  All three will increase by 1.25 percentage points from that date and from April 2023 employee’s payslips will see the NIC elements transformed into something called the “Health and Social Care Levy”. There i...

Sunak's Self-Employed Shocker

Ten months ago, at the height of the first lockdown, the Government’s daily press briefings features a selection of ministers appearing at the lectern. Many believe that the smoothest operator was Rishi Sunak.  It is true that competition was not strong but he did seem the most assured and most confident that his proposals were the right response at the right time. Early warning Of course, it is always easy to appear the good guy when you are helping people by spending money.  But am...

Good luck, Joe!

Joseph R Biden Jnr is now the President-Elect of the USA.  By the time of his inauguration he will, aged 78, be America’s oldest president.  Together with Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, aged 80 and Mitch McConnell probable Senate Majority Leader also aged 78 , they will form a trio of VERY experienced political leaders. Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris aged 56 is literally of a different generation.So has 80 become the new 60?Step back in time? I’ve been ...

Where's Richi?

For my blog post this month I thought I would look at the announcements that I thought Rishi Sunak would deliver in the Autumn Statement and I actually got as far as putting finger to keyboard on this over the weekend – my brief thoughts are actually at the foot of this article.  But then it occurred to me that there was something which I was much more interested in – where’s Rishi? The rising star There can be little doubt that across the Covid crisis there has only been one member o...

Covid-19: exposing the best and the worst of us – an old bloke’s rant!

There is no doubt that for the vast majority of us, the last four months have been extraordinary.  Only those who survived the Second World War are likely to have experienced anything like this before.  Those of us who are old enough to remember the “Three-Day Week” in the early 1970s will remember a period of disruption, but shops and schools stayed open throughout at least for part of each week.Whatever the rights and wrongs of how the Government have dealt with the virus in Engl...

Time to reset

Today marks the first anniversary of Mallon:Tax opening for business and it’s been an enjoyable, rewarding and unexpected 12 months.  Who could have possibly imagined that when I decided to become self-employed, the year would finish with three months of Government-enforced isolation?Even at the ripe old age of 57, I’ve learned a lot in the last 12 months and as some businesses emerge cautiously into this new environment, I think many of us will view their futures differently.  Eve...

HMRC on CJRS – not good enough

We have just finished an HMRC webinar on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which was attended by a mixture of employers and accountants. We were able to submit questions to the presenters. We list below a selection of questions and answers.Q: For furloughed workers what does regular overtime refer to. We operate a haulage business , the lorry drivers receive basic pay each week plus on average 25hrs overtime each week. Should this be included in the furlough calculation?A: This scheme ai...

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) – what we know….

The CJRS was the first business support scheme to be announced by Rishi Sunak on Friday 20 March and a number of professional bodies, trades unions, employer organisation and others have been consulting with HM Treasury to pin down the details since the announcement.  What follows is the position as we understand it although be prepared for more clarifications in coming weeks!Who? Employers who created and started a payroll on or before 28 February 2020 will be able to claim. Employees who ...

When 80% isn’t enough

We are experiencing unparalleled times.  We have just heard our Prime Minister issue instructions to put all of us into a “near-quarantine” situation with citizens only being allowed to leave their house for essential reasons.  I fear that further restrictions will be imposed over the coming days and weeks.Businesses have inevitably suffered, and the Government have intervened to assist with a range of financial support.  One such is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)...

Same grit, different day…..

The good old days It always used to be like this. A client would have a tax problem to solve – not a tax planning problem, just something about the workings of the tax system that wasn’t quite right.  Some “grit in the system” as HMRC call it.  The client would ask their accountant to sort it out and, typically, we had a good working relationship with one or two tax inspectors who could sort it out using some common sense and an understanding of the dark and mysterious inner wo...

Not always the case….

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the work that we do at Mallon:Tax is that we assist a number of general accountancy practices with specialist tax queries. Sometimes those queries consist of working with the partners and their clients in designing and then implementing some tax planning arrangements but occasionally, I am asked to comment on tax planning suggested by others.This gives me a useful insight into the approaches used by other firms to win work.  Recently a matter was referre...