Recent revelations that 2,000 plus civil servants have been engaged via personal service companies has created a major debate over these types of arrangements in government and the private sector.
Five bodies representing freelancers and small businesses on HMRC’s IR35 Forum claim that new guidance on rules to counter tax avoidance via personal service companies ‘fails to take into account key elements in their advice’, according to PCG (formerly the Professional Contractors Group).
Paula Tallon answers a question on corporate partners and loans made to companies.
HMRC has reminded electricians that the registration deadline for its Electricians Tax Safe Plan is 15 May. Electricians taking part can pay any tax and interest they owe while benefiting from ‘lower penalties of only 10%, with a maximum of 20%’, HMRC said in a press release.
David Wilson sets out some key tax issues for advisers to consider this month.
Small businesses are ‘tomorrow’s Dysons and Microsofts’ and they need government support ‘as much if not more than the big businesses that have already made it’, ICAEW Chief Executive Michael Izza has said.
HMRC has worked with BASDA and independent software developers to facilitate the development of record-keeping apps that are intended to ‘help small businesses and the self-employed who are below the [£77,000] VAT threshold maintain good records and estimate what their tax liability might be’.
Setting up a company specifically to avoid tax is ‘aggressive tax avoidance’ and should be distinguished from investment in pensions or genuine start-up businesses, the Prime Minister suggested today.
Three million businesses with a turnover below £77,000 stand to benefit from a voluntary cash basis for income tax and simplified arrangements for certain expenses, HMRC said in a consultation paper,
A plumber was jailed for 12 months yesterday for evading £91,000 of income tax and NICs during 10 years of trading.