Income Tax

Redhill Islamic Centre Trust (TC3196)

P Donovan and P McLaren (TC3188)

A new annual flat rate expense allowance for laundering armed forces uniforms has been agreed between HMRC and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), with the figures set as:

• Navy – £80
• Army – £100
• Marines – £100
• RAF – £100

The allowance will be backdated to 6 April 2008, and claimants will receive the full amount due for each year of service, regardless of whether or not service started or ended part way through a year.

Step-by-step guide to setting up an enterprise management incentive plan

Leeds Design Innovation Centre Ltd, R Noble, R Watkiss and P Connolly (TC3150)

Share incentive plans (SIPs) and save-as-you-earn (SAYEs) schemes will see higher limits from 6 April.

The maximum value of free shares that can be awarded in a SIP will rise from £3,000 to £3,600 a tax year, while partnership shares will be capped at £1,800 (from £1,500), subject to the figure being no more than 10% of an employee’s annual salary.

The maximum monthly amount an employee will be able to contribute to SAYE savings arrangements will go up from £250 to £500.

The penalties regime of the real-time information (RTI) reporting of PAYE will not begin October, HMRC have announced, signalling a six-month postponement.

Automatic fines for late filing and overdue payments were due to begin on 6 April, but the Revenue has introduced a delay after finding it needed time to improve RTI systems and guidance.

The new timetable will be:

October 2015 has been set by the government as the launch date for the scheme to allow people to top up their additional state pension via a new class 3A voluntary National Insurance contribution.

The arrangement – announced in last year’s autumn statement – will run for a limited period to help taxpayers who will reach state pension age before 6 April 2016. Those expected to benefit most are low-earning workers, carers and the self-employed, who have always been excluded from the state second pension and state earnings related pension scheme.

A taxpayer has registered with HMRC as a sole trader in futures derivatives. He has made a loss in the first six months of £30,000

The previous accountant of a new client showed the income and expenditure relating to five let properties as being from self-employment. The presumption is it should be shown as income from property

Under an unfunded unapproved retirement benefits scheme, an employee and their employer had agreed that a pension of £85,000 a year would be paid. Instead, a lump sum of £1.4m was paid to the employee

Tax planning for loving couples