Income Tax

An employment tribunal at odds with HMRC’s insistence goodwill for medical practitioners cannot be transferred

A new client was substantially in arrears with his accounts and tax returns. These have now been brought up to date and returns been prepared for 2007/08 onwards. There is a loss for 2007/08, but HMRC are refusing to repay the payments on account for that year. Can action be taken to recover the tax?

A solicitor assists employees in recovering unpaid holiday pay from current or former employers on a no win/no fee basis. He recovers his fee from any payment made

More than 1.6m employer PAYE schemes are already now under the real-time information (RTI) system, covering over 40m individual record, according to HMRC. The announcement comes as the department writes to urge another 167,000 firms to join RTI, having missed one or more deadlines for reporting PAYE.

Bosses should contact the Revenue’s employer helpline on 0300 200 3200 if have not reported because they no longer pay staff members, or because their PAYE scheme has closed or is no longer operating.

Is the new expenses set-up for the self-employed easy to use?

Tax credit claimants should take extra care when checking their 2012/13 final award notice, to ensure they do not lose their right to challenge overpayments, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has urged.

The charity’s call follows the introduction of two changes that will affect people wanting to dispute tax credits overpayments: HMRC will no longer stop recovery of overpayment while they consider a dispute, and claimants now have only three months to dispute an overpayment. Disputes could be made at any time until the time limit was introduced on 6 April.

Higher incomes parent who have received child benefit this year and do not already complete tax returns must register for self assessment by 5 October to avoid penalties in relation to the high income child benefit charge (HICBC), HMRC have warned.

The department plans to write to 2m higher rate taxpayers, including those affected by recent changes to child benefit, reminding them they will need to complete a self assessment return for 2012/13 if:

HMRC have announced new fuel rates for company cars, which will apply to all journeys on or after 1 September 2013 until further notice.

Employers may use either the previous rates or the new ones for one month from the date of change. They may make or require supplementary payments but are under no obligation to do either. Petrol hybrid cars are treated as petrol cars for this purpose. The amounts can be used for VAT, but receipts must be retained.

A financial adviser carried on his business as a sole trader before incorporating several years ago. At that time, goodwill was considered personal and was retained by him. Tranches of customers are being sold, but are these personal, corporate or joint disposals and do the sale of income provisions apply?

Reasons for disputed liabilities under real-time information

HMRC have launched an online survey to ascertain how difficult employers and agents are finding the real-time information (RTI) obligation to report PAYE details on or before employees’ payday.

Respondents must have several numbers to hand to complete the poll, which closes on 13 September 2013:

The complex system for reporting and taxing employee benefits and expenses is ripe for an overhaul, according to an interim report from the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS).

The document identifies issues for further study, including the payrolling of benefits, abolishing the £8,500 higher-paid threshold, and smoothing the differences between tax and National Insurance rules.