Personal tax rates have been held steady for a few years, so it made no difference whether you extracted funds from your company in one tax year or the next.

HMRC are now actively pursuing incorrect and fraudulent grant claims made under the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) for wages of furloughed employees.

The self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) grants were welcomed when they were distributed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each recipient had to meet three conditions:

Your business probably pays several different taxes to HMRC: corporation tax or income tax; VAT; and PAYE all at different intervals. If the tax payment is not correctly accounted for by HMRC and set against the right tax account for your business an erroneous tax debt may arise.

The fuel crisis last September has encouraged many people to consider buying an electric car.

Currently if you pay your VAT bill late you may receive a penalty of up to 15% of the late paid amount, even for a one-day delay. The Government agrees that this is harsh, so it is reforming the late-payment penalties for VAT periods starting on or after 1 April 2022.

Making a charitable donation in place of physical Christmas gifts is a worthy tradition in some families. This means that fewer unwanted items need to be quietly disposed of and as an added benefit the giver and the charity can both claim tax relief in the form of Gift Aid.

The UK tax system is under attack from fraudsters who attempt to register numerous people for self assessment then submit false repayment claims.

Filing VAT returns using making tax digital (MTD)-compatible software will be compulsory for all VAT registered traders for periods beginning on or after 1 April 2022 unless HMRC agrees that the taxpayer is exempt.

Making tax digital for income tax self assessment (MTD ITSA) will replace the self assessment tax return for unincorporated businesses from April 2024 for sole traders and from April 2025 for most partnerships.

If you sell a UK residential property subject to capital gains tax (CGT) you must report the gain and pay the tax within 30 days of the completion date of the deal. The report generally has to be done online through a UK property account which needs to be activated for that purpose. The reporting must be repeated in your self assessment tax return after the end of the tax year. We can help you with CGT reporting.

Two areas in the public sector that desperately need funding are the NHS and social care. To pay for these services the Government is raising a new tax: the health and social care (HSC) levy. This will be charged at 1.25% of income or profits for the employed and self-employed respectively from 6.4.23 as it takes time to adjust computer systems to collect a new tax.

High street shops, hospitality and leisure businesses were some of the hardest hit during the Covid-19 pandemic and many have not fully recovered. These businesses were granted 100% business rates relief during 2020-21 which continued until 30.6.21 for properties in England. Different rates reliefs apply in Scotland and Wales.

The tax payable on dividends is set to rise from 7.5% to 8.75% for basic rate taxpayers from 6.4.22. Higher rate taxpayers will pay 33.75% on dividends and additional rate taxpayers must budget for dividend tax of 39.35%. These rates will apply to all dividends taken from all companies where the total dividend income exceeds the dividend allowance which has been held at £2,000 for 2022-23.

In the March 2021 Budget the Chancellor announced a super-deduction scheme that provides a 130% deduction for the cost of new plant or equipment if it is purchased by a company before 1.4.23. Expenditure on other new assets such as fixtures and integral features in buildings can also qualify for a 50% first year deduction if purchased before 1.4.23.