We can’t run our businesses without our mobile phones, but are you claiming the right amount from your business?

The rules for claiming the cost of your mobile phone from your business are different depending on whether you are a sole trader or a limited company.

For a sole trader – it’s relatively straight forward.

You can claim a percentage of your phone bill, or new phone, depending on the percentage that you use it for your business.  You don’t need to analyse all your calls, but it is a good idea to keep track of your business usage for 2-3 months, and then apply that percentage to the full year.  HMRC may ask you one day how you came to the percentage that you did, and you may find it hard to justify that you use your phone 90% for business, when you actually only work one day a week -so just be sensible!

For a limited company, as with most things, it’s more complicated.

If your phone contract is in your personal name, and the company pays the bill, or reimburses you for it, you have a benefit-in-kind – and this should be disclosed on a form called a P11D at the end of each tax year.  Both you and the company will have tax to pay on this amount.

The logic behind this, is that with contracts nowadays, we all get so many free minutes and texts etc, that there is actually no additional cost to you for using your phone for business.  You would be paying your phone bill anyway, and so getting the company to pay it, is really the same as paying yourself additional money from the company.  If you can separate additional business calls, eg they are overseas calls, then you can claim these from the business as a legitimate expense.

If you can put your phone contract in the company name, then HMRC will accept that private use of your “company” phone is minor, and the company can pay the whole bill, without any personal tax problems.

The same rules will apply for broadband costs in your home.

So if you have a limited company, you basically have a choice:

• If your phone contract is in your personal name,  don’t put any of the cost through the business (unless you have costs over and above your standard package cost that you can identify as relating to the business – such as overseas calls.)
• Put your contract into the limited company name – and then you can claim the full cost of your monthly bill ( but no prizes for guessing that a business contract is usually more expensive than a private one)

It’s a really common mistake to think that the company can just pay your personal mobile phone bill, as you use it for business, but get it wrong and you could land yourself and the company further unexpected tax bills!

For any further information, please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co.

Back in 2013 the rules around child benefit changed, so that if one partner earns more than £60k then child benefit is not due – and if it has been claimed, it has to be repaid.  Often this means the mother claims it, and the father has to repay it!!

As a result, many couples who know their income is above this level, see this as a waste of time, and don’t bother to register for child benefit on the birth of their child.

But claiming child benefit, whether it is actually paid or not, is important as it ensures that the claimant (usually the mother) receives a National Insurance Credit for the year.

Why does this matter?

To get the full state pension, you need to have paid NIC or have received NIC credits for 35 years.  To get any state pension at all, you need to have a payment record for 10 years.  The NIC credits you receive while you stay at home to bring up your children, are therefore important in building up your NI record.

It is possible to claim child benefit, but then to elect for it not to be actually paid to you, and this gets round the hassle of having it paid to you, only to have to pay it back again via self-assessment.

New child benefit claims can only be backdated 3 months, so if you do realise you have a gap in your NI record, it can’t be corrected retrospectively.

Once registered though, if your income for a previous year changes, (eg if you are self-employed and you have a loss one year, this can be carried back to the year before and reduce your income for the previous year) this may mean that you would then qualify for child benefit that year.  As long as you are registered, it would then be paid to you.  If you had never registered, this would not be possible.

It’s really important to check your NIC record with HMRC – not only to see how many qualifying years you have, but also because HMRC very often get it wrong and you need to correct it.  To check your record, you need to set up and log on to your Personal Tax Account – https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account

So if you are in a position where either you or your partner earn over £60k, you should still register for child benefit, even if you then opt not to actually receive it, and protect your entitlement to a state pension!

For more information please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co.

The tax year end will soon be here so now you have recovered from filing your tax return, it’s a good time to check your finances and make sure you have minimised any tax liabilities for the current year.  What should you be looking at?

Here are 5 things that may apply to you to help you save some tax before 5 April.

Dividend Allowance

If you run your business through a limited company, then you can extract funds via dividends, as long as the business has the reserves to be able to do so.  The dividend allowance for 21/22 is £2,000, so you will be able to extract this amount tax-free per shareholder.

The rate of tax you pay on dividends is increasing by 1.25% from 6 April 22, so you might want to maximise any dividend payments in this tax year before the rate increases.

Timing of Expenses

If your company or business year end is 31 March 22, then think about expenditure around the year end.  Money spent before 31 March 22 will be included in this year’s accounts, and reduce your profit this year, whereas delaying until April 22 will move those costs into next year (generally).  If your business is on the cusp of paying higher rate tax, then bringing forward planned expenditure could be tax efficient.

Some assets now qualify for the “super deduction” of capital allowances which could make investing in new equipment even more tax efficient.

Pension Contributions

Pensions remain one of the most tax efficient ways to save. You receive a 20% top-up from the government on any contributions you make personally and you also extend your basic rate band for income tax purposes. Depending on your income, this can reduce the amount of tax you pay at higher rates.

Paying a pension contribution from your limited company is also very tax efficient and is an allowable deduction for corporation tax.  Speak to an IFA if you are interested in contributing to your later years!

Child Benefit

If you or your partner’s adjusted taxable income is above £50,000 then you start to lose your child benefit for the year.  This is reduced on a sliding scale up to £60,000 when it is lost in full, and if you have received it in the year it will need to be repaid.  Consider making pension contributions, or gift aid donations to reduce your adjusted taxable income, and to keep your child benefit.

On the flip side, many people’s income in 21/22 has been affected by the pandemic, so you could be in a position where you are actually eligible to claim child benefit again due to lower family income, so it is worth checking!

Marriage Allowance

So many people who are entitled to this are still not claiming it.

The Marriage allowance lets you transfer 10% of your personal allowance to your spouse/civil partner if you have not used it.  This can save you £252 as a couple in this tax year.  To qualify your spouse must be a basic rate taxpayer, and your income under £12,570.  Claims can be backdated to 2018 and can be done online.

For any more information, please contact Rosie Forsyth atWilkins & Co

Was your tax bill in January a shock?  Were you scrabbling around to find the money to pay it – or not able to pay it all in one go?  This blog sets out how to budget for your personal tax bill so you are prepared next January.

The best way to budget is to pretend that you are employed. One of the big advantages of employment is that your income tax is taken out of your pay via PAYE before you receive it. You don’t have to worry about putting money aside, as it is done for you.

Putting a chunk of money aside each month from your self employment income is important to save for your tax bill.

The big questions is how much do you need to put aside? This will depend on your personal circumstances but there are some general steps to follow to work out how much to save:

1: Allocate your Personal Allowance

We all have a Personal Allowance – this is the amount we can earn before we pay income tax.  In 18/19, this amount is £11,850 and for 19/20 it will be £12,500.  If you are employed as well as being self-employed, your personal allowance is used against this income first, and anything left is used against your self-employment.  So, if you have employed income of £8,000 per year, you won’t pay tax on this, as you have used £8,000 of your personal allowance against it, leaving £3,850 this year to set against your self-employment.

If you are only self-employed, then you have the whole personal allowance to use against business profit.

2: Estimate your profit

You pay tax on your business profit – not your sales.  So you need to have an idea what your profit is, to be able to estimate your tax bill.  This is one of the reasons cloud-based accounting packages are useful, as you can see at any time the profitability of your business in real time.

If you not using an accounting package, then you need to estimate your profit by taking into account the costs of the business.  It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate at this stage, as you are only using it for guidance.

3: How much to put aside?

You have 2 amounts to pay on your profit.

1. Income tax – currently at 20%
2. National insurance. Being self employed you pay a flat rate of £146 for this year (class 2 NIC), but then you also pay class 4 NIC of 9% of your profit over £8060.  This often gets forgotten and can be a reason why your tax bill is higher than expected at the year end.

So in broad terms, you pay 29% in tax and NI of your business profit, after fully utilising your personal allowance.  For some, putting aside 30% of estimated profit is a good way of ensuring their tax bill is covered.

If this is your first year of self-employment, or you have earned more profit this year than last,  then you do need to think about payments on account of tax.

I have explained these in more detail in another blog (https://wilkinsco.co.uk/payments-account-tax) but in basic terms, self-assessment works on a system where we pay tax during the tax year on account of the current tax year.  We make payments in January and July on account of the tax year we are in.  If your first year of self-employment is coming to an end at 5 April 2019, you will calculate your profit and pay the tax due on that profit at 31 Jan 2020.

BUT at that time, you will also pay your first payment on account of your 19/20 tax bill, and that is calculated as half your tax bill for 18/19.  So at 31 Jan 2020, you have a double whammy and pay 150% of the tax you thought you were going to pay.   This is where you can be caught out if you haven’t budgeted as you go along!

Top Tips for Budgeting for your tax bill

1. Get into the mind set that even though it’s in your bank account, it’s not all your money.
2. Have a separate bank account for your every day business transactions (a good idea for SO many reasons!)
3. Have a separate bank account where you save for your tax bill (any bank account will do)
4. Put something aside each month – putting 25-30% aside is generally sufficient,but think about payments on account in your first year of business. Remember- putting anything aside is better than nothing!
5. Once you have put it aside – forget about it. Don’t dip into just because it’s there – you won’t thank yourself in January!
6. Use cloud accounting – not only will this help you estimate your tax bill, it makes your bookkeeping during the year so much easier
7. Get your tax return done early. Doing it as soon as you can after the end of the tax year (5 April) will mean you know what you are going to owe the following January.  And your accountant will love you!

For more information, or for help with your sole trader accounts and your tax return, contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co.

This week I have a Guest Blog by Helen Steel of Streamlion Consulting Ltd, giving great advice on obtaining funding for your business.  Contact Helen for more advice or assistance.  (https://www.streamlionconsulting.com)

“I heard on the radio this morning that this is the time in January when most employees sit back and reevaluate their jobs. The excesses of Christmas and New Year are behind them. Any New Year’s resolutions are in full force or have already been binned! Thoughts they had over Xmas of “my job’s not that bad” or “I can stick this out for another year” have proved to be just as undoable as the New Years resolutions! Why not make a change! If you’ve always dreamed of running your own business and have a good idea, why not go for it? What is holding your back?

Well, if it’s money, there are some excellent start-up loan schemes that offer unsecured funding to entrepreneurs who meet certain qualifying criteria. These loans are just what you need to get up and running and the scheme has been created to give you the cash needed to sort out the first few months of your business trading. I am a business advisor for Transmit Start-Ups (https://transmitstartups.co.uk), now the number one provider of start-up loans in the country and I can honestly say that they have your back. This is a government scheme so there are certain processes to follow but I have had loans approved amazingly quickly for entrepreneurs eager to get out there to start making money! With interest rates of 6% and max lending of £25,000 per eligible director, it’s a great place to start.

There are other lending routes available if your business has been trading for more than 2 years or you just need a larger loan. Some of the banks offer unsecured lending themselves or through the EFG scheme. Knowyourmoney (https://www.knowyourmoney.co.uk/business-loans) has a great list of approachable lenders, some of whom will lend up to £1.2 million per year. I’ve recently been working with NatWest who have been very supportive of local entrepreneurs.

Another lending route is via “Angel” investment. Over the last few years, I have put together a portfolio of go-to private investors who will invest for an equity stake in a fast growing new venture. This is a bit like “Dragons Den” and I love working with the entrepreneurs to develop slick and professional business plans and investors deck to attract the best investor for their business. Investors can bring money and mentoring advice if wanted. Again, loan amounts vary but seed capital can be raised from either one investor or a number of smaller contributors.

Lastly there are traditional lending routes via your bank. These loans tend to be secured and you will need at least one year of company financial statements, possibly two. Interest rates tend to be slightly higher (around 9.3%) but there are always many options to chose from.

So, if you are having those “it’s now or never” or “I’ve got to give it a go” thoughts, act on your impulses and start your own business. I have yet to come across an entrepreneur who regrets making the break, but I have chatted to many who wished they had done it sooner!”

Helen Steel, MD for Streamlion Consulting Ltd (https://www.streamlionconsulting.com)

One of the most common questions I get from sole traders is about allocating a cost to the business for working from home, especially this year when so many of us have spent a lot of time working from home.

If you are in a panic trying to get your tax return done before the end of January, you might forget to include a cost for this in your accounts, but this would result in you paying more tax than necessary – so take 5 minutes and think about what you might be able to claim.

If you are self-employed and work at least partly from home then you are entitled to include part of the running costs of your home in your accounts.  But how much is a reasonable amount?

You have 2 options as to how to work out how much you can claim.

1  Flat Rate Method

If your sales are under the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) and you are self-employed then you can use this method. You simply work out how many hours a month you spend on average running your business from home and then include a fixed amount in your accounts, as follows:

25-50 hours: £10 per month

51-100 hours: £18 per month

101 hours or more: £26 per month

The flat rate covers the running costs of your home; you can also claim a proportion of the fixed costs and your phone/broadband as per option 2.

2  Actual Costs

 This method requires a little more effort, but it may give you a higher figure and therefore save you more tax.  Under this method, you need to apportion the running costs of your home on a “fair and reasonable” basis between those that are personal and those that relate to the business.

This is usually done by reference to the number of rooms you have in your house and the amount of time you use them for business.  There is no laid out formula though and therefore how you allocate costs will vary from business to business.  Keep any workings you have done so you can back up your figures to HMRC if necessary.

The costs you can actually claim can be spilt into fixed costs, running costs and phone/broadband.

Fixed Costs

• Mortgage interest (not capital) or rent
• Council tax
• Insurance
• Water rates

Running costs

• Electricity
• Gas
• Repairs and maintenance
• Cleaning

For example, assume you work from your sitting room 8 hours per day 4 days per week.  Your total fixed costs are £6,600 per year and your running costs £1,500.  You have 6 rooms in your house. A reasonable allocation of the fixed costs would be £6600 x 1/6 x 4/7 x 8/24 = £210.

An allocation of the running costs could be £1500 x 1/6 x 4/7 x 8/12 (as gas etc not used during the night) = £96

The phone and broadband is claimed on a usage basis only, so if you use your internet 50% business, 50% private you can claim 50% of the cost, including line rental.

If a property repair works solely to the area that you use for business, you can include the full cost in your accounts – for example, your office roof needs repairing.  If the repair is to the whole house – then claim in proportion as above.

So claiming costs of working from home is not as simple as it sounds.  The flat rate method will give you a quick answer, but the actual costs option may give you a higher figure.  If you need any further help then please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co.

Note – these rules only apply to the self-employed and not to owners of limited companies.

Do you need to file a tax return this year?

The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, and tax returns for last year (that’s 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021) are due to be filed by 31 January 2022.  There has been no extension to the filing deadline as there was last year.

If you meet any of the following criteria – then YES you do need to file a tax return.

• You were self-employed at any point between 6 April 2020 and 5 April 2021 and your income from this was more than £1,000
• you received more than £2,500 from renting out property
• you received more than £2,500 in other untaxed income, for example from tips or commission
• your income from savings or investments was £10,000 or more before tax
• your income from dividends from shares was over £2,000
• you made profits from selling assets eg shares or a second home
• you were a company director and received income that needs to be declared
• your income (or your partner’s) was over £50,000 and one of you claimed child benefit
• your taxable income was over £100,000

You also need to send a tax return if you:

• need to prove you’re self-employed, for example to claim Tax-Free Childcare or claim Maternity Allowance
• want to make voluntary Class 2 National Insurance payments to help you qualify for state benefits

To file a tax return, you need to have first registered with HMRC.  You should have done this by 5 October 2021, but if you haven’t, then you need to get on with this ASAP, by following the link here if you are self-employed:

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return/register-if-youre-self-employed

HMRC will then send you your UTR (unique taxpayer reference) number.  Without this, your tax return cannot be filed, either by yourself or by an accountant.  The reference can take a few weeks to come through, so do not leave this until January!!

If you are going to file your tax return yourself, you will need your government gateway ID and password.  If you are using an accountant, they can generally file your return using their own software and government gateway log-ins, but will also need time to set themselves up as your agent.

It is your responsibility to let HMRC know if you have to file a return – so if you have a new source of income in the year, or a one-off capital gain from selling an asset or shares, then don’t wait for HMRC to ask for the information!

Penalties for late filing are an automatic £100.  Even if there is not any tax actually due, if you are required for file a return, and this is not with HMRC by midnight on 31 Jan- you will get a fine!

The tax is also due to be paid by 31 January.  When you file your return, you will get a calculation of the tax due as part of the submission process, or your accountant will tell you when they send you your return for approval and signing, so the sooner you do this – the sooner you will know the amount you have to pay.

For any more information, or help with your personal tax return, please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co

MTD goes live in less than 6 months, but research shows that 40% of small businesses that will be affected by MTD, are not yet aware of it, and have certainly not begun to prepare for its impact.

So are you affected and what do you need to do?

HMRC are about to launch their publicity campaign to increase awareness, but here are some frequently asked questions from small businesses:

Does MTD apply to me?

If you run a VAT-registered business (limited company OR sole trader) with a taxable turnover above the VAT registration threshold (currently £85,000) then YES it applies to you from April 19.

I have registered for VAT voluntarily, so I am VAT registered – but my turnover is less than £85K. Does MTD apply?

No it will not apply from April 19.  MTD is planned for all businesses over time, but you not caught in this first batch of people!

What does MTD mean anyway?

MTD means that you will have to keep digital VAT records and send VAT returns using “MTD-compatible” software from April 19.  The deadlines or frequency of returns are not changing, it is just how the information gets to HMRC.

If you are already using commercial accounting software, it is likely that the provider is working hard to make it MTD compatible, and you should be OK, though you will need to upgrade to the latest version that is compliant.

HMRC have provided a list of suppliers it is working with to provide MTD compliant software so you can check:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/software-suppliers-supporting-making-tax-digital-for-vat/software-suppliers-supporting-making-tax-digital-for-vat

I keep my accounts on a spreadsheet – is that still OK?

Technically yes, but I would be thinking about switching to a digital package!

If you use a spreadsheet, then that spreadsheet must be able to submit the required data to HMRC digitally and to do this you will need to add “bridging software”.  This is a piece of software that will extract the data from your spreadsheet and send it to HMRC in the correct format.

What you will no longer be able to do is physically retype in figures from one piece of software to another.

We have no examples yet of what this “bridging software” might look like – all we do know, is HMRC aren’t providing a free version for you to use!

My accountant does my VAT return from the info I send them so won’t they just deal with it?

Sadly no!

The portal that accountants use to submit vat returns will be closing, as this requires someone to type the information into it – and this will no longer be allowed.  Nor can your accountant take your spreadsheets, correct a few errors, and then retype the information into a vat return and submit it, as the information flow has not been digital.  HMRC have said that “cutting and pasting” information will be acceptable for the first year only, to give people time to update systems.

So what do I need to do if I am affected?

You need to look at how you keep your accounts, and if you have not yet moved onto a digital package, now really is the time to do it!  The start of your new financial year is the perfect time, so if that falls between now (or even a couple of months ago) and 31 March, then I would switch your accounts over now, so you are up and running smoothly when the changes come in.

Digital accounting packages are not expensive – prices can be as low as £9 per month, with add ons that allow you to submit receipts electronically.  Switching to digital will save your business time, and give you more accurate data about your business in real time, so be brave – bite the bullet and go digital!!

HMRC are still wanting to bring in MTD for everyone, so although the timetable has been pushed back to at least 2020, even if you don’t have to make the switch before April 2019, it is worth assessing how you keep your accounts and if it could be more efficient!

For more information please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins Co.

You can google the VAT registration threshold – its currently £85k  – but so many people look at their wrong sales figure to compare to this number – and registering for VAT late can be very expensive!

You have to register for VAT when your “VAT taxable turnover” in a 12 month period is over £85k.  If we take ” VAT taxable turnover” to be your sales (which simplifies it somewhat,) then you need to look at your sales figure for the last 12 months.

This is NOT THE SAME AS YOUR SALES SINCE THE START OF YOUR FINANCIAL YEAR.
There is no starting again when you get to your year end – you need to look at your sales figure for the last 12 months – ON A ROLLING BASIS.

So you need to look at Sept 17 – Aug 18, and then Oct 17 – Sept 18, then Nov 17 – Oct 18 etc etc.

If your turnover is around the £75-80k, you need to keep a close eye on it each month to see if you have gone over the registration threshold.  If you have exceeded £85k, then you have one month in which to register for VAT and then you need to start charging VAT in the following month.

For example if your sales for the year Sept 17 to 31 Aug 18 were over £85k for the first time, then you need to register by 30 Sept 18 and you will be registered from 1 October.

If you are late in registering, then you are deemed to be register from 1 October anyway, and you are liable for the vat that you should have been charging, plus potentially a penalty, so this can be very expensive for your business!

If your turnover has gone over the threshold temporarily, say you have sent out an unusually large invoice – you can apply for an exception to registration, but you need to write to HMRC with evidence that you sales for the next 12 months will be under the VAT deregistration threshold of £83k.

So do keep an eye on your turnover if you are close to the threshold.  I see late registration time and time again, as business owners only look at current year sales, not sales for the last 12 months.

For more information then please contact Rosie Forsyth at Wilkins & Co.

Hot of the press is my new tax planning brochure for this tax year.

This easy to read guide provides you with simple tax planning points for the current year.

Covering personal tax, and matters affecting both you and your family, my guide suggest many ways in which you can save money on your tax bill by taking full advantage of the current tax system, as well as highlighting some of the pitfalls that you should avoid.

Please download a copy with my compliments – and let me know if I can help you with any issues raised.

Download Your Free Copy Now