2009 April | Sherie Griffiths

April 27, 2009

Was The Budget What You Were Expecting? – Business Tax & Investment Incentives: Part 2

Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

The restrictions on the carry-back of income tax relief to the previous tax year will be removed. This will apply to 2009/10 and subsequent years. With effect from 22 April 2009, further changes will be introduced to simplify and improve the EIS rules.

Loan relationships

Where trade debts between connected companies are released after 22 April 2009, the debtor companies will no longer be taxed on the debts released. For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2009, deductions for interest payable to certain connected foreign companies will now be available on a paid basis rather than on the accruals basis.

Foreign profits

Legislation is to be introduced to ensure that dividends and other distributions received from foreign companies on or after 1 July 2009 will largely be exempt from corporation tax. UK distributions will be exempt to the same extent. Finance expense payable by UK members of a group of companies will be subject to a cap equal to the consolidated gross finance expense of the group. This will apply to amounts payable in accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2010. With effect from 1 July 2009 there will be changes to the controlled foreign companies rules and the Treasury Consent rules will be replaced.

Corporate transparency

For accounting periods beginning on or after Royal Assent, the senior accounting officers of large companies and large groups of companies will have reporting obligations aimed at ensuring that the accounting systems are adequate for the purposes of accurate tax reporting. These obligations will be supported by penalties chargeable on the senior accounting officer personally and on the company.

Anti-avoidance

A number of measures will be introduced to tackle anti-avoidance. These will affect:

Intra-group convertible finance
Derecognition of income from derivative contracts
Plant and machinery leasing
Foreign exchange matching
‘Disguised interest’
Exploitation of qualifying loan interest relief
Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) regime
Double tax relief where foreign tax is repaid
Receipts derived from a right to receive income.

With the publishing of the 2008 Finance Act, the UK overtook India as the country with the longest tax code world.

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April 24, 2009

Was The Budget What You Were Expecting? – Business Tax & Investment Incentives: Part 1

Corporation Tax

Corporation tax rates and bands are as follows:-

Financial year to 31 March 2010 31 March 2009

Taxable profits

First £300,000                21%                                                    21%
Next £1,200,000            29.75%                                            29.75%
Over £1,500,000            28%                                                   28%

Trading losses

Trade loss carry back will be extended to a period of three years, with losses being carried back against later years first. After carry back to the preceding year, a maximum of £50,000 of unused losses will be available for carry back to the earlier two years. This will apply to trading losses made by companies in accounting periods ending between 24 November 2008 and 23 November 2010 and to trading losses made by unincorporated businesses in tax years 2008/09 and 2009/10. The £50,000 limit applies separately to the unused losses of each 12 month period or tax year.

Capital allowances

A 40% first year allowance will be introduced for expenditure on qualifying plant and machinery that would normally be allocated to the main capital allowance pool. This will be
available to businesses incurring such expenditure in the 12 month period beginning on 1 April 2009 for corporation tax and on 6 April 2009 for income tax.
Qualifying expenditure incurred on cars on or after 1 or 6 April 2009 will now be allocated to one of the two general plant and machinery pools. Cars with CO2 emissions exceeding 160 g/km will be dealt with in the special rate pool and attract writing down allowances (WDA) at 10%. Cars with CO2 emissions of 160 g/km or less will be added to the main rate pool and attract WDA at 20%. Expenditure incurred before April 2009 will continue to be subject to the old ‘expensive’ car rules for a transitional period of around five years. Cars that have an element of non-business use will continue to be dealt with in single asset pools to enable the private use adjustment to be made, but the rate of WDA will be determined by the car’s CO2 emissions.

Car leases

From April 2009, the rules restricting the amount of car lease rental payments that can be deducted for tax purposes will be changed to a flat rate disallowance of 15% of relevant payments. This will apply only in respect of cars with CO2 emissions exceeding 160 g/km. For leases that commenced prior to April 2009, the previous rules will continue to apply until the end of the lease.

‘The avoidance of taxes is the only pursuit that still carries any reward’.
John Maynard Keynes, British economist

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April 23, 2009

Was the Budget What You Were Expecting? – Darling Defiant in Face of Recession

Over the next few days, you’ll be able to read extracts from the budget report produced by Branston Adams (Chartered & Certified Accountants) – one of our professional members in Surrey. The full report covers:-

• Introduction & Highlights
• Income Tax and Personal Savings
• Capital Taxes
• Business Tax and Investment Incentives
• Tax and Travel
• Value Added Tax
• Duties
• Penalties Reform
• National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
• Other Measures
• What They Said
• My Key Budget Points
• 2009/10 Tax Calendar

For more information about any of the issues raised in the report, to find out how they affect you and your business or for a copy of the full report, please contact :-

Branston Adams
Suite 2, Victoria House, South Street, Farnham, Surrey. GU9 7QU
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 728 598 Fax: +44 (0) 1252 728 652
Email: paul@taxaccountancy.com
http://www.branstonadams.co.uk

Please note: while most taxation changes take effect from the start of the financial year, or tax year, some may not take effect until 2010 or later. Where relevant, details of these changes are included in the full report.

We start today with the “Introduction & Highlights”. Tomorrow’s post will include “Business Tax and Investment Incentives”.

Introduction & Highlights

Chancellor Alistair Darling has unveiled a series of measures aimed at tackling the ‘unprecedented economic crisis’. As widely anticipated, growth forecasts for 2009 have been revised down, with the economy expected to shrink by 3.5%; while borrowing forecasts have risen sharply to £175 billion. However, despite the economic gloom, the Chancellor asserted that the economy will recover, forecasting growth of 1.25% next year.

Key announcements include the introduction, from April 2010, of a 50% income tax rate for those earning more than £150,000 a year. The stamp duty land tax ‘holiday’ for residential properties valued at £175,000 or less willbe extended to the end of 2009. Measures for businesses include the introduction of a temporary 40% first year allowance and an extension of help for loss-making companies.

The Chancellor allocated £1 billion to tackle climate change, and announced a commitment to cut UK carbon emissions by 34% by 2020. The introduction of a ‘car scrappage’ scheme was also confirmed, offering £2,000 to people who trade in cars that are over 10 years old. Meanwhile, fuel duty will rise by 2p a litre from September 2009.

Other measures include an increase in the child element of Child Tax Credit from April 2010; credits towards the basic state pension for grandparents of working age who
care for their grandchildren; and a rise in the annual limit for ISAs to £10,200.

Budget Highlights

• 50% income tax for high earners
• 40% first year capital allowance
• Extension of trade loss carry back rules
• Extension of SDLT ‘holiday’
• Removal of higher rate tax
• Relief on pension contributions

Economic forecasts for 2009/10

• Inflation 1%
• Government spending £608 billion
• Growth -3.5%
• Government receipts £496 billion
• Net Borrowing £175 billion
• Public Sector Year End Net Debt £792 billion

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April 15, 2009

International Trade Single Window

The following article is taken from the April newsletter of one of our professional members, International Trade Financial Solutions, who specialize in ‘Minimising Commercial Risks When Trading Abroad’.

Http://www.inttradefinsolns.co.uk
For more information you can also call Ray Stannard on
01708 370838

International Trade Single Window.

Known as ‘ITSW’ for short, it’s a recent development by various parties, including
Business Link, HMRC, UKTI and others. It’s been set up to try to simplify and standardise much of what has been written about international trade. However, what is relatively new is that it looks not only at UK exports, but also imports, so it’s one of the
few Governmental websites that acknowledges the importance importers play in the
overall wheels of commerce. There are various links to it, but a simple Google of
‘ITSW’ will throw up several links on the 1st page. Don’t be put off by the top
link ITSW2009 – International Test Synthesis Workshop – this is something entirely
unrelated!. The Business Link page is probably the most relevant -
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/internationaltrade

ITSW is essentially a web based information service that allows anyone, regardless
of previous international trade experience, to access basic information to get them
started and also to drill down to specific industries, trade associations, etc.,
as well as looking at tariff duties What’s more, it’s free to interrogate. It doesn’t quite do away with me [phew!] but it can answer many questions that importers
and exporters have and/or allow them to ask more specific questions relevant to their
particular industry/shipment. Currently, it is still being completed – 2011 is the
expected completion date, but don’t let that put you off: there is already a significant
amount of information and links to related pages available.

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April 3, 2009

Launching the Savvy Business Community

Filed under: Uncategorised — Tags: 6xx, Business Community, Business Network, Business People, Businesspeople, Cannon Street, Core Team, Event Marketing, Founder Members, Guided Tour, Invitation, Launch, Savvy Business, Savvy; business; "Paper Mountain"; "USP Content"; "Royston Simpson" "Direct Marketing", St Pauls Cathedral, Street London, Subs, Wine — sheriegriffiths.com @ 3:34 pm

Below, as promised, is the invitation to our event in May to celebrate the new website going live and the launch of the Community. We’re currently reducing all subs by 25% and, in addition to this offer, professionals who join the panel by the end of April will be included in the event marketing and be promoted on the night. Right – that’s enough sales! As I said, the real purpose of the launch is to celebrate - I hope you’ll join us.

If you’d like to attend, but have not yet received an invitation, drop me a line at sherie@savvybc.com.

Get Business Savvy

“The People Business”

Launching the Savvy Business Community

Come and help us celebrate!

When? Monday 11th May at 6:00 PM

Where? At The Wine Tun, 2/6 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6XX – by St Pauls Cathedral (http://www.davy.co.uk/winetun)

Why? You will be able to:
o See presentations by the core team behind the Community
o Get a guided tour of the new website
o Meet founder members
o Find out how the Community could help your business
o Network with businesspeople from across the South-east region and beyond
o Have a drink on us!

RSVP by 3rd May 2009.

For more information, please email sherie@savvybc.com or call 0844 371 2941

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