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Please click on the download file button to print a copy of our tax card.
Personal tax
Generally the personal allowance is £10,600 with entitlement to a maximum of £10,660 for those born before 6 April 1938. Conditions and restrictions apply to the entitlement over £10,600. Non-savings and savings income above the personal allowance is taxed at rates from 20% to 45%.
Some taxpayers with very modest savings and income may only pay 10%. The basic rate of tax increases to the higher rate for taxable income over £31,785 and to 45% when taxable income exceeds £150,000.
A higher marginal tax rate may be payable between £100,000 and £121,200 when the personal allowance is gradually withdrawn giving an effective marginal rate of 60% in this band for non-savings and savings income.
In some cases, you can transfer £1,060 of your personal allowance to your spouse or civil partner.
Ordinarily, each person is entitled to make a tax-free gain up to £11,100 (or up to £5,550 for trusts). Thereafter, gains are taxed at a rate that is income dependent. Where taxable income is less than £31,786 the capital gains tax rate for gains up to the spare basic rate band allowance is 18%. Thereafter, this rises to 28%. The rate applicable to a trust is 28%.
For business owners entrepreneurs’ relief gives rise to a lower rate of 10% for qualifying gains which provides for a maximum reduction in tax of £1,800,000 (if the gain were £10 million, the current upper limit).
Generally, inheritance tax (IHT) is due on death at a rate of 40% if the inheritance threshold of £325,000 is exceeded. The percentage of any unused nil rate band from the first death may be transferred to the surviving spouse, allowing up to double the nil rate band applicable at the date of the second death.
Gifts or transfers made within 7 years of death are also added back into the estate and are liable to IHT, but may be subject to some exemptions as well as a tapered reduction for tax on transfers between years 3 and 7.
You have worked hard to create your wealth – now make sure you do all you can to minimise any payments that may be due for IHT. Estate planning should start early in life but it is never too late to start.
There are limits to how much can be invested in a pension scheme before a tax charge is payable. To qualify for personal tax relief, a pension contribution must be made by or on behalf of a relevant UK individual.
Tax relief for pension contributions is restricted by reference to net relevant earnings and the annual allowance. The annual allowance is currently £40,000 while there is a lifetime allowance which is currently £1.25 million.
However, it is possible to carry forward any unused allowances from the previous 3 tax years.
Major changes to the annual allowance and lifetime allowance will be introduced from 6 April 2016.
A pension investment is many peoples’ cornerstone as payments into a pension scheme currently attract tax relief of up to a potential maximum of 60%. However, there are undoubtedly other components of retirement planning.
Individuals who are 18 or over can invest up to £15,240 in an ISA. Withdrawals from an ISA are free of income and capital gains tax, but the value of an ISA will form part of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.
A Junior ISA of up to £4,080 is available for those who are 17 or under.
Help to Buy ISAs, which were launched on 1 December 2015, allow individuals over the age of 16 to save up to £200 into an account per month. Buyers can also deposit a lump sum of up to £1,000 when they set up their account.
The money will earn interest and will also qualify for a 25% bonus (up to £3,000) from the government provided the funds are used to buy a house.
If you don’t already have an ISA, should you start one this tax year? A further advantage is that ISAs are normally readily accessible (subject to scheme rules).
Individuals on low incomes may be eligible to claim tax credits or the universal credit (existing claimants will move to universal credit over by 2017). The calculations for these benefits involve determining 3 figures: your maximum benefit, your net income and your allowance.
The maximum benefit is the amount you would receive if you had no income at all. As some income is disregarded, it is possible that someone could receive the maximum benefit even though they have a small income.
Net income is usually earnings after tax, national insurance and pension contributions. If you have capital above a threshold this may require a notional income to be added.
The allowances are the maximum amount of income you may earn and still receive the maximum benefit. If your income is above this figure, a percentage of the excess is deducted from the maximum benefit.
Check to see if you qualify for these benefits as they can be payable for people with fairly high incomes.
As capital can be treated as income that reduces benefit, it may be sensible to give away funds or to spend them upgrading your property (as property value is not regarded as capital).
However, there are rules to counter blatant examples of capital reduction.
The high percentages at which benefit is withdrawn (between 65% and 76% for universal credit) provide much scope for planning.
Business tax
From 1 April 2015 there has been a single rate of corporation tax for all companies: 20%. Corporation tax self-assessment requires companies to work out their own tax liability as part of their return and account for the ‘self-assessed’ liability to corporation tax.
Taxable profits are typically reduced by employers making pension contributions. Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) are popular with many company owner-directors.
Another popular tax reduction strategy is to bring qualifying capital expenditure forward to take advantage of the 100% annual investment allowance. This was £500,000, although reduced to £200,000 from 1 January 2016.
VAT is chargeable where taxable turnover is in excess of £82,000 in the previous 12 months or you expect this threshold will be exceeded within the next 30 days.
There are schemes which simplify VAT accounting. These include the cash accounting scheme, annual accounting scheme and the flat rate scheme.
Business owners are entitled to claim deductions from income for costs which are incurred wholly and exclusively in running the business.
Determining how this rule applies in practice can be a challenge. In most circumstances, a deduction may not be claimed in respect of depreciation, but deductions in the form of capital allowances are available for some expenditure on qualifying capital expenditure.
Entrepreneurs’ relief provides relief for disposals by smaller business owners. It charges a reduced tax rate of 10% on disposals up to the lifetime limit of £10 million giving rise to a potential tax saving of up to £1.8 million.
The relief is available on material disposals of business assets which covers businesses operated as a sole trader, partnership or through a limited company.
The liability to capital gains tax is just one aspect of all the planning that goes into the wording of the final contract for sale.
The penalty regime covers income tax, corporation tax, VAT and IHT.
There are also penalties to cover the notification of starting a business and the filing of returns and accounts at Companies House.
Miss the first income tax return filing deadline and the next day you are liable for a £100 fine. Leave it for another 3 months and the maximum penalty rises by £10 a day up to a maximum of £900. After 6 months a further £300 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is the higher, is added. In some serious cases the penalty can be even higher than this.
HMRC charges late filing penalties for PAYE, VAT and corporation tax while at Companies House penalty rates range from £150 for a private company filing the accounts not more than 1 month late up to £7,500 for a public company filing accounts more than 6 months late.
Ensure that you know all of your filing and payment requirements and the due date for payment.
Upcoming changes
Future rules, rates and allowances may affect your planning for 2015/16. Some changes from April 2016 include:
Dividend taxation
Dividend tax credit will be abolished and replaced with a £5,000 dividend tax allowance. Dividend income exceeding the annual allowance will be taxed according to an individual’s income tax band. Basic rate taxpayers will pay 7.5%, higher rate 32.5% and additional rate 38.1%.
Personal savings allowance
A new allowance to remove tax on up to £1,000 of savings income for basic rate taxpayers and up to £500 for higher rate taxpayers will be introduced.
Pensions
There will be a reduction in the £40,000 annual pension allowance where income, including pension contributions, exceeds £150,000. The annual allowance will reduce by £1 for every £2 of income in excess of £150,000, down to a minimum of £10,000.
The lifetime allowance for tax relief on pension contributions reduces from £1.25 million to £1 million.
Property
The wear and tear allowance on furnished properties will be replaced with a new relief that will allow residential landlords to deduct the actual costs of replacing furnishings.
Rent-a-room relief increases from £4,250 to £7,500.
New rates of stamp duty that are 3% higher than the current bands will be introduced from 1 April 2016 on purchases of additional properties such as buy-to-lets and second homes. Similar changes have been announced to land and buildings transaction tax in Scotland.
This document is for information purposes only and you should not make any decisions based upon its content. The way in which tax charges (or tax relief, as appropriate) are applied depends upon individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. ISA and pension eligibility depend upon individual circumstances. You cannot normally take pension benefits until age 55. Whilst considerable care has been taken to ensure that the information contained within this document is accurate and up-to-date, no warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of any information.