Atkinsons Tax Solutions

10/12/2024

Many many thanks for another year in business! So grateful to you all.

I always try to find a local charity to support each Christmas. This year I have donated presents to Project Secret Santa, giving presents to local children through Hampshire Children's Service. An incredible local project. Donations close soon if you wish to donate - you can do this through Amazon or in person.

Finally, I will be closed 20th December, reopening 6th January.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Rona 😊

30/10/2024

Budget Quick Update as emailed to my clients:

Well the Budget was not too far from expected and, fortunately not many surprises.

Here is a brief summary of the tax implications:

Income Tax:
the only change will be a raise in the personal allowance from 2028 in line with inflation. So a while to wait for this one .
National Insurance:
Employers NIC is going up by 1.2% to 15% from April 2025. The threshold on which this is paid is being lowered from £9,100 to £5,000.
The Employment Allowance is being raised to £10,500 so this will help small businesses with this raise.
Capital Gains Tax:
Rate increased from 10% to 18% and 20% to 24%, bringing all gains in line with the rates on residential property.
Business Assets Disposal Relief (BADR) will retain the £1million lifetime limit but the rates will be changing from 10% to 14% in 2025 to 18% in 2026.
Inheritance Tax:
Thresholds will be frozen until 2030, with inherited pension schemes being brought into tax from April 2027.
Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief will be restricted significantly from 2026.
Non-Domicile tax regime is being abolished from April 2025 with a new regime based on residence being brought in.
VAT:
Only significant change is the VAT on private school fees
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Surcharge on purchases of second homes is increasing to 5% as from tomorrow.
Corporation Tax:
Under review but they have said will keep tax at a maximum of 25% for this government and retain the £1million Annual Investment Allowance
There is an increase is the National Living Wage and the state pension will rise by 4.1% in 2025.

One extra point to note: they are giving money to HMRC to help debt collection, they will be raising interest rates on unpaid taxes and cracking down on anti-avoidance.

Overall, some positives but quite a few negatives. Freezing thresholds means effective tax increases as income rises, pulling more income into tax. I am pleased CGT has not risen as far as we anticipated however we have not heard whether the tax free amount will change - I suspect this will be announced in the March budget.

The fine print will be coming out in the next few days, so I will have some light bedtime reading!

19/04/2024

I can highly recommend Zoe 🙂

07/03/2024

Quick budget summary:

Yesterday’s budget did contain a few surprises but, fortunately, there was little negative news for tax payers. A brief summary of the main tax points as applicable to my clients, follows. If you need further information, please do ask:

- A new UK ISA is being introduced to allow £5000 to be invested in UK equities - this will be in addition to the current £20,000 ISA allowance. This should be introduced from April 2025.
- Employees National Insurance will be reduced further from 10% to 8% from 6 April 2024 and Class 4 NI for self employed will also be cut from 8% to 6%. Together with the changes earlier this year, this is a significant reduction in NI
- The High Income Child Benefit Charge threshold is increasing from £50,000 to £60,000 from 6 April and they are going to look at moving to a total household income system from 2026
- Capital gains tax higher rate tax band is being but from 28% to 24% for residential property sales from 6 April. Please note this applies to properties where exchange (not completion) occurs from 6 April.
- The Furnished Holiday Lets scheme is being abolished in April 2025. This will become rental income as opposed to trading income.
- The Non-Domiciled tax regime is being abolished
- Companies: we need to await the details and start date but you should be able to include leasing in Full expensing
- VAT Registration threshold to increase from £85,000 to £90,000 from 1 April 2024.
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: Multiple dwellings relief (when you purchase more than one property at the same time) is being abolished from 1 June.

20/12/2023

We will shortly be closing for the holidays, reopening on Wednesday 3rd January. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

22/11/2023

So today's budget had positive tax news:

If you are self employed you will no longer pay Class 2 NIC (£192 per year), but state pension entitlement will be protected. In addition, Class 4 NIC is being cut from 9% to 8% from April 2024.
If you are employed, your Class 1 Employee's National insurance is being cut from 12% to 10% and this is coming in from 6 January 2024.
Minimum wage is increasing to £11.44 as from April 2024.
State pension standard rate going up from April to £221.20 per week
For companies, full expensing is going to continue, meaning we can claim 100% of all plant and machinery purchases in the year of purchase so getting instant corporation tax relief. As the super deduction ceased in March, this is great news.
Interesting to see no Inheritance tax changes as was discussed.

R 🙂

23/10/2023

Did you know there are 100 days until the self assessment filing deadline 31 January 2024? Don't leave it until the last minute .....

26/07/2023

Just a reminder to pay your second payments on account for 2022/23 by 31 July.
If your income for 2022/23 was lower than 2021/22 you may have overpaid these advance payments - prepare your Tax Returns asap to calculate your tax to find out .

10/12/2022

Merry Christmas ☃️🎄🥳
Thank you for supporting my business this past year.

As I do every year, I do not send Christmas cards to my clients and colleagues and instead I like to make a donation to a local charity that needs our support at this time of year. This year I have chosen the Wi******er Basics Bank as they are doing amazing work in supporting struggling families this winter. If you feel you have a few pennies to spare, please consider donating - www.winchesterbasicsbank.co.uk. Last year I was so touched that, between us, we donated over £500 to charity. All donations will help support their drive to keep local families warm and fed this winter.

I hope that you all have a very happy Christmas and send my best wishes for an amazing New Year.

Rona

Provides emergency food and clothes to individuals and families in need

04/05/2022

NATIONAL INSURANCE REMINDER

Now that the new tax year is underway, I wanted to remind you all of the changes to National Insurance as from 6 April 2022 as the 1.25% increase has now kicked in. From 2023/24 the new Health and Social Care Levy of 1.25% will be charged on all income but for the current tax year, we have the following increases:

Employees: Class 1 NI has increased from 12% to 13.25% (higher rate from 2% to 3.25%)

Employers: Class 1 NI has increased from 13.8% to 15.05%

Self Employed: Class 4, charged on profits over £11,908, increased from 9% to 10.25% ( from 2% to 3.25% for higher rate taxpayers). From 2023/24 this threshold will be increased to £12,570, in line with the personal allowance

Self Employed: Class 2 rate will be £163.80 (£3.15 per week) chargeable on those with profits over £11,908 (increasing to £12,570 from 2023 the same as Class 4).

NOTE: Self employeds who have profits of less than the previous threshold of £6,725 will be able to make voluntary class 2 payments through self assessment in order to protect their state pension & benefits. For profits of between £6,725 and £11,907. HMRC will give you an automatic credit for Class 2 NI for this 2022/23 tax year only. Please note this anomaly for this year that earning less than £6,725 will cost you £163.80 but earning £6,725 - £11,907 will give you a free credit, saving you £163.80.
RECOMMENDATION: Please do check your NI records to ensure HMRC give you this free credit if this applies to you - you will be able to check this on your personal tax account after the end of the tax year once you have submitted your profits on your 2023 Tax Return.

Any queries, please always ask
R 😊

24/03/2022

Yesterday's Spring statement brought in a few tax changes.

The big change is to National Insurance. Remember that NI is going up by 1.25% from 6 April and then from 2023 this 1.25% will be removed from National Insurance and introduced as a Health & Social Care Levy - so 2022/23 will see NI and dividend taxes rise, 2023/24 will see 1.25% levied against all sources of income (the main difference is that pensioners will be paying this levy). The Chancellor has announced that the National Insurance threshold will rise to match the personal allowance tax free threshold of £12,570 as from July 2022. Currently you pay NI on employment income and self employment income over £9568 so this is an increase of NI free income of £3000. This will save approximat3ly £300 per year so is good news. For employees therefore, you will see a small increase in your take home pay as from July and self employeds will pay slightly less NI when we prepare your self assessment tax return.

The other change will come in 2 years time when the basic rate of tax will be reduced from 20% to 19% from April 2024. Again, this is good news for taxpayers however do remember that this is set against the rise in corporation tax for large businesses (profits over £250,000) that comes in next year in 2023.

For small businesses, there is an increase in the NI Employment Allowance, with this increasing to £5000 from April 2022. In addition, from April 2023, they will be reforming Capital Allowances and R&D Tax credits - I expect this to be announced in the November budget.