Thinking about tax is often the last thing on your mind when running a busy and successful accountancy firm. With changes year-on-year, even for those on top of it, understanding tax can be a burden on time and resources. That is why we have compiled a list of the major changes for the tax year 2017-18 which will affect every accountant in Melton Mowbray and beyond – all with the aim of helping you pay less tax.
Corporation Tax
Coming into effect back in April 2017, the first major change set out by the government was to cut corp tax to 19%. It is worth keeping an eye on the fact the Chancellor earlier this year stated the aim was to reduce the rate to 17% by 2020.
ISA Limit Changes
The annual allowance limits for ISAs have increased from £15,240 up to £20,000.
Personal Allowance
The total earnings for an individual before they incur income tax has risen to £11,500, and the higher rate threshold has been increased to £45,000 (in Scotland this is £43,430).
Business Rates
For businesses in England, a rate relief of 100% will be available to businesses occupying a property valued at £12,000 and under.
VAT Registration threshold
The margin for VAT Registration has risen to a minimum turnover of £85,000 for small businesses.
Money purchase annual allowance
Those individuals looking to flexibly access money such as pensions will see their allowance reduced from £10,000 to £4,000.
Domicile
For tax purposes, any person holding residency in the UK for at least 15 of the past 20 years is now deemed UK domiciled.
Salary sacrifice & employee benefits
Employer NI contributions, salary sacrifice schemes, and income tax relief have been removed. However, pensions, childcare, and various other employee benefits such as cycle-to-work have been left untouched.
For these and many other of the various tax year changes (especially ones you think will affect your clients), it is worth reading about them in more detail at www.gov.uk, where you’ll find up-to-date figures and step by step guides on the changes made and how they affect us.