The dividend zero rate band has been called an allowance, but it is not an allowance; simply a zero percent rate band. For 2016/17 the first £5,000 of dividend income is taxed at zero percent and the first tax payments to be made which will include this zero rate band will be the payments due […]

The 2017 Spring Budget brought into view areas of disparity in the UK’s tax system for taxing earnings from work. One of these areas which has been under review for many years and by many governments are the rule of contractors. For some years it’s been argued that certain contractors are not self-employed, whether as individuals […]

Parents of children aged under 1 year old are currently being invited to take part in the roll out of the new Tax Free Childcare Account. All parents will be invited to join by the end of 2017. For every £8 a parent pays into their childcare account, the government will pay in an extra […]

Here at Balance we are always striving to keep ahead of the competition and be at the modern forefront of the accountancy profession. Standing still is not an option, and that is one of the reasons why we have decided to start sending documents to our clients using a Secure Document Portal. If you want […]

Significant changes have been announced for the amount of VAT that many small businesses will have to pay This will affect businesses that use the VAT Flat Rate Scheme but which spend very little on goods, including raw materials – such as firms providing services. The VAT Flat Rate Scheme simplifies businesses’ record keeping, and […]

Here at Balance we are always striving to keep ahead of the competition and be at the modern forefront of the accountancy profession. Standing still is not an option, and that is one of the reasons why we have decided to start sending documents to our clients using a Secure Document Portal. This Portal has […]

Apprenticeship Levy The Apprenticeship Levy is being introduced on 6 April. The new Levy will change the way apprenticeships are funded, requiring larger employers (those with annual ‘pay bills’ over £3 million) to invest a percentage of their yearly pay bill in apprenticeships. The Levy is 0.5% of a business’s pay bill, although an annual […]

In his first Budget on 8th March the new Chancellor Phillip Hammond announced that he would  level the playing field between employees and the self-employed by increasing Class 4 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 9% to 10% from 6 April 2018 and then to 11% from 6 April 2019. His justification is that the self-employed […]

The Government is committed to the “Making Tax Digital” (MTD) project which is scheduled to start in April 2018 with the first quarterly updates being submitted by the self-employed and property landlords in July 2018. Many business owners, professional advisors and the Treasury select committee had expressed concerns about the timescale for the introduction of […]

Think of Research and Development and you tend to conjure up images of white coated scientists, laboratories and test tubes. Therefore R & D tax relief can’t apply to my business. Can it? Well you might be surprised by the answer; many business owners are unaware of the type of activity that qualifies for R […]