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National Insurance

Employers’ NICs Relief For Employees In Freeport Tax Areas

The government have announced a new zero rate of secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for eligible employers on the earnings of eligible employees working in a Freeport tax site. In Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), this measure will provide those employers with physical premises in a Freeport tax site (Freeport employers) with […]

Read more May 19th, 2021

No Employers NICs For A Year If Hiring Ex-Military Staff

The Government have announced a one-year exemption from paying employers national insurance contributions (NICs) where military veterans are recruited by civilian employers. Employers can claim relief if they employ a veteran during the qualifying period. The qualifying period starts on the first day of the veteran’s first civilian job since leaving the regular armed forces […]

Read more May 13th, 2021

How The New Job Support Scheme Works

Update 2 November 2020: On 31 October the Prime Minister announced the second lockdown in England. This lockdown will start from 00:01 Thursday 5 November and last 4 weeks until Wednesday 2 December. This has meant that the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has now been delayed until December. To find how […]

Read more October 30th, 2020

Property Business Owners Liable To Class 2 NICs

Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are currently paid at the rate of £3.05 per week by self-employed earners. A person who is liable to Income Tax on the profits arising from the receipt of property rental income will only be a self-employed earner for NICs purposes if the level of activities carried out amounts […]

Read more September 7th, 2020

Changes To Disguised Remuneration Loan Charge

The independent loan charge review, conducted by Sir Amyas Morse, was published on 20 December, having been delayed due to the general election. The loan charge was introduced to collect tax from individuals who had benefited from schemes devised to avoid PAYE and National Insurance. The date that the loan was made to the individual […]

Read more February 10th, 2020

Conservative Party Elected With Working Majority

Now that Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party have won the General Election will we finally “Get Brexit Done”? More importantly, can the Government now get on with running the country and sorting out urgent issues such as the NHS? The Budget date has now been announced for Wednesday 11th March. This Budget is likely […]

Read more January 8th, 2020

Radio Presenter Wins IR35 Personal Service Company Case

The extension of the “off-payroll” working rules to the private sector mentioned in our previous article is planned for April 2020 but in the meantime, tax tribunal decisions are still being decided against HMRC. In a recent case involving a radio presenter working for TalkSport, it was decided that the presenter would not have been […]

Read more October 3rd, 2019

Using a PAYE Settlement Agreement To Pay Some Of Your Employee’s Tax

PAYE settlement agreements (PSAs) are arrangements under which an employer can settle the income tax and National Insurance liabilities on benefits in kind and expenses payments provided to employees and officeholders. Setting up a PSA avoids passing on an unexpected, and potentially demotivating, tax charge to employees. Where a PSA has been agreed with HMRC, […]

Read more July 12th, 2019

High Income Child Benefit Charge And State Pension

Last month we looked at tax planning to minimise or eliminate the high income child benefit to keep both husband and wife (or civil partners) looking after a child below the £50,000 threshold. Where the income of one of the individuals exceeds £60,000 such that the whole of the child benefit is taxed they may […]

Read more June 10th, 2019

Are You Sure You Or Your Workers Are Self-Employed?

Last year we reported that the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee published a report calling on the Government to close the loopholes that allow “bogus” self-employment practices, which burden the welfare state but reduce the tax contributions needed to sustain it. Most of the people working for organisations such as Uber, Amazon, Hermes […]

Read more March 9th, 2018

Working In The “Gig” Economy

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has recently published a report calling on the Government to close the loopholes that allow “bogus” self-employment practices, which burden the welfare state but reduce the tax contributions needed to sustain it. This follows the “Matthew Taylor” inquiry which took evidence during February and March 2017 from […]

Read more August 9th, 2017

Salary Sacrifice Rules To Be Tightened Up

Many employers now provide flexible remuneration packages. These allow employees to give up some of their contractual salary in exchange for benefits in kind. This can have the effect of saving tax and National Insurance contributions for both the employee and employer, particularly where the benefit provided is exempt from tax. These tax and NIC […]

Read more November 29th, 2016

2012/13 PAYE & National Insurance

Income Tax Allowances The basic personal allowance for 2012/13 will be increased to £8105 and the tax code for emergency use will be 810L. Income tax bands and income tax bandwidths for the 2012/13 tax year are as follows: Rate % Bandwidth Basic Rate 20% £1 to £34,370 Higher Rate 40% £34,371 to £150,000 Additional […]

Read more March 19th, 2012

Cycle To Work Schemes

Have you introduced one of these schemes, or ever considered doing so? In the right circumstances (mainly depending on how far you have to travel from home to work, naturally enough) there are significant tax breaks available and they have now been made more flexible where the bicycle is sold to the employee later on. […]

Read more October 15th, 2010