Blog
Accounting for charities: the essentials
Dealing with charities is not a service offered by all accountants, many of whom prefer to focus on business clients. There’s no getting away from the fact that handling the accounts of a charity can be complex, but it’s a task we relish at Thomas Barrie. We’re happy...
The impact on landlords of mortgage interest relief
Residential landlords make up a large portion of our clients here at Thomas Barrie, and the impact of changes to mortgage interest relief made by those in UK Government is not lost on us. For years, our buy-to-let clients were able to offset their entire mortgage...
Associate dentists face tax position challenge
We have heard that HMRC is writing to dentists operating as associates in some areas of the country in order to challenge the current practice that these positions are self-employed positions. There are a number of problems for dentists operating in this manner,...
The tapered annual allowance explained
Most high net-worth individuals saw their annual allowance towards their pension pots restricted by tapering rules, which came into effect from 6 April 2016.The annual amount you can save towards your pension in 2018/19 is £40,000, although this allowance is tapered...
Making Tax Digital for VAT registered businesses
Most business owners in the UK will have heard of Making Tax Digital (MTD) by now, and some will be clued up about its turbulent rollout. It was this time last year that Westminster put the brakes on its rollout of MTD for VAT-registered businesses to report income...
How to survive a HMRC investigation
Nobody likes it when a brown envelope from the Revenue drops through their letterbox. Even if you have all your tax affairs in order, HMRC could still randomly select you after upping its game in recent years to crack down on falsely reporting or underpaying tax....
Tax-efficient ways to reward your employees
A business is much more than strategic goals and profits; it is often a collection of individuals, all with their own lives and families, working together towards a strategic goal. Employers often reward their staff for good results and provide them with benefits to...
Tax relief on medical exam fees during training contracts
Things have moved on from a couple of years ago where following the Dr Banerjee case the relief due was restricted to the exam fees paid to the Royal College of General Practitioners for the Applied Knowledge Tests and the Clinical Skills Assessment. These are now...
Reducing inheritance tax by a deed of variation
It emerged last month that Labour party stalwart Tony Benn had taken careful steps to minimise the amount of inheritance tax (IHT) due on his estate when he died. Benn, who died in March this year, made use of what we accountants call a 'deed of variation'. When...
Tax relief on RCGP exam fees
This has been made available from the RCGP: "We are writing to give you the very welcome news that you may be able to receive tax relief on AKT and CSA examination fees paid since 2009. Based on the advice of tax experts, we have in the past informed our trainees that...