The Chancellor has announced cuts to national insurance contributions (NIC) for self-employed taxpayers and employees. The headline news from the Autumn Statement was the reduction of primary Class 1 and Class 4 NIC and the removal of compulsory Class 2 NIC. The main rate of…

HMRC has confirmed that requirements to report additional information will come into effect from the 2025-26 tax year or possibly a later period. HMRC has set out its intention to collect data relating to trade sectors; locations; occupations; hours worked; shareholdings and dividends paid; and…

The Nationwide Building Society has paid what is described as a ‘fairer share’ of £100 each to around three million of its customers. To qualify for this payment the customer must have held a qualifying current account plus either a savings account (including ISAs) with…

In Spring Budget 2023 the Chancellor announced a welcome change to the tax treatment of pensions – the scrapping of the Lifetime Allowance (LTA). The LTA stood at £1,073,100 when the process began on 5 April 2023 with the removal of the LTA charge. This…

Claiming child benefit is, after the initial claim, an incredibly straightforward process (subject to the issues raised above regarding higher earners). However, after sixteen years of automatic claiming it is easy to forget to update HMRC on whether you will continue to be entitled for…

HMRC has given taxpayers an extra two years to plug any gaps in their NIC record from April 2006. The deadline for making voluntary contributions has been extended from 5 April 2023, as previously reported, until 5 April 2025. The deadline was first extended to…

In families where child benefit is claimed, it is important that the individual or couple receiving the child benefit keeps a close eye on their income level. If the higher earner has income of more than £50,000 some or all of the child benefit received…

There is currently no legislation specifically targeted at social media influencers, however the fast-growing industry is very much on HMRC’s radar. Earlier this year HMRC sent nudge letters to thousands of influencers as well as gamers and online traders on sites such as Etsy and…

The traditional way to hide sales from HMRC is to take payment in cash and not put it through the books. Nowadays technology helps dishonest traders to hide sales by using electronic sales suppression (ESS) software. The sale is not recorded on the normal till…