http://www.taxblogger.co.uk Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:28:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The average family has to pay lifetime taxes of £668,000. The annual Lifetime Tax report from The TaxPayers' Alliance reveals that the total lifetime tax the average British family can expect to pay if current tax rates continue is £668,000 at today's prices. This is a jump from the £631,000 lifetime tax ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/average-tax-bill-rises-to-668k/ This is a question that we have been getting asked alot recently. The good news is that a UK based small business account is almost certainly covered to the same extent as the personal bank account guarantee which currently covers deposits of up to £35k (soon to be increased to £50k ).  This ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/are-the-funds-in-my-company-bank-account-safe/ Often people incur business start up costs (and VAT) before they get round to setting up their limited company and registering for VAT.  So, how far back can you go in reclaiming this type of VAT? A VAT registered company can recover VAT incurred before registration on its first VAT return ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/pre-trading-expenditure-and-vat/ As a director/shareholder, the most common ways to extract cash from your limited company is to pay yourself a bonus/salary or vote yourself a dividend.  However, if you do neither of these and simply take money out you will make your director's loan account (DLA) overdrawn.  Often people will sort this out ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/withdrawing-funds-from-your-company/ Don't be fooled by those guys wanting to just check your PAYE records.  Actually their mission is to discover untaxed payments to employees and benefits in kind. Often you will receive a letter out the blue giving you two weeks notice of a visit and not even specifying which days they ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/paye-inspections/ HM Revenue & Customs is targeting the UK's million landlords in an effort to track down those people who could be liable to pay extra tax on their buy-to-let rental income. New measures come into force next April which give the Taxman the right to inspect landlords' records in their own home.  While it ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/landlords-face-knock-on-the-door/ More bad news for for freelancers and contractors was delivered on 3 September 2008 when the appeal for the Dragonfly IR35 case was lost by the tax payer. This potentially turns upside down the established guidance on whether a scenario falls within IR35 or not. Read a summary of the findings ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/dragonfly-case-loses-appeal/ Many concerns and quesitons were raised in respect of the new service company box at page TR4 on the 2007/08 self assessment tax returns. Following discussions between CIOT & ICAEW and HMRC, revised guidance has now been published concerning the completion of this controversial box. The bad news is that this information ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/service-company-box-on-tax-return-revised-guidance/ In order to encourage recycling, the government has recently commenced plans to charge people a £50 tax if they throw away too much rubbish. However, according to Labour this is a 'negative incentive' rather than a tax; "This is not akin to a tax. Its technically a tax but...it does not ... http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/to-tax-or-not-to-tax/ A tax loophole used by contractors has been closed down with retrospective effect. The loophole used an offshore trust to save tax. However, these contractors will now be faced with massive tax bills going back several years. Further details can be found on Shout 99. http://www.taxblogger.co.uk/loophole-for-contractors-closed-down/