Month: July 2018

1 July 2018 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 30 September 2017.

6 July 2018 – Complete and submit forms P11D return of benefits and expenses and P11D(b) return of Class 1A NICs.

19 July 2018 – Pay Class 1A NICs (by the 22 July 2018 if paid electronically).

19 July 2018 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 July 2018. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 July 2018)

19 July 2018 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 July 2018.

19 July 2018 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 July 2018 is payable by today.

31 July 2018 – Deadline for payment of second instalment self-assessment for 2017-18.

1 August 2018 – Due date for corporation tax due for the year ended 31 October 2017.

19 August 2018 – PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2018. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2018)

19 August 2018 – Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2018.

19 August 2018 – CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2018 is payable by today.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, or a decision to live together rather than marry, is a breach of human rights.

Presently, couples need to be in a formal civil partnership or married to be able to claim the raft of tax benefits available. These advantages include:

• Transfers of chargeable assets between civil partners and married couples is free of capital gains tax and inheritance tax.
• In appropriate circumstances spare personal allowances can be transferred from one partner to the other.

In the case taken to the Supreme Court, a heterosexual couple who had decided not to marry considered that denial of rights given to same sex couples (via civil partnership arrangements), and married partners, was an infringement of their basic human rights, and the Supreme Court agreed.

Readers interested in this topic can watch a video recording of the Court’s decision here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehyuer1AxFw

Although the case does not directly impact changes to the tax system it will be interesting to see how the government responds to this ruling. It would be a fairly simple matter to grant heterosexual couples to right to enter into a civil partnership, and therefore gain access to the present tax status of same-sex civil partners and married couples.

According to HMRC, around three million couples across the UK have boosted their finances by claiming the Marriage Allowance, but more than a million married and civil partnered couples are still eligible for the free tax break worth up to £238 a year.

Thanks to the start of the new tax year couples can backdate their claim and boost a potential tax refund to a possible £900.

HMRC further announced:

Applying for Marriage Allowance is quick and easy and once an application is complete it’s processed immediately. The new online form takes fewer than ten minutes to fill out and eligible customers will receive backdated claims of up to £662 as a lump sum. Over 300,000 couples have signed up for the Marriage Allowance tax break since March 2018.

Which is all very well, but if HMRC can estimate the numbers of couples that are still eligible to make a claim – the 1 million referred to above – then why don’t they simply re-allocate the allowances automatically? Obviously, HMRC would need the permission of the partner who was transferring their spare personal allowance but HMRC could set up a much slicker digital process to cope with the formalities?

Surely most of the one million taxpayers will not have access to HMRC’s press releases, and this is precisely why there are still one million couples who have not claimed?

Perhaps the department that is tasked with developing the Making Tax Digital technology should get involved?

If you are reading this post and either you or your civil partner/spouse have income below the personal tax allowance (£11,850 for 2018-19, and equivalent amounts for earlier years) then follow this link to make a claim: https://www.gov.uk/apply-marriage-allowance.