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The marriage allowance applies to married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner does not pay tax or does not pay tax above the basic rate threshold for Income Tax (i.e., one of the couples must currently earn less than the £12,570 personal allowance for 2024-25).

The allowance works by permitting the lower earning partner to transfer up to £1,260 of their personal tax-free allowance to their spouse or civil partner. The marriage allowance can only be used when the recipient of the transfer (the higher earning partner) does not pay more than the basic 20% rate of income tax. This would usually mean that their income is between £12,571 and £50,270 during 2024-25.

For those living in Scotland this would usually mean income currently between £12,571 and £43,662.

Using the allowance, the lower earning partner can transfer up to £1,260 of their unused personal tax-free allowance to a spouse or civil partner. This could result in a saving of up to £252 for the recipient (20% of £1,260), or £21 a month for the current tax year.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and have not yet claimed the allowance, then you can backdate your claim as far back as 6 April 2020. This could result in a total tax break of up to £1,256 if you can claim for 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 as well as the current 2024-25 tax year. If you claim now, you can backdate your claim for four years (if eligible) as well as for the current tax year.

HMRC’s online Marriage Allowance calculator can be used by couples to find out if they are eligible for the relief. An application can then be made online at GOV.UK.

There is an online service available on HMRC to check your National Insurance Contributions (NIC) record online. The service is available at https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

In order to use this service, you will need to have a Government Gateway account. If you do not have an account, you can apply to set one up online.

By signing in to the ‘Check your National Insurance record’ service you will also activate your personal tax account if you have not already done so. HMRC’s personal tax account can also be used to complete a variety of tasks in real time such as claiming a tax refund, updating your address and completing your self-assessment return.

Your National Insurance record online will let you see:

• What you have paid, up to the start of the current tax year (6 April 2024).
• Any National Insurance credits you have received.
• If gaps in contributions or credits mean some years do not count towards your State Pension (they are not ‘qualifying years’)
• If you can pay voluntary contributions to fill any gaps and how much this will cost

In some circumstances it may be beneficial, after reviewing your records, to make voluntary NIC contributions to fill gaps in your contributions record to increase your entitlement to benefits, including the State or New State Pension. If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to be in touch.

It is hardly surprising that Brexit is fast becoming as big a turnoff as tax. How on earth are we supposed to react or adapt to such far-reaching changes when the exact details of our exit are still undecided just a few weeks before the March 2019 deadline?

Businesses that buy or sell goods to the EU must be pulling their corporate hair out – just how will their supply lines be affected?

A new government website covering possible Brexit consequences

The government has already published a bunch of documentation setting out the consequences of a no-deal outcome and they have now doubled up this resource by creating an EU exit website aimed at advising UK businesses.

The HM Government site’s URL is https://euexitbusiness.campaign.gov.uk/

The main points of focus are:

• Employing EU citizens
• Importing, exporting and transporting
• Operating in the EU
• Regulations and standards for products and goods
• Using personal data
• European and domestic funding
• Intellectual property
• Energy and climate, and
• Public sector procurement.

If you have neither time or inclination to for this level of detail what can be done to safeguard your situation and have ongoing benefits for your business?

Action to take now to avoid downside risks of Brexit

It would seem to make sense to take a hard look at supply line issues by undertaking a formal impact assessment and we are aware that many importers and exporters already have this process underway.

The other action you could consider is to work on your business fitness. If, as has been suggested by the pundits, Brexit does create a slowdown in economic activity, then being in good financial shape will not be wasted effort.

If you think this is an idea with traction please call so we can discuss your options.

According to government sources HMRC are asking online market places to sign an “agreement” to keep their users the right side of the law. In a recent announcement HMRC said:

“… the agreement will help online market place platforms meet their responsibility to ensure their sellers understand the tax rules, and prevent fraud taking place on their watch.”

We assume that the intention is to discourage users setting up shop and avoiding their VAT dues by avoiding registration.

An online marketplace is defined in VAT legislation as a website, or any other means by which information is made available over the internet, through which persons other than the operator can offer goods for sale (whether the operator also does so).

Since the 25 April 2018, HMRC is asking all online marketplaces operating in the UK to sign an agreement to help tackle online VAT fraud and errors taking place on their platforms.

Online marketplaces have transformed the way people shop and helped millions of businesses to sell their products and services.

As far as HMRC are concerned, the platforms have a responsibility to ensure their sellers understand the tax rules and prevent fraud from happening on their watch.

The agreement asks online marketplaces to commit to:

• educating online sellers from the UK and abroad about their VAT obligations in the UK either via their own help and support or by directing them to HMRC’s GOV.UK guidance;
• responding swiftly when notified by HMRC that sellers are not playing by the VAT rules, and setting up a system to take appropriate action; and
• finding a suitable and lawful way to provide HMRC with information about their sellers, when requested.

The last bullet point is interesting. We assume that “lawful” alludes to the data protection rules as eBay, and the like, would be required to share the personal data of their customers to comply? Will the market places be obliged to “report” their customers in some sort of de facto Money Laundering Reporting obligation?

Can’t help wondering if HMRC are shifting their workload, their eyes and ears, elsewhere?

Be interesting to see if the market place organisations will comply. Apparently, the only down side to not complying is that HMRC will not publish their name on a list of platforms that have signed the agreement.

However, about 27,550 applications to register for VAT from overseas online retail businesses have been made since HMRC started to become active in dealing with this issue. This compares with about 1,650 for 2015.

The phrase “in-limbo” comes to mind when describing the present outlook for businesses in the UK. What will be the outcome of the June election? What will be the outcome of the withdrawal from the EU?

We will all likely be affected. If not directly involved in trade with Europe, we are possibly part of the downward supply chain.

What to do?

First of all, damage limitation planning may be appropriate. If part of your export sales are with Europe, or with firms who supply goods or services to Europe, there is an increased risk that your future prospects may be negatively affected post Brexit. Accordingly, you could:

• See what opportunities there are to seek out new markets outside the EU.
• Collaborate with customers who are dependent on EU sales to make joint approaches to non-EU markets.
• What government assistance is available?
• Take a fresh look at investment decisions to see if it would be more prudent to retain liquidity, or reduce borrowings to meet any future financial challenges.

It would also be illuminating to prepare realistic financial forecasts based on various what-if criteria.

There are compelling reasons for being prepared and the present hiatus may be that quiet period before the storm that gives us the space to do just that. Businesses that have concerns should face their anxieties head-on, and we can help.

One of the most useful ways for owner directors of small companies to reduce their overall tax and NIC costs is to pay themselves a reduced salary – just enough to maintain their State benefits entitlements – and take any balance of remuneration in the form of tax efficient benefits and dividends.

Government has changed the rules regarding the sacrifice of salary in exchange for benefits, so this particular tax planning strategy has shorter legs, however, the advantages of dividends as a tax efficient remuneration strategy remains; albeit with reducing benefits in future tax years.

Why is this?

Dividends are not a cost. They don’t reduce the amount of profit assessable to corporation tax. Rather, dividends are a distribution of profits after corporation tax has been deducted. Presently, company reserves available for distribution in this way have already suffered a potential 19% corporation tax charge. Accordingly, only 81% remains. This can be retained to finance future investment, or accumulated as a rainy-day fund to see you through more difficult trading periods, or it is available to distribute to shareholders as dividends.

Consequently, the withdrawal of dividends creates no tax consequences for the company, but it can create income tax bills for shareholders.

For 2017-18, the following rules apply. Shareholders will pay:

• No tax on the first £5,000 of dividends received from all sources.
• 7.5% tax on any dividends that form part of their basic rate band.
• 32.5% tax on any dividends that form part of their higher rate band, and
• 38.1% tax on any dividends that form part of their additional rate band.

If the missing parts of the Finance Bill 2017 are reintroduced after the June election, the £5,000 tax-free allowance is being reduced to £2,000 from April 2018.

The arguments in favour of the low salary high dividend approach for owner directors of small companies is well known and in most cases, an appropriate, and acceptable, tax planning strategy. Unfortunately, every person’s tax affairs are unique, and whilst the generalisations made above hold good for most shareholder directors, what is less clear – and should not be generalised – is the best-fit strategy to suit your particular circumstances.

The tax regime for dividends looks to be hardening in future years, so if you haven’t discussed your options recently, a conversation is probably overdue; and of course, we can help.

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