The government has announced it will make a number of changes to the loan charge rules, in response to Sir Amyas Morse’s independent review of the loan charge policy and its implementation.

The government has announced the following key changes to the loan charge:

• the loan charge will apply only to outstanding loans made on, or after, 9 December 2010
• the loan charge will not apply to outstanding loans made in any tax years before 6 April 2016 where the avoidance scheme use was fully disclosed to HMRC and HMRC did not take action
• affected taxpayers can elect to spread the amount of their outstanding loan balance evenly across three tax years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Please contact us for advice with this issue.

Internet link: GOV.UK independent loan charge review

Chancellor Sajid Javid has announced that he will deliver the 2020 Budget on Wednesday 11 March 2020.

The 2020 Budget will be the first to be delivered after the UK’s scheduled departure from the EU on 31 January 2020.

It is also Mr Javid’s first Budget as Chancellor, following the cancellation of last November’s planned Budget due to the General Election.

Commenting on the Budget, Mr Javid said:

‘People across the country have told us that they want change. We’ve listened and will now deliver.

‘With this Budget we will unleash Britain’s potential – uniting our great country, opening a new chapter for our economy and ushering in a decade of renewal.’

In the Budget announcement, the government said that it will prioritise the environment, and build on recent announcements to boost spending on public services and tackle the cost of living.

These include investing in hospitals, training new police officers, funding vocational education and increasing the National Living Wage.

We will update you on Budget announcements.

Internet link: GOV.UK Budget Date announced

We have announced the result of our employee of the year award today. Congratulations to Alex.

Alex was voted on by all staff members based on ‘as a colleague’ criteria. Well done from all at McGinty Demack.

Wishing all our Staff Clients Suppliers and Friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

HMRC is giving information to taxpayers to help them avoid scams ahead of the Self Assessment deadline.

HMRC is warning millions of Self Assessment taxpayers to be aware of fraudsters in the run up to the 31 January deadline.

Over the last year, HMRC received almost 900,000 reports from the taxpayers about suspicious HMRC contact, in the form of phone calls, texts or emails. Of these more than 100,000 were phone scams and over 620,000 reports related to bogus tax rebates.

According to HMRC the most common techniques fraudsters use include phoning taxpayers offering a fake tax refund, or pretending to be HMRC by texting or emailing a link to a false page, where their bank details and money will be stolen. Fraudsters are also known to threaten victims with arrest or imprisonment if a bogus tax bill is not paid immediately.

HMRC’s Customer Protection team identify and close down scams but taxpayers should recognise the signs to avoid becoming victims. HMRC does not contact taxpayers asking for their PIN, password or bank details. Taxpayers are warned that they should never give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in texts or emails which they are not expecting.

Internet link: GOV.UK news

HMRC has issued an update to the Check employment status tool (CEST) in advance of the introduction of new tax rules proposed for individuals who provide their personal services via an ‘intermediary’ to a medium or large business. The tool is designed to give HMRC’s view of the status of contracts and has received criticism.

The new rules are expected to apply from 6 April 2020, similar rules were introduced in 2017 for public sector organisations receiving services from intermediaries, typically Personal Services Companies (PSC).

Please contact us for help and advice on whether you are caught by the new rules or should be applying the new rules to someone your business engages via a PSC.

Internet link: GOV.UK CEST