Minerva Accountants Bristol and Somerset
Fully digital Xero accountants taking the hassle out of your business
Tax free allowances.
Don’t forget to make use of your 2024/25 tax free allowances:
• Dividends £500
• ISA £20,000
• Interest £1,000 (£500 higher rate or £0 additional rate)
• Rent a room £7,500 (special rules apply)
• Personal allowance £12,570 (reduced by £1 for every £2 income above £100,000)
The special tax rules relating to Furnished Holiday Lets are changing from April 2025. After that date they will be taxed as normal residential lettings. We don’t expect any change in government to affect this decision.
After that date you will no longer be able to claim mortgage interest and certain other costs.
We often get asked whether certain training courses can be claimed against tax and we give the usual accountant’s answer … it depends.
It depends whether the training is to improve an existing business service or to start a new one. Eg a hairdresser wanting to start providing nail service could not claim a course on manicures but the could claim an course on colouring. Similarly an accountant beginning to provide business coaching can not claim the initial course but can claim subsequent courses to improve their coaching service.
Business entertaining is not allowed for VAT or Corporation/Income tax purposes.
The only exception is staff entertaining. I’ve written on this separately if you want the detail but it must be below £150 per person per year.
Customer and supplier entertaining are never allowable and this is one of the many adjustments that we make when we prepare your accounts and tax returns.
A tax efficient salary for director/shareholders has always depended on your personal circumstances but, for most people, it mainly depended on whether our clients had spare Employment Allowance or not. Now that corporation tax rates have increased and national insurance rates have fallen there are far more things to consider and we will no longer publish a generic rate.
The good news is that we will soon be releasing an app so that you can work out the best rate for yourself. Please let us know if you would like to be informed when this is available.
No VAT invoice = no VAT reclaim so it is important to request a VAT invoice (which shows the VAT number along with other necessary information) and not just the receipt from the card machine.
Don’t forget that you can claim some of the costs if your use your home for business.
You can claim £6 per week even if you just use the corner of the kitchen table to do your bookkeeping each week. If you use your home for more than this then contact us for a spreadsheet to see how much you can claim.
Get your tax return done early so that you have more time to save the tax due. The deadline for payment is still 31 January 2025. If your income has reduced this year then we may also be able to reduce your July payments on account.
Seven reasons to get your tax return done early. (It always amazes me why people leave this until the last 2-3 months)
If your turnover exceeds, or is expected to exceed, £85,000 in any twelve month period you will need to register for VAT from the following month.
Please note that this is a rolling 12 month period, NOT your financial year. It is a common mistake so, each month, you need to keep an eye on your sales in the previous 12 months.
We’ve had a few clients go over the VAT limit in the middle of their financial year and only find out when we do their year end accounts some time later. This means that they may end up having to pay the VAT themselves so it is worth keeping an eye on your invoicing.