Category: Tax Tip

It is important that you carry out the following checks before paying dividends: 

1.Ensure that, after dividends are paid, the company will still be solvent. This means that you should prepare management accounts to check the profit available and to estimate the corporation tax due. 

2.Ensure that you pay the same dividend per share to ALL shareholders of the same class. If you wish to pay different amounts you will need to consider either a dividend waiver or different classes of shares eg A and B shares, sometimes known as ‘alphabet’ shares.  

3.Ensure that all dividends are paid into a bank account in the name of the shareholder. Eg a husband’s dividends can not be paid into their wife’s account but the can be paid into a joint account, or one in the husband’s sole name. 

4.Ensure that all dividend payments are accompanied by a minute from the board of directors and a dividend voucher. We have templates if you need them. 

5.It really isn’t good practice to take advance payments of dividends and wait until the year end to sort put dividends as we have seen too many clients with overdrawn DLAs and insufficient profits to clear these. I refer you to point 1! The overdrawn DLA can result in a benefit in kind on the ‘beneficial loan’ even if cleared before the year end.  

It’s often overlooked but, if you work from home because you don’t have other premises then you can claim an allowance for this. Even just using a corner of your kitchen table to do raise your invoices each week and check your bank (I hope you do this at least weekly!) means that you can claim £6pw.  

For sole traders the amount goes up depending on the average number of hours you do each week. 

Directors of a limited company can rent an office to their business. We recommend that they only do this for 5 days a week to avoid paying capital gains tax when they sell their home. The amount of rent can be set at the same level as the costs (we have a spreadsheet to help calculate this each year) so that there is no personal income tax to pay (although it should go on your tax return). 

I have a few friends and clients who are travelling with young children; either homeschooling or before they start school. If you are out of the country for 8 weeks you will need to reapply for Child Benefit (we used to have reciprocal arrangements with EU). 

Recently HMRC have been automatically stopping payments after just a month so something to be aware of.  

The special tax regime for furnished holiday lets is being removed so, in future, they will be treated as any property income: 

• Mortgage relief will be capped at 20% 

• Capital allowances will no longer be available for purchase of new furniture and fixtures. Only replacement relief 

• Business Asset Disposal Relief will no longer be available and no rollover relief for reinvested capital gains 

• Profits will no longer count as relevant earnings for pension tax relief 

• Income must be 50:50 UNLESS a Form 17 has been submitted beforehand showing unequal ownership. 

Do check if you’ve completed your personal tax return for 2024-25. Missing the deadline could cost you in penalties and late planning. 

If you’re a client then please pull your finger out and get the information over to us asap. 

If you’re not already a client and you need a hand then we even have a DIY Tax return webinar to guide you through it. The next one is 7pm on Wednesday 12 November so reply to this email if you’d like more information.  

We’ve also got a webinar on what you need to do to prepare for MTD if you are a sole trader or landlord with income (not profit) about £20,000pa 

The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South West has a Home Office funded course and other support for you to secure your business.  

Cyber Resilience Centre for the South West 

HMRC have long held the power to seize money from your bank accounts to recover tax debts over £1,000. They paused this during covid but last month HMRC announced that they would be resuming collections. 

We therefore recommend that, if you have tax debts outstanding, you contact HMRC to organise a Time to Pay option. There are further details of how to contact HMRC here 

If you cannot pay your tax bill on time: Setting up a payment plan – GOV.UK 

This must be done by the tax payer and not their accountant. 

HMRC have a new voluntary repayments scheme for individuals and business to return any pandemic scheme money with no questions asked. The window is open until December 2025 so, if you think you may have claimed too much covid support, we encourage you to contact us or to repay it now. 

You can make a voluntary repayment here before HMRC start using less comfortable tactics in the new year.  

Make a Voluntary Repayment of COVID-19 Funding – GOV.UK 

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 tax returns. 

The rules are different for sole traders and for companies. 

Generally sole traders can NOT claim for eating out. Eating is not ‘wholly, exclusively and necessarily for the purposes of business’ because it fulfils the dual purpose of keeping you alive! 

Employees of limited companies can claim if the meal is wholly and exclusively for business purposes. If business reasons require them to be away from home/office around mealtimes (so that they are unable to make their usual arrangements) then it is a reasonable business expense.  

The amount they can claim for a meal will be agreed with their employer but should not be overly lavish and I would suggest limiting alcohol to one drink with the meal. 

Entertaining is generally not allowed (see other Tax Tips on staff entertaining) for tax or VAT purposes