The Budget: an end to austerity?

The 2018 Budget – delivered on a Monday for the first time since 1962 – produced a number of surprises, not least some high-profile ‘giveaways’. Announcements in the Budget included: A £650 increase in the personal allowance to £12,500 for 2019/20, the level originally pencilled in for 2020/21. A £3,650 increase in the higher rate […]

Posted on 8th November 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Financial Services

Key points from the Chancellor’s Budget

Budget 2018 In a longer than usual Budget speech, and in a slightly more jocular than usual mood, the Chancellor laid out the government’s vision for post-Brexit Britain. With a raft of measures aimed at shoring up businesses, infrastructure and the health service, Mr Hammond used the better than expected public finances to present an […]

Posted on 30th October 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Corporate Finance, Financial Services, Payroll & Pensions

Trick or treat? Chancellors budget set for late October

The 2018 Budget has been set for Monday 29 October, setting a deadline for speculation and proposals. Mr Hammond, however, has indicated that he won’t end the long spell of austerity measures, despite improving public finances. Proposals raised by think tanks and professional bodies include overhauls of income and inheritance tax, ‘pension tax relief simplification’, and […]

Posted on 18th October 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Financial Services, Payroll & Pensions

Draft Finance Bill 2019

Rent a room relief The relief given has a new test for ‘shared occupancy’. This means that the lessor must be living in the property for some of the letting period, so letting out your home while you are on holiday for example will no longer attract the relief from April 2019. Entrepreneurs’ relief Entrepreneurs’ […]

Posted on 24th July 201826th July 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Financial Services

Income from jointly held property – Spouses

Spouses often hold rental property jointly, and where this is the case, rental profits and losses are treated as arising to them in equal shares. If one spouse pays tax at a higher rate than the other it may both desirable and possible to improve the ‘family’ tax position by means of the spouse who […]

Posted on 17th April 201818th April 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Financial Services

Agricultural Property Relief

APR is an Inheritance Tax relief that is based on the agricultural value of qualifying agricultural property when it is transferred, either in lifetime or on death. Provided such property is situated in the UK, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the European Economic area, the following assets may qualify for APR: agricultural land […]

Posted on 2nd March 201822nd March 2018 By SMH Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers, Financial Services, Wills & Probate