Tax Plus Blog -
No Wealth Tax please – we’re British
Date: 8th October, 2012 | Author: Lisa Spearman | Comments: 1
There has been a lot of noise in recent months about the possibility of a wealth tax in the UK. The wealth tax often conflated with the idea of a mansion tax has long been a feature of Napoleonic regimes but in the UK, where house prices are both high and volatile, there is not the necessary correlation between available income and value of real property held to make such a tax practical. There has also always been a resistance to dry taxes that is a charge unsupported by incoming funds income with which to pay it. Over the weekend,...
EEC and tax avoidance
Date: 4th September, 2012 | Author: Cathy Corns | Comments: 0
The official journal of the EU has recently published an opinion on tax and financial havens, i.e. tax havens. I have to say the journal is worth reading, primarily for the rhetoric. Whilst it is accepted that governments to do not normally like tax havens, some of the phraseology is interesting, for example: “2.1 Tax havens are places where senior executives of the world’s largest financial and industrial corporations mix with figures from the artistic or social ‘jet-set’, together with multi-millionaires who combine business with pleasure. They all rub shoulders with somewhat...
Some good news at last
Date: 24th August, 2012 | Author: Cathy Corns | Comments: 0
You may recall HMRC’s proposals to restrict relief against income tax for individuals in certain circumstances with regard to, among other things, losses and interest relief. I am pleased to say that, following a consultation, the government has changed its mind! The responses to the consultation pointed out that HMRC already has provisions to restrict relief for losses for non-active partners and is also in the process of setting up a general anti-abuse law. It was felt that this should be sufficient to manage any perceived abuse in terms of income tax reliefs. The...
UK residential property value over £2 million – how the proposed new taxes will impact
Date: 21st August, 2012 | Author: Liz Cuthbertson | Comments: 0
Since 22 March 2012, there is a 7% rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) which applies on the acquisition of a ‘high value’ residential property, where the cost exceeds £2 million. The SDLT rate is extended to 15% where the high value residential property is acquired by a “nonnatural” person. A “non-natural” person is a new term defined as a company, collective investment scheme or a partnership where one or more of the partners is a company. The driving force behind this change has very much been a move by the government to counteract the perceived avoidance...
Download Mercer & Hole’s summer edition of Tax Plus
Date: 25th July, 2012 | Author: Helen Price | Comments: 0
In this Summer edition of Tax Plus, we are delighted to bring you a selection of topical tax issues. Since our March 2012 Budget Special edition, we have seen further details from the government on pre-announced measures due to come into effect from April 2013. The most controversial of these is the plan to tax ownership of residential properties held within certain structures and we have prepared an article on this to explore the implications for you in greater detail. We also have articles on other government announcements in relation to placing additional PAYE obligations on certain companies and resurrecting the Statutory...
Residence Test: legislation at last
Date: 22nd June, 2012 | Author: Lisa Spearman | Comments: 0
This time last year we were disappointed with the deferral of the statutory residence test. Since then the omnishambles of the March 2012 budget, the huge amount of noise about pasties, charities and granny tax binned with recent furore re tax schemes meant the SRT has faded a little from the forefront of our minds but now it's back. The response document and the draft legislation was published on 21 June and in my view it was worth the wait. The legislation is in the format that we discussed last year and retains the three elements of test: Part A...
Statutory Residence Test published today
Date: 21st June, 2012 | Author: Lisa Spearman | Comments: 0
The long awaited Statutory Residence Test was published this morning. There are 130 pages to read and digest - once we've gone through the detail we will come back with further comment. ...
Changes made to tax agreement between UK and Switzerland
Date: 24th April, 2012 | Author: Lisa Spearman | Comments: 0
Changes have been made to the tax agreement between the UK and Switzerland in respect of undisclosed Swiss bank accounts held by UK taxpayers. Under the revised terms, the upper limit of the one-off payment due on cash balances has been increased from 34% to 41%, while the lower limit has risen to 21% from 19%. ...
Budget 2012 - key points for Private Clients
Date: 21st March, 2012 | Author: Barry Hallam | Comments: 0
Today’s Budget speech included a number of points for private clients. In advance of the detail, the main points are as follows: Personal Allowance to be increased to £9,025 from April 2013 for all. Age Allowance for those over 65 with modest income to be gradually withdrawn from April 2013. Top rate of income tax to be reduced from 50% to 45% from April 2013. Dividends top rate to be reduced to 37.5%. SDLT increased to 7% for houses over £2 million from midnight tonight with extra charges for such houses held in companies and trusts. Limits on the amounts of tax relief available where more...
Budget 2012 - Wednesday 21 March 2012
Date: 21st March, 2012 | Author: Costas Pavlou | Comments: 0
We are all set for Budget 2012. Click here http://t.co/rIxGQdWw for our dedicated Budget page, which features a hub of comment and analysis from our partners in the form of Twitter comments, blog updates as well as feeds across industry experts. ...
