When and how to incorporate

Over the last decade, corporation tax rates for most companies – irrespective of size – have fluctuated between 19% and 21%. The main rate of corporation tax is expected to be cut to 17% from April 2020. Current corporation tax rates are still pretty favourable...

VAT registration – sooner or later?

Once a business is up and running, the next major administrative area to be faced often concerns the subject of VAT. At first glance, it looks complicated – not to mention time-consuming – particularly for small businesses. However, taken one step at a...

Just starting out

As long as HMRC can be satisfied that a business is being run on a commercial basis with a view to making a profit, they will usually allow taxpayers to claim tax relief for a trading loss in one tax year against other taxable income (for example PAYE income or a...

Family companies – optimal salary for 2019/20

For personal and family companies it can be beneficial to extract some profits in the form of a salary. Where the individual does not have the 35 qualifying years necessary to qualify for the full single-tier state pension, paying a salary which is equal to or above...

Optimising tax-free benefits in family companies

Making use of statutory exemptions for certain benefits-in-kind offers an opportunity to extract funds from a family company without triggering a tax charge. The essential point to note is that to make the tax saving, the benefit itself, rather than the funds with...