VAT reminder

The registration and deregistration thresholds have increased from 1st April 2016

Registration

The taxable turnover threshold that determines whether a person or business must register for VAT increases from £81,000 to £83,000

Deregistration

The taxable turnover threshold that determines whether a person or business may apply for deregistration increases from £77,000 to £79,000

Flat Rate Scheme (FRS) limits

The taxable turnover thresholds have not changed here. Provided your taxable turnover is less than £150,000 you may apply to join the scheme. Once in FRS, you can stay in the scheme until your turnover reaches £230,000 for the year.

Why would you choose to account for VAT using FRS? It is because preparing your VAT figures is easy and quick and sometimes there is actually a financial benefit to you in accounting for VAT in this way compared to using other methods available. I can advise you if this is suitable for your business and so please call me if you would like to know more. I have many clients accounting for VAT in this way - if it is of benefit to them. 

Mark

RTI Important tax deadlines

RTI - End of tax year important deadlines In previous years HMRC required that you file a P35 Employer Annual Return together with associated P60s for each employee. An 'end of year' process still exists as a final EPS )Employer Payment Summary) submission for 2015/2016 marked as being the 'Final Return'. 19th April 2016 deadline You must have sent all RTI submissions for the tax year 2015/2016 by this date. This includes any FPS re-submissions/amendments as well as the your final EPS submission for the year. HMRC will not accept FPS submissions for 2015/2016 after 19th April 2016. If you attempt to file an FPS after this date your return will be rejected by HMRC and you will receive a late filing penalty of £100 as well. If you miss this deadline and need to submit pay information for HMRC for 2015/2016 then you will need to do so via an 'Earlier Year Update' (EYU) using HMRC Basic PAYE Tools software (Personal note to everyone - I would prefer to avoid doing this as it involves extra work and cost to you!) CIS Suffered If you normally have CIS tax deducted from your work, you must let us have this information quickly because in order to claim the tax suffered this must be shown on the RTI Employer Payment Summary (EPS) by 19th April. Monthly CIS Returns Whilst you do not have to give any 'payment statements' to subcontractors immediately, the details must still be reported on a monthly CIS Return by the 19th April with any deductions shown on the RTI Employer Payment Summary (EPS) by this date. What does this mean, we now only have two weeks after 5th April 2016 to file everything! Lets work together to get this done. With kind regards Mark

Auto enrolment

Pensions - Auto Enrolment Auto Enrolment is a set of duties to make sure all employees who are eligible, automatically become members of a qualifying pension scheme with a high enough level of contributions. This means the employer has several new responsibilities such as: • Workforce assessment • Provision and Auto Enrolment into a qualifying scheme • Facilitating opting out and refunds • Record keeping Time Frames You will have to understand your obligations as an employer over the next few years. For most small employers the following dates are relevant, however larger employers will have to register much sooner. In any event, now is the time to start reviewing what is involved. • Any employer with a PAYE scheme registered before 1st April 2012 must have enrolled their staff by April 2017 • Any employer with a PAYE scheme registered from 1st April 2012 must have enrolled their staff by February 2018 For more information on this subject, click on the following link here