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Welcome to
Revell Ward
Chartered Accountants
in Huddersfield!
We are a firm of Chartered Accountants based in the heart of Huddersfield and we offer services such as; Audit, Personal and Corporate Tax, Bookkeeping, Management Accountants, a Payroll Bureau and much more.
Our clients are based in Huddersfield and beyond and have many positive words to say about us so why not visit the client testimonials page and find out for yourself. We also have a client survey that you can complete and submit, your thoughts are important to us.
We are very passionate about what we do and know that you too are passionate about what you do. We have devised an easy to follow diagnostic tool that will help you summarise your business in the 5 areas that we feel are the key to achieving results. Click here to find out more.
Tax Chat – hot topics
In this spirit of our weekly tax chat emails, our blog contains our thoughts and comments on the current hot topics in the world of tax.
Some welcome news ahead of the Budget.....
Tax Chat - Monday 23 January 2012
Currently there is no time limit for claiming capital allowances on fixtures in commercial buildings. However, this rule recently came under threat when HMRC proposed to introduce the requirement that qualifying expenditure on fixtures would need to be pooled within 2 years of incurring the expenditure. The good news is that new proposals now suggest such a restriction will not be introduced, and that instead capital allowances can be claimed provided the claims are made before the assets are sold on, disposed of, or transferred to another person.
It is expected the legislation will instead focus on the purchase of second hand buildings by introducing measures to ensure the seller and purchaser agree on the value attributable within two years of the transfer of the property that contains the fixtures.
Although this is a further compliance requirement and another point for sellers and purchasers to agree on, we believe encouraging these discussions and documentation will be very useful. We often prepare computations where a transfer out of, or into a company has happened and where it is difficult to ascertain what value was attributable to fixtures. In such cases this can lead to additional work to try to place a value on these assets. By encouraging documentation at the time of sale these problems can be removed and the tax computation process which follows becomes easier.
Action points:
• If you recently bought a commercial building it is worth checking that you maximised all possible claims for capital allowances – this can provide a valuable tax saving at time when cost management is ever more important it is not too late to claim now even if the information that you have is sketchy.
• Also, if you are considering buying or selling a building – it is worth seeking tax advice in advance of the sale to make sure that your tax allowances are maximized.
For further information or to discuss, please contact Lesley Sutton on 01484 550037 or taxchat@revellward.co.uk.
Are you considering purchasing assets for your business?
Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) has been a great tax saver for our clients and we are currently processing AIA claims in our computations on a daily basis. Therefore we believe the substantial reduction down to £25,000 may take many companies by surprise.The 100% AIA was initially introduced with a £50,000 limit in respect of expenditure from April 2008. It was then increased to £100,000 from April 2010 and will now decrease to £25,000 from April 2012.
It will be particularly frustrating for anyone who has made a significant investment to find out that, had they just accelerated it, they would have received additional relief. Furthermore, the normal capital allowances rate will also reduce from 20% to 18% in April 2012. Although a small reduction, this will slow down the rate at which companies receive relief against capital expenditure and creates a further reason to maximise AIA claims now.
The best way to maximise AIA is to ensure that qualifying expenditure is incurred before 1 April 2012. However, please be careful and ensure that any accelerated expenditure you do make would qualify for AIA in the first instance. We do not want companies investing in assets earlier than required with the intention of securing a tax advantage only to discover that it was not available in the first place.
To briefly summarise, assets which do NOT qualify for AIA include cars, land, buildings and property alterations but DO include moveable plant and machinery, equipment, fixtures and fittings, tools and office equipment (including computers). This list is not exhaustive and there can be detailed rules on what does and does not, for example qualify as plant and machinery. Therefore please check with us before making a purchase so we can confirm whether AIA will be available or not against that purchase.
For further information or to discuss, please contact Lesley Sutton on 01484 550037 or taxchat@revellward.co.uk
New Proposed Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)
Tax Chat - Monday 9 January 2012In the Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced a new Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) which will become available from 6 April 2012.
This scheme from will offer individuals 50% income tax relief if they invest in shares of qualifying companies. A qualifying company is one that is a new (two years old or less) smaller company (With assets up to £200,000 and with a maximum of 25 employees). The company must be a new business carrying on a trade and must not have previously raised money under EIS or VCT schemes.
The 50% income tax relief is available on the first £100,000 of investment made per annum. However like EIS this relief will not be available where the individual is an employee of the company and/or where they have more than a 30% interest in it.
Also HMRC intend to offer a capital gains exemption on gains realised in 2012/13 which are reinvested through SEIS in the same year. This means if you make a disposal, the first £100,000 of the gain can be fully reinvested into SEIS so no capital gains tax becomes due. Furthermore, provided the qualifying conditions are met, which include that the shares are subscribed for wholly in cash, fully paid for at the time of issue and are held for three years, the onward sale of these shares will also be exempt from capital gains tax. This therefore potentially allows a complete exemption of capital gains tax unlike rollover relief or holdover relief where the capital gains tax is deferred.
In summary this scheme appears to be a more junior version of the EIS scheme to encourage investment in smaller companies. It contains many of the same limitations around connection with the company, the holding period and the fully paid up in cash requirement. However, what is particularly attractive is the level of income tax relief at 50% rather than 30% offered by EIS. However this will have to be weighed up against the additional risk associated with investing in smaller and younger companies.