Month: February 2024

If you are an employee and use your own money to buy things you need for your job you can sometimes claim tax relief for the associated costs. Usually, it is only possible to claim tax relief for the cost of items used solely for your work.

You may also be able to claim tax relief for using your own vehicle, be it a car, van, motorcycle or bike. As a general rule, there is no tax relief for ordinary commuting to and from your place of work. The rules are different for temporary workplaces, when the expense is usually allowable, and if you use your own vehicle to do other business-related mileage.

Employers usually make expense payments based on a set rate per mile depending on the mode of transport used. There are approved mileage rates published by HMRC. The approved mileage allowance payment rates are available where you use your own car on a business trip. Where the approved mileage rates are used, the payments to you are not regarded as a taxable benefit.

Where an employer pays less than the published rates, the employee can make a tax relief claim for the shortfall using mileage allowance relief. For all cars, the approved mileage allowance payment for the first 10,000 business miles is 45p per mile and 25p per mile for every additional business mile. The approved mileage rates are 20p per mile for bicycle travel and 24p per mile for motorcycle travel.

There is an additional passenger payment you can receive of 5p per passenger per business mile from your employer. This is available if you carry fellow employees in your car or van on journeys which are also work journeys for your colleagues. 

HMRC has published new guidance for taxpayers that regularly sell goods or services through an online marketplace. The guidance makes it clear that this activity could be treated as a ‘trade’ for UK tax purposes. If this is the case taxpayers may need to pay tax on income they earn from buying and selling goods as a trade or business using online marketplaces such as eBay. 

If taxpayers are just selling unwanted items that have been laying around their home, such as the contents of a loft or garage, it is unlikely that they will have to pay tax. However, if they buy goods for resale, or make goods with the intention of selling them for a profit, then they are likely to be trading and will have to pay tax on their profits.

There is also a £1,000 tax allowance for miscellaneous trading income. This is known as the Trading and Miscellaneous Income Allowance. Where this £1,000 allowance covers all the individual’s relevant income (before expenses) the income is tax-free and does not have to be declared to HMRC. 

Traders should note that since 1 January 2024, digital platforms are required to collect and report seller information and income to HMRC. These digital platforms must report sellers’ income by January 2025. The changes are an internationally agreed set of rules requiring digital platforms to report certain information to HMRC.

If you have trading income from online sales and are unsure what, if anything, you need to declare, please call so we can help you consider your options.

HMRC has confirmed that more than 11.5 million people submitted their 2022-23 self-assessment tax returns by the 31 January deadline. This included over 778,000 taxpayers who left their filing until the final day and almost 33,000 that filed in the last hour (between 23:00 and 23:59) before the deadline!

Whilst this was the highest ever number of filings, there are still an estimated 600,000 taxpayers that have missed the deadline and are yet to file. Are you among those that missed the 31 January 2024 filing deadline for your 2022-23 self-assessment returns?

If you have missed the filing deadline then you will usually be charged a £100 fixed penalty if your return is up to 3 months late, regardless of whether you owed tax or not. If you do not file and pay before 1 May 2024 then you will face further penalties unless you have arranged to pay with HMRC.

If you are unable to pay your tax bill, there is an option to set up an online time to pay payment plan to spread the cost of tax due on 31 January 2024 for up to 12 months. This option is available for debts up to £30,000 and the payment plan needs to be set up no later than 60 days after the due date of a debt. This should be done sooner rather than later as a 5% late payment penalty will be charged if tax remains outstanding, and a payment plan has not been set up, before 1 April 2023.

If you owe self-assessment tax payments of over £30,000 or need longer than 12 months to pay in full, you can still apply to set up a time to pay arrangement with HMRC, but this cannot be done using the online service.

You can also plan ahead for the 2023-24 tax year by spreading the cost of your tax bill using HMRC’s Budget Payment Plan. The Budget Payment Plan enables those who are up to date with previous payments to make regular weekly or monthly contributions towards their next tax bill.