John’s Winter Blog 2015

Another quarter has quickly passed and the weather seems no different. It’s dark and gloomy and the world seem very much the same, bombings, refugees and economic uncertainty. However, it is Advent, the coming of a Saviour into the world to bring light and hope in dark times. I pray that you will find that Light.

Sebastian has settled well into the firm and is now studying for the Chartered Institute of Taxation examinations to complement his Chartered Accounting qualification. Liam is adjusting to family life with the arrival of baby Phoenix. More baby talk now in the office than football and snooker! Karin my new PA is now becoming more familiar with clients and their names. Do say hello to her when you ring. Marilyn will continue to answer the phone in the morning’s but quite often my phone calls may be put through to Karin to funnel!

The headline ‘the death of the Tax Return’ makes me smile. Do you really think that HM Revenue & Customs will let you go! All that is happening is that we now have a digital Tax Return necessitating you (or me) filing information into your digital account. Likewise HM Revenue & Customs will post digital information from sources like The Department of Works And Pensions, Banks etc. your employers directly to your digital account with HM Revenue & Customs. Do you really think mistakes will never arise? Hopefully by now you realise you will still need us!

I have posted an interesting tax case to the Technical Section of our website. This case is somewhat worrying as it would seem now to give the power to HM Revenue & Customs to disallow much in the way of travel expenses incurred by certain clients in their business, primarily where you only have one or minimal places of regular work. Do read the case and if you want further advice on this do contact me.

This case along with the new dividend tax coming in in April 2016 and the changes in taxation of buy to lets continues to show the attack by HM Revenue & Customs (politicians) on the small business community. We will be writing a letter or an email to all our clients post January 2016 about these changes and how they will affect you. However, if you want some immediate advice please do not hesitate to contact Sebastian at sebastian@caladine.co.uk.
Vanessa has now set up a number of auto-enrolment pension schemes for clients and if you require help in this direction please email her on: vanessa@caladine.co.uk.

I am sure many of you are aware of the changes to the State pension which come into effect from April 2016. This is where the government are setting out a standard basic pension rate for all but it is based upon a number of years of qualifying contributions. The number of years qualifying used to be 30 years but it has been increased to 35 years so to get the full pension upon retirement you will need to have had 35 qualifying years of contributions. It is actually quite easy to get a State pension forecast now. If you go to www.gov.uk/yourstatepension there is an online application form which can be filled in and printed or alternatively print it out and complete it yourself and send to The Department of Works and Pension. By completing this at least you will know how many qualifying years you have and your likely entitlement to a State pension. There is still the opportunity to buy additional qualifying years, but obviously if you need advice in this matter please do not hesitate to let us know.

And a final reminder, if I am still chasing you for your end of year accounts for years up to and including 31 March 2015/April 2015 and/or your Tax Return information then we do need it as soon as possible to enable us to get the work completed before the filing deadline of 31 January 2016.

I wish you a very Happy Christmas.

John Caladine