Resources

Can you change a Will after death?

One might expect that the answer to this question would be a definitive no. However, under certain circumstances a will can actually be changed after death. This is done by using what is known as a Deed of Variation. Any changes to the will must be done within two years from the date of death. However, beneficiaries who would be left worse off by the change must give their agreement before any changes can be made.

Does a charity pay tax?

The tax treatment of charities can be very complex. As a first step any charity hoping to benefit from any beneficial treatment needs to be recognised as a charity for UK tax purposes by HMRC as well as meeting other criteria.

A recognised charity may qualify for a number of tax exemptions and reliefs on income and gains, and on profits for some activities. For example, charities don’t pay tax on most types of income as long as they use the money for charitable purposes.

This includes tax:

Pay and paternity leave

When your partner gives birth or when you adopt a child or have a baby by surrogate, you may be entitled to 1 or 2 weeks paternity leave and paternity pay. You are also entitled to take a small amount of unpaid time off work before the baby is born to accompany your partner (or the surrogate mother) to 2 antenatal (or adoption) appointments.

How to get proof of employment history

A special employment history request can be submitted by taxpayers for those needing to make a claim for compensation. The form is usually used for claims relating to industrial injuries, road traffic accidents, medical negligence and hardship.

HMRC will only accept requests that are made using the Employment history team: claimant’s evidence of employers form. The form is available on the GOV.UK website.

What to do if you have stopped work

HMRC issues some helpful guidance that covers what you need to do if you stopped work. The guidance covers the main reasons that you might have stopped work such as being made redundant or leaving your job.

If you have been made redundant then you may have overpaid tax as a result of your redundancy payment. HMRC may in some cases refund you any overpaid tax before the end of the appropriate tax year. A claim can be made using form P50 if you are not claiming benefits and not going to work for at least 4 weeks,

Appealing to a tax tribunal

There are a number of different options open to taxpayers that disagree with a tax decision issued by HMRC. The first step is to make an appeal to HMRC against the tax decision. If taxpayers do not agree with HMRC’s appeals review, there are further options available which include making an appeal to a tax tribunal or using the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.

Draft regulations to increase the National Minimum Wage published

The draft National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have been laid before Parliament and are due to come into force on 1 April 2017. The regulations will increase the various rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) as follows:

Income from selling services online

Many taxpayers supplement their income by selling services online. This is often known as the 'sharing economy' or the 'peer-to-peer economy' and usually involves taxpayers renting out something they are not using such as their house (using websites such as AirBNB), car, car parking space or other personal equipment.

Paying NIC if you go abroad

If you move abroad it can be advantageous to continue paying UK National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in order to preserve your entitlement to the State Pension and other benefits. If you are working in the European Economic Area the rules depend on your situation. The EEA includes all EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The same rules apply in Switzerland.

The rules are as follows:

Text message scammers stopped by HMRC

HMRC has published a news release to explain how they are working to stop taxpayers receiving fraudulent text messages from reaching their phones. Scammers have been found to be using text message or SMS phishing scams to contact taxpayers.

These scams have been increasing as fraudulent text messages can appear more legitimate than fraudulent emails. Research has found that people are 9 times more likely to fall for text message scams than other forms like email with many texts displaying ‘HMRC’ as the sender, rather than a phone number.

Tax consequences of importing vehicle into the UK

The Notification of Vehicle Arrivals (NOVA) is an online notification system for vehicles entering the country for permanent use on UK roads. There is a separate process for personal imports from outside the EU and for the temporary importations of a motor vehicle.

10.7m tax payers filed before the deadline

HMRC has issued a press release detailing the number of online filings made for the 2016-17 self assessment returns. The use of the online service continues to grow year on year. In this year a total of over 9.9 million online filings were made by the 31 January 2018 deadline. A further 770,000 tax returns were submitted using paper returns. This means that 93.5% of returns (10.7 million filings) were submitted on time (be it the paper or online deadline).