Sam, our tax assistant to Mark Watkins is to be congratulated on passing further exams en route to becoming a qualified MAAT.

The December 2014 SFP will be the last utilising the existing infrastructure and RPA computer system. These payments should be with producers in early December 2014.

Thereafter the new system will take responsiblitity, with its ‘greening’ provisions, the details of which hopefully will become clearer.

My fear is that irrespective of the clarity of the detail, we are once again having to embark on a wholescale reimplementation of a complex computerised payment system. The government does not have a good track record in this regard and despite some reassurance in that the quatum of detail changes is not as great as for SFP I do have some concern as to whether this wholescale change can be managed so as to allow the 2015 payments to be made on time. It might therefore be prudent to ‘budget’ for some slippage of the 2015 payments? I hope I am wrong. 

It’s that time of year again.

If you are attending this year’s show on Saturday 2nd August do please come to our stand which I am told is adjacent to Heygates, opposite the main ring. 

Autumn Statement

The tax team at Harris and Clarke have been studying the small print that has been published with the Autumn Statement. A summary of the new tax headlines follows:

Capital Gains Tax

• From April 2014 the three year tax-free exemption applicable to the sale of a principal private residence is being halved to 18 months.
• Subject to consultation, from April 2015 a Capital Gains Tax charge will be introduced on future gains made by non-residents disposing of UK residential property. 

Tax avoidance

• Mixed individual and corporate partnerships will be subject to stricter anti-tax avoidance protocols from today.
• Many new anti-tax avoidance rules covering different technical tax law aspects have been introduced such as debt caps, controlled foreign companies, double tax relief, offshore and onshore employment intermediaries, dual employment contracts, charities and those who promote and use high risk avoidance schemes.

Other

• From April 2015, spouses or civil partners who are not subject to higher rate taxes will be able to transfer up to £1,000 of their personal allowance between them.
• Subject to state aid approval, from April 2014 there will be changes to film tax credits.
• Complex rules covering associated companies are being reviewed.
• Tax breaks for employees in employee owned companies are being extended

Harris and Clarke encourage their staff to professionally qualify and currently have 4 memebers of staff undergoing training. Alison Goodwin and Seb Lord are now 2/3rds through their Chartered Accountancy exams, Ed Nichols is 1/3rd of the way through and Sam Leatherland has recommenced his AAT training. Good luck to all concerned. All have exams coming up early in the new year.

Harris and Clarke duly attended the annual Blakesley show last Saturday, 3rd August. Under clear, but not too hot skies, we had a steady steam of visitors throughout the day and thanks are due to all concerned. The show itself enjoyed record attendances and was a

thoroughly pleasant day out.

   Richard Clarke and Debbie Skinner were pleased to present a cheque for £1750 to RABI last Tuesday. With H&C’s sponsorship, Debbie Skinner has organised the event for the last 3 years, raising over £4000 in the process. Congratulations to all concerned.

budget2013_complete 

Please find the full text of the 2013 Budget as released yesterday. Should you have any queries as to how these provisions may affect your own circumstances please contact us at the usual address.

With effect from 1st January 2013 the Annual Investment Allowance has been raised from £25,000 to £250,000 for a two year period.

This is obviously good news as it gives the farmer / businessman a potential way to mitigate taxation, but it should also be remembered that any trade in of machinery will more than likely come back into charge at the same rate as the AIA is given. Therefore taxable profits will probably be reduced by the ‘net of trade in figure’. To be sure please contact us so as to ascertain the current pool value of your Capital Allowances.

Good news, nethertheless.

2012-05-25 jtgh Qualified Manager Advert  An opportunity has arisen for the expansion of the practice by reason of the recruitment of a Qualified senior Chartered Accountant. Reporting initially to the Partners, the advertisement is attached to this news item.