Autumn 2017

An interesting tax case was heard before a First-tier Tribunal this year and has resulted in  victory for the taxpayer. The case is good news for individuals who have bought or who are making off-plan property purchases. Buying off-plan property means purchasing property – typically an apartment – in advance of its completion and has become much more common in the UK in recent years. Read more

HMRC’s Making Tax Digital project is about to make inroads into the PAYE system. Employers will see an increase in the number of tax codes being issued during the tax year. Hopefully that will turn out to be a good thing for employees but only time will tell. Read more

SMEs looking to raise finance have traditionally been tied to bank funding, but recently there have been significant changes. Read more

There are new data protection rules in the pipeline, and they’re likely to get a lot more publicity in the months to come. The new initials to look out for are General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). Read more

Lifetime ISAs could be opened by individuals from April 2017 but it is only now that a reasonable number of providers exist. Are they the right thing for you, or if not you, your children? Read more

In early 2017, a UK company warned its employees about suspicious emails and how to deal with them. Two months later it sent a bogus email from the HR manager to a sample of employees requesting personal details. Despite the previous warnings, 54% of the employees clicked the link in the email and amazingly nearly all of those submitted data in the form provided via the link. Read more

The new Tax-Free Childcare scheme is now half way through its roll-out period. The first round of applications began in April 2017 and by the end of the year all eligible parents can apply. Potentially annual childcare costs of up to £10,000 per child can be met by £8,000 of payments by the parents and £2,000 by the government. For a disabled child, the maximum top-up payments are £4,000. Read more

The government’s much-publicised plans for Making Tax Digital for Business (MTDfB) have taken a radical new direction, giving businesses longer to get ready for change. Read more