Hello, 

As the government continues to update the finer details of its various COVID-19 grant and financial support schemes, I have the feeling that we are trapped in a warped version of 'Groundhog Day' except that there are subtle differences each time we review the guidance.

This time we look at updates on the employee retention scheme, the self employed scheme as well as new announcements; you can review all that is on offer in our COVID-19 tracker. We have published some minutes that directors can use to furlough themselves. 

Now that we seem to be all feeling slightly more optimistic about the future, we have been building our Finance Act 2020 rolling planner and tracker. If you are new to us, this is a really useful piece of it kit. It covers anything in SME tax that is due to commence in April 2020, and therefore brings together past budget announcements and tracks the progress of the finance bill. This planner will outline many updates in the next few months, and we have further sections to add. 

In case you were not aware of the change, from 6 April Capital Gains Tax (CGT) due on the sales of residential properties must be reported and paid within 30 days of completion. This will apply if you are selling a buy-to-let property or second home. It will also apply if you are selling your main residence and Private Residence Relief (PRR)  is not available in full. Some welcome news is that HMRC has agreed that it will not charge any penalties for late reporting for the first three months that the new rules are in place, so effectively anyone selling now has until the end of June to make their online return. 

We also feature HMRC's latest Agent Update this week.

If you have any tax-specific queries, please post them up to our sister site, details are here: www.VtaxP.co.uk

Back soon

Nichola Ross Martin FCA CTA (Fellow) Tax Director

www.rossmartin.co.uk

Your Virtual Tax Partner® online PRACTICAL support for accountants, tax advisers BY accountants and tax advisers.

Quick news & guides (freeview)

Changes to CGT reporting: Soft landing period for penalties
HMRC have announced that they will not charge any penalties for failure to report Capital Gains on UK residential property within the new 30-day deadline until after July 2020.

HMRC's Agent Update for April/May 2020
We have summarised the key content for you with links to our detailed guidance on the topics covered.

COVID-19: Tracker
Start here to track key measures and announcements aimed at supporting businesses and individuals.

COVID-19: Employee Job Retention Scheme
UPDATE: Changes to eligibility criteria and update on NMW..

COVID-19: Company directors & shareholders
UPDATE: Many small companies are run by just one or two directors and have no other employees. What government financial support is available to directors/shareholders during the coronavirus crisis? Contains board minutes.

Editor's pick (subscribers)

Finance Bill 2020 tax update and rolling tracker
NEW: Instant CPD. What's hot in 2020/21?

Do I pay a salary or dividend? 2020/21
This guide explores the tax-planning points and pitfalls of using dividends to create a tax-efficient pay package. 

Sole trader v. limited company: Tax differences & savings 2020/21
This guide considers whether, from a purely tax point of view, it is more efficient to run your business as a sole trader or as a company.

Subscriber Guides 

CGT: Payment of tax
UPDATED: For details on the new rules for residential property from 6 April 2020 and HMRC's agreement not to charge penalties for the first three months.

How to calculate a capital gain or loss
This guide shows you how to compute a capital gain (or loss) for individuals and trustees.

PRR: Private Residence Relief
What is Private Residence relief (PRR)? What are the qualifying conditions? Can you claim relief on two homes? How do you claim PRR? Can you claim PRR if you develop your garden?  

Virtual Tax Partner Toolkits (freeview)

Virtual Tax Partner © Tax Toolkit© Tax Toolkits
NEW: be a winner with our game-changing tax diagnostics tools. Sign up now.

  • Entrepreneurs' Relief: Sole traders: sale of a business, incorporation, sale of assets
  • Entrepreneurs' Relief: Company owners: rules for sales pre 29 October 2018, sales between 29 October 2018 and 5 April 2019 and after.
  • TAAR: closing your Personal service company? Will your final dividends be taxed as income?
  • Salary or dividend, or a mixture of both. Better to claim the Employers' Allowance?
  • Making Tax Digital for VAT: when do you need to join.

Tax Queries?

Virtual Tax Partner© Support
Have a tax query? Need a second option? Open a ticket and ask a question. A team of tax experts with a very wide range of expertise: covering direct and indirect tax, as well as accounting, R&D claims, reorganisations and much more. 

CPD for lunch 

Byte-sized chunks of CPD for subscribers

More at CPD Index

Missed last time's Web-update?

Nichola's SME Tax W-update 9 April 2020

  • COVID-19: Tracker
  • COVID-19: Football and furloughing, what’s the score?
  • COVID-19: HMRC reduce late payment interest rate
  • COVID-19: Arts Council funding
  • COVID-19: Employee Job Retention Scheme
  • COVID-19: Company directors & shareholders
  • COVID-19: VAT
  • Tax-efficient extraction of profits: Toolkit 2020/21
  • Directors: Tax planning toolkit for 2020/21
  • Tax Returns: To-do list before/after 5 April 2020

More...

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