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Using Lifetime ISA Funds for your first home

Using Lifetime ISA Funds for your first home

You must be a first-time buyer to put the Lifetime ISA towards your first home. A first-time buyer is someone who does not own, and has never owned, a home anywhere in the UK or the rest of the world.To be able to be eligible for the government bonus, you must have opened a Lifetime ISA at least 12 months ago.

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Tax benefits on Investments

Tax benefits on Investments

Government support includes the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and its sibling, the seed enterprise investment scheme (SEIS) – venture capital schemes designed to encourage, by means of attractive tax reliefs, shareholding investment in growing companies. According to the EIS Association, nearly £30 billion has been invested in more than 53,000 companies since the schemes were created in 1994 and 2012 respectively.

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Claiming tax relief for employment expenses

Claiming tax relief for employment expenses

Deduction is allowed from earnings for an expense if the employee is obliged to incur and pay it as a holder of the employment, and the amount is incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties of the employment. It should be noted that the general rule does not apply to travel expenses, which have their own set of rules.

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Dividend Tax Traps

Dividend Tax Traps

In a family company scenario, it can be tax-efficient to make salary and dividend payments to family members to utilise their unused allowances and lower-rate tax bands. However, when it comes to paying dividends, there are potential tax traps to avoid.

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Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings

Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings

Your property is a dwelling if all or part of it is used, or could be used, as a residence, for example a house or flat. It includes any gardens, grounds, and buildings within them. Some properties are not classed as dwellings. These include hotels, guest houses, boarding school accommodation, hospitals, student halls of residence, military accommodation, care homes and prisons.

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Company Closure

Company Closure

The closure of a company can be costly, and there will be various practical financial matters to attend to: for example, if there are staff they may be entitled to redundancy pay; there will possibly be VAT deregistration; the submission of final accounts and tax returns to HMRC (Companies House does not require final accounts); making final creditor payments (possibly including to HMRC); ensuring all debtors have paid; possibly selling company assets; and finally closing the bank account.

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Keep It Commercial!

Keep It Commercial!

It is common for family members to be employed within owner-managed businesses. When employing family members, taxpayers need to be aware that where remuneration is set at an uncommercial rate, HMRC may seek to disallow a portion of the expense when computing their taxable profits.

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Section 455 Tax Charge

Section 455 Tax Charge

The section 455 tax charge is a specific tax charge levied on a close company where a loan to a ‘participator’ (normally a shareholder) is not cleared by the corporation tax due date falling nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period.

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