The Lifetime Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a longer term tax-free account that receives a government bonus. The accounts will be available from 6 April 2017. HMRC have produced a helpful guide on the account. Some of which is reproduced below:
Opening a Lifetime ISA
With the end of the tax year looming there is still time to save tax for 2016/17. We have set out some points you may want to consider.
With two Budgets in 2017, and the Spring Budget scheduled for Wednesday 8 March 2017, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have written to the Chancellor Philip Hammond outlining what they would like to see in the Budget proposals.
New company car advisory fuel rates have been published which took effect from 1 March 2017. The guidance states: ‘You can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply’. The rates only apply to employees using a company car.
The advisory fuel rates for journeys undertaken on or after 1 March 2017 are:
From 1 April 2017, a new concept of ‘limited-costs business’ will be introduced, effectively forcing many service-based businesses to reconsider the use of FRS.
If this change is likely to affect you, please contact us on 01206 842000 for more details.
In a change that will impact residential landlords, the amount of income tax relief available on residential property finance costs will be restricted to the basic rate of income tax. This change will mean that landlords will no longer be able to deduct all of their finance costs from their property income. They will instead receive a basic rate reduction from their income tax liability for their finance costs.
The penalties imposed on employers that are in breach of the minimum wage legislation are 200% of arrears owed to workers. The maximum penalty is £20,000 per worker. The penalty is reduced by 50% if the unpaid wages and the penalty are paid within 14 days. HMRC also name and shame employers who are penalised.
The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed the thresholds for pensions automatic enrolment for 2017/18.
The main qualifying threshold or ‘trigger’ for employees to be automatically enrolled will be maintained at £10,000 per annum. The lower limit of the qualifying earning band and will be £5,876 and the upper limit £45,000.
The government are celebrating the ‘first birthday’ of their award winning Personal Tax Account which recently won Digital Project of the Year at the annual UK IT Industry Awards
HMRC have announced that in its first year, the Personal Tax Account has attracted more than seven million users and there have been millions of transactions including:
The government has announced:
‘labour market has finished a record breaking year with unemployment down by over 100,000 people and the rate running at 4.8%’.
Other statistics include: