FREE PERSONAL/SMALL BIZ TAX HELP. Self assessment deadline looming

pokem02

Dear Tax Tony - thanks for your time! I hope you can help, this is really worrying me and stopping me filing my SA.

2 weeks before I was due back from maternity leave after my baby died, my employer told me they'd reorganised and my job had gone so offered an new job that they'd created. However it was unsuitable for my circumstances (breaching the Sex Discrimination Act) so they offered me my old job title back but with a different role.

So I mentioned voluntary redundancy... They agreed but then got scared (because of the maternity complication) so suggested I quit and, after I've left, they make me an ex gratia payment by cheque. Annual leave and salary were settled under PAYE as normal. Also, they told me by email that I wouldn't be liable for tax/NI as I wasn't an employee when the cheque was sent (2 days after the "my last day will be" date in my resignation letter) but... I was still on their payroll to receive my Statutory Maternity Pay and received my P45 weeks after the cheque (when my SMP finished) and it gave my leaving date as after the cheque.

The covering letter said it was "in recognition of the valuable contribution you have made to the development of the business over many years". I know an ex gratia payment is tax/NI free if (1) it's not due under your contract (wasn't), (2) wasn't an accepted custom (wasn't) and (3) not related to your work - so this bit worries me! So do you think...

1. it WAS related to my work?
2. I was still an employee?
3. tax/NI is due on it?
4. the taxman would chase me or my ex-employer?
5. it would be classed as payment in lieu of redundancy/compensation, even though my ex-employers don't say as much (they know I'd have taken them to court for constructive dismissal/SDA otherwise)?

I'm not trying to dodge paying tax/NI but if that's the case, I'd have been better off being made redundant properly! Thank you so much and... Cheers! :beer:

oobers

Hi.

I am sole trader. I do mainly consulting work, so no stock there. However, I have been developing small solar power systems and have bought and sold some stock but mainly it has been for research and development purposes. So firstly, can I include this in my calculation?

When I started up 18 months ago, I used my personal account for business use and things got a bit muddled. Now I have a business account, so I have two sources of records of income and expenditure. Can I just mark business expenditure on my personal bank statements as evidence?

Finally, I have inputted as much information on income/expenditure into 'Personal Accounts' by Accountz.com but I can't see any way in which it can produce a sensible report for tax purposes. Any ideas?

Thanks, OObers

P&G

Bearing in mind the 250k stamp duty limit, if I was to buy a house for, say, 300k, could I buy half of the house in my name and half in my wife's name to avoid paying the ridiculous stealth tax of 3% of the whole price?
There are people advertising ways to escape this, but you have to buy their book.....
Thanks
Peter Le Queux

pokem02

We bought a buy-to-let property last year and this is our first year of filling in a SA on rentals so sorry if this seems naive.

Qustion 1: I know we can class the broker's fee as an expense - but what about the mortgage lender's arrangement fee? It was added to the mortgage - does that matter? It was quite a sizeable chunk (£499).

Question 2: My husband is taking a day off work to fit a new bathroom - can his loss of earnings be classed as an expense? (He's employed by a temping agency and will lose a day's salary, as he's paid by the hour according to a timesheet completed by his customer)

Question 3: Can all losses (we've made a loss in this first year) be carried forward to next year?

Thanks!

coopy07

Hi, I'm new to this, but here's my question: A few months ago, my wife and my sister put a deposit down off plan on a new flat, with a view to reselling. The completion date is October, and going by previous sales, they may make much more than planned. Would it be possible at this point to add my name, and my sister's husbands name to the deeds, to mitigate the CGT. They also plan to continue buying/selling in future, should they set up a company ? Thanks

anne99

Dear Martin's Uncle Tony
Thanks for being so kind as to help us MSEers with with our tax enquiries. Us little people out there really appreciate it! Here's my problem:

My husband is self-employed and we each have smallish incomes that mean we receive Child Tax Credit and EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) for our teenagers. In September 2006 he made a single payment to a stakeholder pension, asking for it to be treated as if paid in 2004/05 to reduce our family income for 04/05 for Tax Credit purposes. It didn't move us into a different income bracket for EMA purposes. We are currently finalising our income figures for 2005/06, and find our total family income just above an EMA threshold value. We were all set to make another single pension payment, to be treated as relating to 05/06 and thus nudge us below the threshold, but this dispensation seems to have disappeared in the pension 'simplification'. 1) Is that correct, or can we still use carry-back (if that's the right phrase). 2) Can we ask for the carry-back we used last year to be cancelled, increase our income retrospectively for 04/05, and have that payment treated as if made in 05/06 (which is when it was made anyway). There wouldn't be any overall alteration in our tax or tax credit position, (the two changes would cancel each other out approximately), but our kids would receive an extra £600 or so in EMA and that would be a very welcome boost to our family's finances.

riceen

I was gifted some shares earlier this tax year by a relative. My ex-wife also transferred some shares to me as part of our divorce settlement (I gave her the cash eqivalent at the prevailing price on the divorce date). Am I correct in thinking that, for tax purposes, the share price as at the date of my acquisition is what I should use for calculating any CGT liability when I sell these shares at some future date? Also, what, if any, proof is the tax man likely to require as, naturally, I have no contract note for any of the shares concerned?
Thank you for your advice.

Biffa

Dear Uncle Tony,

I currently work through an agency but get paid through an umbrella company. As best as I understand it, I'm not PAYE. Although I often earn around £450 - 500 a week before deductions, I get a tax allowance on my mileage to work and back of 40p a mile, which mounts up to £160 a week. By the time I get paid, I can bring home between £350 - 440 a week, although the umbrella company recently completed a form for me which shows my basic wage as being anywhere between £60 and £260 a week depending on how many hours I've done. Does this sound right? They say it's because they claim lots of different tax allowances for me, but I'm not sure which ones.

Do I need to fill in a self-employed tax return or not? Will the umbrella company do it for me? I hardly seem to pay any tax or NI, so I'm confused by the whole thing. In one week, I put in 37 hours, earning £555 before deductions. I only had £4.79 tax decuted and no NI. The following three weeks ina row, I had tax refunds and NI credits showing on my payslip - only for small amounts but credits all the same. Am I likely to get hit with a massive tax bill at some point? :mad:

Thanks

Tinkerbell1969

Hello Martin's Uncle,
I have never completed any tax return forms and consequently never received any tax rebates (sigh!!) ever in my working career - started 16, now 36 (ish).
Since May 2005 I have been employed full time (basic rate payer) with a company and classed as 'home based', I claim business mileage from home to wherever I travel to for meetings etc but what I wanted to know is; am I able to claim anything for lighting, heating etc? I have increased my salary by 12k since May 2005, but being home based really boosts those bills up especially the winter ones so wondered if there was any tax relief for homeworkers. Any advice would be fabulous. Thanks in advance ) xx

Penway_2

My wife & I run a small registered charity, which is non profit making.
Can we claim any personal tax relief for use of a room in the home as an office from which we run the charity, or for web hosting fees for the charity site, or anything else for that matter? We take no income or fees from the charity. Can we claim VAT refunds for any charity expenses or purchases for its sole use.