Budget 2013 Summary Guide

Transcription

1 Budget 2013 Summary Guide

2 Contents Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Company/Business Tax IR35 Corporation Tax rate Capital allowances Company cars VAT measures Employment allowance Section 3: Personal Tax Income Tax National Insurance Pensions Directors Loan accounts Childcare Scheme Section 4: Other Taxes Inheritance Tax Capital Gains Tax Child benefits Anti-avoidance

3 Introduction The 2013 Budget contained very few new measures for contractors and reaffirmed some changes to the tax rates and allowances announced in previous Budgets and in the Autumn Statement. We have consolidated these announcements to produce this guide which summarises the forthcoming tax changes and have also provided some hints and tips about how this could impact you as a contractor. Please feel free to contact Brookson should you require any further information or clarity on the issues covered. Tel: customerservices@brookson.co.uk

4 Company / Business Tax 1. IR35 With IR35 continuing to be in the spotlight, we remind all contractors to check their IR35 status and ensure they take specialist professional advice on their individual circumstances. The Brookson IR35 Review Team is on hand for all customers to discuss IR35 compliance and to provide support and guidance to ensure your business remains compliant with the IR35 legislation and can be contacted on We also await the final revised legislation expected to be announced in the Finance Bill later this year relating to office holders paying PAYE and NICs as employed earners. There are many potentially unintended or unforeseen consequences of such legislation which may impact some of our customers and we will ensure you are kept informed every step of the way. The Government has today now announced that it will consult on measures to: remove the presumption of self-employment for limited liability partnership (LLP) partners, to tackle the disguising of employment relationships through LLPs. Whilst this should not impact limited company contractors Brookson will review the consultation document to ensure this does not result in any unforeseen implications to the existing IR35 regime. 2. Corporation Tax Rate In the 2013 Budget, the Government announced further reductions in the Corporation Tax rate for large companies (those profits over 300,000). This rate will be reduced to 21% from April 2014 and to 20% from April 2015, this will bring one rate of corporation tax for all companies. Planning opportunities support from Brookson This reduction in the rate of Corporation Tax affects larger companies with profits over 300,000 and as a result will not be of benefit to most contractors operating via a limited company. The small companies rate remains at 20% which continues to make it attractive for businesses operating as a sole trader to consider incorporating their businesses. If you are operating a business as a sole trader you may wish to consider reviewing your circumstances to assess whether incorporating the business is attractive. 3. Capital allowances Capital allowances allow businesses to claim tax relief for the cost of capital items such as plant and machinery. The allowances take the place of commercial depreciation which is not allowable for tax and work by providing a deduction against profits for the capital expenditure based on a percentage of the value. The general percentage rate of the allowance (for expenditure not covered by the annual investment allowance see below) is currently 18%.

5 Annual investment allowance This is a specific type of capital allowance. Businesses are currently able to claim 100% of the first 250,000 of capital expense incurred each year as a deduction from their profits this is known as the annual investment allowance. This allowance will remain unchanged after being recently increased in January Please note that special rules apply to cars please contact Brookson for advice if you are considering acquiring a company car as there are some complex rules to consider. 4. Company cars As previously announced in the Autumn Statement, the Government will remove the 3% diesel supplement so that diesel cars will be subject to the same level of tax as petrol cars. In the 2012 Autumn Statement it was announced that from April 2013 the percentage used to calculate company car tax will increase for all cars with carbon dioxide emissions between 95g/km and 219g/km by 1% but will freeze company car tax for cars emitting less than 95g/km, and that in both and the percentage used to calculate company car tax will increase by 2%. For those with emission of less than 95g/km they will remain at 13% for but will increase by 2% in The Government announced today that cars with emissions of 0-50g/km will have a 5% applied for company car tax and 9% for those with emissions of 51-75g/km. Planning opportunities support from Brookson It is important that you consider the tax implications of acquiring a car in your company name (a company car). It is generally not tax advantageous to buy a company car, however, if the vehicle is a van or has low carbon dioxide emissions then it may be beneficial. If this is something you are considering please contact Brookson s Specialist Tax and Accountancy Team on VAT measures The Government has announced that the VAT registration threshold will increase by 2,000 to 79,000 and the deregistration threshold to 77,000 from 1 April Employment allowance The Government announced an allowance of 2,000 per year for all businesses to be offset against their employer class 1 secondary NIC s from April The Government has committed to engage with stakeholders on how to implement this change and will look to introduce new legislation later this year. We will provide a further update once more information becomes available.

6 Personal Tax 1. Income Tax The Chancellor has announced today the rates previously announced for 2013/2014 will remain unchanged. The personal allowance has increased to 9,440 and the basic rate limit will be reduced to 32,010 meaning that the 2013/2014 higher rate tax threshold will reduce to 41,450. From April 2013 the age related personal allowance of 10,600 will be restricted to people born before 6 April Please note that where an individual income exceeds the age allowance income limit the allowance is reduced for 1 for every 2 above the personal allowance (however this cannot be reduced below the standard personal allowance with the exception of those people with income exceeding 100,000). From 6 April 2014 the personal allowance for those aged under 65 will be increased by 560 to 10,000. The basic rate limit will be reduced by 145 to 31,865. This means that the 2014/2015 higher rate tax threshold will reduce to 41,865. Additional rate of tax The chancellor had previously announced that from the 6 April 2013 the additional tax rate of 50% for income over the 150,000 threshold will now be reduced to 45%, the dividend additional rate will be 37.5%. Planning opportunities - support from Brookson If you estimate that your personal income will exceed the 150,000 additional rate threshold it is worth considering deferring any income (e.g. restrict the dividends you take from your limited company or accelerate expenses if you are a sole trader) until the 2013/2014 tax year to attract a lower rate of additional tax. Also if you are considering making pension contributions and are an additional tax payer then it would be beneficial to make these payments during the 2012/2013 tax year and attracting higher rate of tax relief (subject to the current pension contribution restrictions). 2. National Insurance For limited company contractors: The lower earnings limit (the amount which you need to earn to qualify for certain state benefits) will increase from 107 to 109 from 6 April The Class 1 primary threshold (over which you need to pay employees National Insurance at a rate of 12%) will increase from 146 to 149 and the Class 1 secondary threshold (over which you need to pay employers National Insurance at a rate of 13.8%) will increase from 144 to 148 from 6 April 2013.

7 Planning opportunities - support from Brookson These rates help to determine the most tax efficient director s fee that you can take from your limited company. Brookson have already advised our customers on what this should be in advance of the new tax year. For sole traders: Class 2 National Insurance contributions will increase from 2.65 to 2.70 from 6 April Class 4 National Insurance Contributions are currently payable at the rate of 9% if your annual profits exceed 7,605. From 6 April this will increase to 7,755. The upper earning limit (at which point the rate reduces to 2%) will remain the same at 41,450. It was today announced that the Government will consult on options to simplify the administrative process for collecting national insurance from the self-employed. This is likely to result in Class 2 NIC being collected via the self assessment tax return. We will update our customers once any changes are announced. 3. Pensions The Government today stated that from April 2016 they will reform the State Pension into a single tier pension for future pensioners. It was announced today that this will come into effect in April It was announced in the Autumn Statement and reconfirmed in today s Budget that the individual s lifetime allowance for pension contribution will decrease from 1.5m to 1.25m from 2014/2015 and the annual allowance will decrease from 50,000 to 40,000 also from 2014/ Directors Loan Accounts Currently if you are a limited company contractor and you take a loan from your company of more than 5,000 then a taxable benefit will arise on you. From April 2014 this threshold will be increased to 10,000. Please note, however, that a tax charge will still arise on the company if any loan remains outstanding 9 months after the end of your accounting year end. If you are considering taking a loan from your company we recommend that you seek advice from Brookson. 5. Childcare Scheme A new childcare scheme will be introduced to support working families with the childcare costs and will be phased in from Autumn It was announced that 20% tax relief will be given on childcare costs up to 6,000 per year per child and will be available for all children under 5 and the scheme will eventually build up over time to children under 12. This will coincide with a phasing out of the existing Employer Supported Childcare scheme (childcare vouchers). Further information will be released providing more information of how the scheme operates.

8 Other Taxes 1. Inheritance Tax The nil rate band (the threshold before IHT becomes payable) will be increased as previously announced from April 2015 to 329,000 from 325,000. It was announced in the Budget today that that amendments will be made to inheritance tax provisions which allow a deduction from the value of the estate for liabilities owed by the deceased on death. Changes are also being introduced to tackle avoidance schemes and arrangements which exploit the current rules. 2. Capital Gains Tax The Capital Gains Tax annual exemption (the amount of capital gains you can make in a tax year without incurring a tax charge) will increase to 11,000 in 2014/2015 and to 11,100 from 2015/ Child benefits The Child Benefit will be withdrawn through an Income Tax charge, and that the charge will only apply to households where someone has an income over 50,000 a year. For households where someone has an income between 50,000 and 60,000 the charge will apply gradually, preventing a cliff edge effect. Only households where someone has an income in excess of 60,000 a year will no longer gain from Child Benefit. This has now been in place since 7 th January Anti-avoidance As part of the Government and HMRC s ongoing targeting of tax avoidance it was announced today that new evasion, anti avoidance and debt recovery legislation will come into effect immediately, this will affect any individuals or companies that have entered into aggressive tax avoidance schemes and should not impact contractors. As part of their anti-avoidance strategy the Government has committed to will consult on strengthening obligations to ensure the correct income tax and NICs are paid by offshore employment intermediaries, with a view to legislating in Finance Bill We will be monitoring how this develops as we anticipate that it will impact contractors working via non-compliant offshore umbrella companies or EBT arrangements. If you require any further information or assistance regarding today s budget please feel free to contact one of our Specialist Customer Advisors on or customerservices@brookson.co.uk