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Terry Cartwright's Articles in Taxes

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How To Keep Accurate Corporation Tax Records Corporation Tax is a tax on company taxable income or profits. A company being any limited company whether by shares or guarantee, members clubs and associations, trade and housing associations and co-operative groups. A company tax return consists of the completed Corporation Tax Return form CT600 and the annual financial accounts and statements which support the tax calculation. Save Money With Vat Schemes and the Vat Threshold Knowledge Base Value added tax is a tax payable by any taxable person or business on sales income unless exempted or zero rated when the annual level of sales reaches the vat threshold limit, raised to 64,000 pounds p.a. from 1st April 2007. Register for vat when the vat threshold is reached to enable vat input tax to be reclaimed and minimise vat liability with a vat scheme. Practical Self Employed Tax Tips to Save you Money UK Self employment carries the responsibility to sort out your own tax affairs, the first tip is to maintain good records of business income and expenses to minimise tax liability. With tax rates of up to 40%, tax is an essential area to achieve a degree of competence. Small Business Accounting Software and Payroll Software templates can ease the record keeping. A UK Employee Can Claim Tax Relief Using Their Vehicle For Work Employees in the UK who use their own vehicle for work can claim tax free expenses. If an employee keeps records of business journeys and the amounts paid by an employer the employee may also be entitled to receive mileage allowance relief in addition to those expenses for the past six years. Taxi Drivers Pay Higher Taxes Missing Out On Capital Tax Allowances Taxi drivers who employ a taxi accountant to prepare their taxi accounts may or may not be at risk of under claiming capital tax allowances. Many drivers who prepare their own taxi driver accounts may not have the expert capital tax allowance knowledge to minimise their tax liability. Explaining Income And Expenditure Sections Of The Self Assessment Tax Return Every self employed businessman in the UK is required to complete a self assessment tax return form and requires accurate accounting records to support the tax return. These notes explain how those accounting records should be entered in the income and expenditure section of the self assessment tax return form. Capital Tax Allowances And The Self Assessment Tax Return Form To accurately complete the self assessment tax return requires the self employed businessman to understand the tax system as applied to capital allowances that can be claimed against fixed assets. A potential difficult area for the non accountant these notes explain what capital allowances are and briefly how to calculate the capital allowances which reduce the net tax payable. Registering Self Employment And The Self Assessment Tax Return Form If you start a business and become self employed in the UK you are required to register the self employment within three months of starting up the new business. Having registered as self employed you will then be required to complete the inland revenue self assessment tax return form each year. Tips So Taxi Driver Accounts Do Not Have To Be Taxing Taxi Drivers should not to bury their heads under the dashboard when it comes to producing a set of taxi driver accounts. Producing a set of taxi accounts without the use of a taxi accountant is possible and significantly easier if a professional taxi accounting software package is used. Pay As You Earn Wages And Salaries Tax Scheme Explained The PAYE system is a payroll administration system whereby employers deduct on a weekly or monthly basis income tax and national insurance contributions from employees wages and salaries. The PAYE administration involves the calculation of deductions, often performed by payroll software, and the tax returns and forms required by the tax authority which in the UK is the Inland Revenue. Top Paye Questions Answered Employers and particularly new employers ask a variety of questions in administering the PAYE scheme. The top questions and answers include tax codes, week 1 basis, employee or self employment status, national insurance, statutory sick pay and what happens when an employee does not provide a P45 from previous employment. An Introduction To Registration And Accounting For Value Added Tax Value added tax is the tax amount added to the value of goods and services by a vat registered business when sold or transferred. Vat is not charged by businesses that are not registered for vat. This guide covers the vat threshold, accounting for value added tax, registration and submitting the quarterly vat tax return online. How To Avoid Vat Inspection Problems Trained vat officers inspect company accounts on a regular basis and know exactly the types of errors likely to be uncovered. The article explains how to avoid problems by keeping accurate accounting records and the most common mistakes businesses make. With These Tips Taxi Driver Accounts Do Not Have To Be Taxing Taxi Drivers should not to bury their heads under the dashboard when it comes to producing a set of taxi driver accounts. Producing a set of taxi accounts without the use of a taxi accountant is possible and significantly easier if a professional taxi accounting software package is used. Business Tax Reform In The UK Introduces Annual Investment Allowance From 1st April 2008 for small limited companies and 6th April for unincorporated self employed businesses in the UK the previous capital allowance structure of first year allowances and writing down allowances changes to a combination of annual investment allowances and writing down allowances. Who Should Use The New Self Employment Tax Returns In The UK HMRC published new self-employment tax returns in April 2008 to replace the previous self assessment tax returns for self employed business in the UK. The self-employment tax returns are applicable from the financial year ending 5 April 2007. Similar to the previous self assessment forms the new tax returns are in two versions, full and short returns, dependent upon the level of sales income. Lower Tax Bills And Bookkeeping For Small Business Financial record keeping and bookkeeping by small business is occasionally accurate but often produced once a year for tax purposes. By maintaining a diary, retaining all receipts and updating the accounting records on a regular weekly or monthly basis small business can seriously account for all costs and reduce the final tax bill. Reduce UK Tax Bills By Knowing What Business Expenses To Claim Tax bills can be reduced if all allowable business expenses are included in costs and receipts retained as supporting evidence. While all business expenses can be claimed it would not be unusual for particularly inexperienced small businesses to fail to claim some business expenses due to uncertainty over what constitutes a valid business expense. Avoid UK Tax Problems By Knowing What Business Expenses Are Disallowed Not all expenses can be claimed as valid business expenses for tax purposes. In a number of areas there is a grey area when an expense could be a business or private expense or may be a business expense used for private purposes. Tax problems can be avoided by understanding which expenses are allowed for tax purposes and which are not allowed. Tax Investigations Are An Uneven Match Between Small Business And The Tax Inspector The vast majority of tax returns are not enquired into by HMRC and are accepted as reasonable. When HMRC investigate the tax return of a small business the inadequacies of the accounting, lack of knowledge by the enquired and professionalism by the tax inspector often results in a higher tax bill.