Make It Count - Bains MIC Summer2018 BAINS_web | Page 3

Call: 07983 938173 Email: [email protected] www.bains-fm.co.uk PAY-BACK TIME? Know the rules on directors’ loans or the S455 tax could bite Directors of limited companies can pay themselves in three ways: a salary, a dividend or an expense repayment. They can also repay themselves money they have previously loaned to the company. Any money that is paid from the company to the director(s) or other close family members outside of these methods is called a director’s loan. In these circumstances, section S455 of the Corporation Tax Act will come into play, commonly called ‘S455 tax’ by accountants and advisers. From April 2016, S455 tax moved from 25% to 32.5%. This tax is in place to stop directors from paying themselves through loans that are not repaid in a bid to try and avoid income tax and NI charges on dividends or salary. In fact, the S455 tax rates mirror the higher rate dividend tax rates – therefore, if it is never paid back it is like taking a dividend. The only difference is, if the loan is repaid then the S455 tax comes back. So… If the director repays the loan within nine months of your corporation tax accounting period Claim back the 32.5% corporation tax that you have paid on the loan, but not the interest. There are no personal tax responsibilities. If the director doesn’t pay back the loan with nine months of your corporation tax accounting Period Claim the corporation tax back on repayment of the loan, but not the interest. Interest on the corporation tax will be added until the corporation tax or the loan is repaid. There are no personal tax responsibilities. If the loan is written off (ie never paid back) Class 1 NI must be deducted through the company’s payroll and the director has to pay income tax on the loan through their self-assessment tax return. If the loan reaches more than £10,000 Then the loan would be considered a benefit in kind and the company would have to deduct class 1 national insurance. From April 2016, S455 tax moved from 25% to 32.5%. Get in touch to see how this affects your company. NO ROOM FOR ERROR Take care to check your VAT return carefully as mistakes will cost you In the Spring Statement 2018, the chancellor announced consultations on future changes to the VAT threshold, because of suggestions that the current threshold may discourage small businesses from growing. If you have already reached the VAT registration threshold, do you rely on someone else to complete your VAT return or do you sense check it before it goes to HMRC? If not, penalties can be applied for up to 100% of tax understated or overclaimed if you send a return with a careless or deliberate inaccuracy. It is therefore always worth doing a high-level sense check of the numbers in line with what you as a director know about the business performance and versus previous VAT returns. In a recent HMRC tribunal, one director of a computer equipment supplier claimed to rely on another member of staff to complete the VAT return which had missed more than £50,000 of sales. This was not seen by HMRC as a reasonable excuse for the error as a quick check against the sales books would have made the mistake very apparent. Therefore, lack of care had led to the penalty From April 2019, legislation will require businesses above the VAT threshold to have a digital tax account and file quarterly returns online (see page 4), which will greatly help VAT checks. More of your electronic transactions will be visible to HMRC but this also makes it easier to check for errors before submission. KEY AREAS TO CHECK • Compare to previous VAT return and check if movements look reasonable. • Investigate any significant unexplained variances. • For standard rated output, box 1 should be 20% of box 6. • If box 8 is a higher value than box 6, or box 9 is more than box 7, you may have put the figures the wrong way round in error. • Have you adjusted for credit notes received and issued in boxes 1 and 4?