If your business does offer customs services, did you know that HMRC could offer you a free listing on their published lists.

HMRC do not vet, approve or recommend individual firms. Information is simply provided to HMRC by customs agents and fast parcel operators and listed as presented.

However, many businesses that need the services of an agent to manage their customs requirements, will likely be accessing the government listings.

To add your business to the government lists you are requested to:

Email customsagentstrainingproviders@hmrc.gov.uk with:

• the name of your business
• your contact telephone number, email address and business website address
• if you would like to be listed as an agent, a fast parcel operator, or both

You can also advise HMRC if you:

• are available to take on new clients
• can function as a direct representative or indirect representative, or both
• provide services for smaller traders
• can help move goods subject to sanitary and phytosanitary checks
• offer customs clearances using advance fixing certificates, roll on roll off port, or common transit
• offer customs services:
  • with a duty deferment account
  • using simplified declarations
  • for shipments of personal goods
• provide an advisory or consultancy service (for example, advice on supply chains, moving goods and trading terms)
• want to be signed up for the monthly Customs Intermediaries Bulletin — which gives you the latest HMRC news for customs agents and fast parcel operators
• offer an out of hours service (outside of usual business hours which are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm)
• can facilitate or assist with the movement of goods through pre-lodgement ports, using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS)
• offer services for completing entry summary declarations for goods imported into Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) using the Safety and Security GB (S&S GB) service
• offer services to facilitate movements using Customs Declaration Service

You can ask for your company name or other details to be removed at any time.

The government department active in the promotion of electric vehicles has published guidance regarding the costs, charging issues and infrastructure. We have extracted a few comments and reproduced them in this post.

Buying an electric vehicle

While a new electric vehicle (EV) costs more to buy up front, today most drivers in the UK (around 80%) will buy their cars on the used market. Industry intelligence suggests that some EVs on the used market are now similar in price to their petrol and diesel equivalents. The number of used EV purchases have grown by over 50% when comparing the first quarter of 2022-23, increasing the pool of used vehicles available.

The price gap for new cars has continued to decrease over the past few years. According to industry data, the purchase price premium of an EV – relative to an equivalent internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle – has dropped from around 50% in 2020 to around 40% in 2023. With battery costs reducing and continued innovation, some external forecasts predict that some EVs could be around the same price to purchase as a petrol or diesel car by the end of the 2020s.

Company car tax

Many workplaces provide salary sacrifice schemes, which can reduce the cost of purchasing an EV. To support this, company car tax is favourable for EVs at only 2%. The government has confirmed that company car tax for EVs will increase 1% each year from 2025 to a total of 5% in April 2028. By contrast, the most polluting cars will pay 37% company car tax in 2028. EVs are also exempt from vehicle excise duty until 2025 and will continue to receive favourable first-year rates after this.

Battery range

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the average electric range for new EVs launched in 2023 was nearly 300 miles, compared to 210 miles in 2020. Some on the market have a quoted range of over 300 miles, which is enough to travel from Exeter to Leeds. There are now more than 30 models available with a quoted 200-plus mile range.

With battery costs falling around 80% over the past 10 years and further decreases expected, the government expects to see increasing numbers of EVs with higher ranges.

Charging costs

Charging a medium-sized electric car at home can cost around half the price of filling up an equivalent petrol vehicle. Charging at home costs around 8p per mile while a diesel or petrol vehicle can cost around 13p to 17p per mile to fuel, as of January 2024. Some suppliers continue to offer tariffs enabling drivers to charge their EVs at under 3p per mile (such as an overnight tariff offered by Octopus Energy).

On average, Zapmap charging data shows that the cost of charging an EV on the public network is roughly equivalent to fuelling an equivalent petrol car.

Charging points

The number of public chargepoints is growing fast. In January 2024, there were more than 53,600 public chargepoints available across the UK, a 45% increase since the start of 2023. This puts us on a growth rate consistent with delivering at least 300,000 chargepoints by 2030, in line with our forecast charging demand.

Availability of public charging devices is expected to continue increasing. ChargeUK, the industry body for chargepoint operators, has committed to investing more than £6 billion in charging infrastructure before 2030 and doubling the number of chargepoints over the next 12 months.

There is an online tool that allows taxpayers to check if they need to notify HMRC about additional income. The online tool can be found at www.gov.uk/check-additional-income-tax.

This could include money earned from sources such as:

• selling things, for example at car boot sales or auctions, or online;
• doing casual jobs such as gardening, food delivery or babysitting;
• charging other people for using your equipment or tools; and
• renting out property or part of your home, including for holidays (for example, through an agency or online).

In most cases, these types of income are taxable. However, there are two separate annual £1,000 tax allowances for property and trading income. If you have both types of income, you can claim a £1,000 allowance for each. The online tool will indicate if this is relevant.

Where each respective allowance covers all the individual’s relevant income (before expenses) the income is tax-free and does not have to be declared. Taxpayers with higher amounts of income will have the choice, when calculating their taxable profits, of deducting the allowance from their receipts, instead of deducting the actual allowable expenses. 

HMRC’s guidance is clear that where a capital sum is derived from an asset, the relevant legislation treats the owner as having made a disposal for capital gains purposes.

The legislation contained in s22 TCGA92 states that there is:

“…..a disposal of assets by their owner where any capital sum is derived from assets notwithstanding that no asset is acquired by the person paying the capital sum…..”

There are occasions when a person may receive a capital sum even though a natural disposal of an asset has not occurred, for example, on receiving compensation for damage to an asset or a sum of money from another person for the right to use or exploit an asset.

HMRC’s internal manual states that as the word ‘disposal’ is not expressly defined in TCGA92 it must be given its normal everyday meaning. Therefore, disposals for capital gains purposes include natural disposals and part disposals of assets.

The VAT Cash Accounting Scheme can offer useful benefits to small businesses. Under standard VAT accounting, VAT is payable on sales whether or not the customer has paid and can lead to claims for Bad Debt Relief. By using the VAT Cash Accounting Scheme no VAT needs to be paid over to HMRC until the customer has paid for his goods / services. Using the scheme, if the customer does not pay, then the VAT is not payable to HMRC.

The scheme can also have cash flow benefits for any business that sells on credit as they only pay VAT on their sales when the customer pays. If you have cashflow concerns, this scheme could be worth a closer look.

By using the scheme, you can only recover the VAT paid on purchases once you have paid your suppliers.

A business can use the VAT Cash Accounting Scheme provided the estimated VAT taxable turnover for the next VAT year is not more than £1.35 million. There is no requirement to notify HMRC, but you must join the scheme from the beginning of a VAT accounting period.

A business can continue to use the scheme until their VAT taxable turnover exceeds £1.6 million. Businesses that stop using the scheme are also not required to notify HMRC. However, they must pay any outstanding VAT whether their customers have paid or not. Any outstanding VAT can be reported and paid over 6 months.

The coding out threshold may entitle you to have tax underpayments collected via your tax code when you are in employment or in receipt of a company pension. Instead of paying off debts in a lump sum, money is collected in equal monthly instalments over the tax year.

If you want to benefit from this opportunity to pay tax due on 31 January through your tax code, then you need to file early. The deadline for the 2022-23 tax year has already passed.

You can pay your self-assessment bill through your PAYE tax code as long as all these apply:

• you owe less than £3,000 on your tax bill (you cannot make a part payment to meet this threshold);
• you already pay tax through PAYE, for example you’re an employee or you get a company pension; and
• you submitted your paper tax return by 31 October or your online tax return online by 30 December.

HMRC will automatically collect what you owe through your tax code if you meet these three conditions unless you have specifically asked them not to (on your tax return). There are circumstances when HMRC will not collect the monies through your tax code, for example, if you do not have enough PAYE income to cover he debt.

If you would like to consider paying your self-assessment bill in this way for the 2023-24 tax year, you have until 30 December 2024 to file your online self-assessment returns to have the monies collected in the 2025-26 tax year starting on 6 April 2025. If you qualify to have your tax debt coded out then this is a good reason to deal with your tax return obligations as soon as you can, after the end of the relevant tax year. 

Have you missed the 31 January 2024 filing deadline for your 2022-23 self-assessment return?

If you have missed the filing deadline, then you will be charged a £100 fixed penalty if your return is up to 3 months late, regardless of whether you owed tax or not. If you do not file before 1 May 2024 then you will face additional daily penalties of £10 per day, up to a maximum of £900 unless you have arranged to pay HMRC.

If your tax return is still outstanding after 6 months, a further penalty of 5% of the tax due, or £300, whichever is greater will be due. And again after 12 months, another 5% or £300 charge, whichever is greater.

There are also additional penalties for paying outstanding tax late. These are 5% of that unpaid at 30 days, 6 months and 12 months. Interest will also be charged on any tax paid late.

You can appeal against any penalties that have been issued by HMRC if you have a reasonable excuse. However, you need to act fast, and the excuse must be genuine and HMRC can of course ask for evidence to support any claim. An appeal must usually be made within 30 days of receipt of the penalty.

If you do not have the necessary funds to make any payments due, you should be pro-active and contact HMRC as soon as possible. Pretending the problem does not exist will not make the problem go away and will likely make matters worse.

Businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time to Pay service. Any tax, duty, penalties or surcharges that you cannot afford to pay can be included.

An online payment plan for self-assessment tax bills can be used to set up instalment arrangements for paying tax liabilities up to £30,000. Taxpayers that qualify for a Time to Pay arrangement using the self-serve Time to Pay facility online, can do so without speaking to an HMRC adviser. This service is available within 60 days of the payment deadline.

Taxpayers that want to use the online option must also meet the following requirements:

• Have no outstanding tax returns
• No other tax debts
• No other HMRC payment plans set up

Other payments arrangements are usually agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual circumstances and liabilities. Agreements reached with HMRC allow businesses and individuals to pay off their debt by instalments over a period of time.

HMRC will usually offer taxpayers the option of extra time to pay if they think they genuinely cannot pay in full now but will be able to pay in the future. If HMRC do not think that more time will help, then they can require immediate payment of a tax bill and start enforcement action if payment is not forthcoming.

Leaving aside tax planning issues all businesses should be considering business planning opportunities if they presently have an accounting year end date of 31 March 2024.

For example:

• Do directors need to review year end bonuses or final dividends?
• Have capital expenditure budgets been considered? Should large investments in acquisition of new assets be completed before or after 31 March? What are the tax implications?
• Based on recent management accounts, what changes can be made in the final months of your trading year to improve liquidity, profitability and solvency?
• Start considering now how you will approach your bankers or business funders for continuing support next year. Are current challenges likely to result in a cashflow difficulties?

We have two months to consider your planning options. Once the 31 March 2024 Rubicon is passed, many planning options will disappear.

Many firms have a 31 March year end, but this heads up to have a pre-yearend review apply to all businesses, whatever their accounting date.

There are enough negative economic challenges at present and making the most of planning options before the end of your trading year makes sense.

Please call so we can organise a planning session with you.

Companies House have issued an update on their first implementation of changes brought about by The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. We have copied in the relevant comments made in a recent blog post.

Companies House are aiming to introduce the first set of changes on 4 March 2024. The introduction of these changes needs secondary legislation and so this date is still dependent on parliamentary timetables. It will not be earlier than 4 March 2024.

The changes include:

• greater powers to query information and request supporting evidence;
• stronger checks on company names;
• new rules for registered office addresses;
• a requirement for all companies to supply a registered email address;
• a requirement for all companies to confirm they are forming the company for a lawful purpose when they incorporate, and to confirm its intended future activities will be lawful on their confirmation statement;
• the ability to annotate the register when information appears confusing or misleading;
• taking steps to clean up the register, using data matching to identify and remove inaccurate information; and
• sharing data with other government departments and law enforcement agencies.

Three items that will need your consideration before 4 March 2024 are:

1. If you are still using a PO Box address as your registered office, you will need to change this. You can still use a third-party agent’s address if they meet the conditions for an appropriate address.
2. From 4 March 2024, there will be a new requirement for all companies to give a registered email address to Companies House. This email address will not be published on the public register. From 4 March 2024, new companies will need to give a registered email address when they incorporate. Existing companies will need to give a registered email address when they file their next confirmation statement with a statement date from 5 March 2024. Companies House online services will prompt you to supply a registered email address when you file your next eligible confirmation statement.
3. When you incorporate a company from 4 March 2024, the subscribers (shareholders) will need to confirm they are forming the company for a lawful purpose. You will also need to confirm the company’s intended future activities are lawful on the confirmation statement. The intention of these new statements is to make it clear that all companies on the register, new and existing, have a duty to operate in a lawful way. Companies House may act against your company if they receive information that confirms you are not operating lawfully.

Employees who are working from home may be able to claim tax relief for bills they pay that are work related.

Employers may reimburse employees for the additional household expenses incurred through regularly working at home. The relief covers expenses such as business telephone calls or additional heating and lighting costs. Expenses that cover both private and business use (such as broadband) cannot be claimed. Employees may also be able to claim tax relief on equipment they have bought, such as a laptop, chair or mobile phone.

Employers can pay up to £6 per week (or £26 a month for employees paid monthly) to cover an employee’s additional costs if they have to work from home. Employees do not need to keep any specific records if they receive this fixed amount.

If the expenses or allowances are not paid by the employer, the employee can claim tax relief directly from HMRC. Employees will receive tax relief based on their highest tax rate. For example, if they pay the 20% basic rate of tax and claim tax relief on £6 a week, they will receive £1.20 per week in tax relief (20% of £6). Employees can claim more than the quoted amount but will need to provide evidence to HMRC. HMRC will accept backdated claims for up to 4 years.

Employees may also be able to claim tax relief for using their own vehicle, be it a car, van, motorcycle or bike. As a general rule, there is no tax relief for ordinary commuting to and from your regular place of work. The rules are different for temporary workplaces where the expense is usually allowable or if an employee uses their own vehicle to undertake other business related mileage.

Note, that if an employee agreed with their employer to work at home voluntarily, or they choose to work at home, they cannot claim tax relief on the bills they have to pay. If an employee previously claimed tax relief when they worked from home because of coronavirus (COVID-19), they may no longer be eligible for relief.

There are special VAT rules that allow businesses to standard rate the supply of most non-residential and commercial land and buildings (known as the option to tax). This means that subsequent supplies by the person making the option to tax will be subject to VAT at the standard rate.

The ability to convert the treatment of VAT exempt land and buildings as subject to VAT can have many benefits. The main benefit is that the person making the option to tax will be able to recover VAT on costs (subject to the usual rules) associated with the property including the purchase and refurbishment of the property. You do not need to own the land in order to exercise an option to tax.

Any subsequent sale or rental of the property will attract VAT. Where the purchaser or tenant is able recover the VAT charged this is not normally an issue. However, where the purchaser / tenant is not VAT registered or not fully taxable (such as bank) the VAT can become an additional (non-recoverable) cost. Once an option to tax has been made it can only be revoked under limited circumstances so proper consideration of the issue is important.