The government has announced £4.5 billion in funding for British manufacturing to increase investment in eight sectors across the UK. The funding will be available from 2025 for five years, providing industry with longer term certainty about their investments.

Over £2 billion has been earmarked for the automotive industry and £975 million for aerospace, supporting the manufacturing, supply chain and development of zero emission vehicles, and investment in energy efficient and zero-carbon aircraft equipment. 

Alongside this, the government has committed to £960 million for a Green Industries Growth Accelerator to support clean energy manufacturing, and £520 million for life sciences manufacturing to build resilience for future health emergencies and capitalise on the UK’s world-leading research and development.

With the entire manufacturing sector making up over 43% of all UK exports and employing around 2.6 million people, this funding is targeted at the UK’s strongest, world leading sectors; including where the industry is undergoing fundamental changes to remain at the forefront of the global transition to net zero, like the move to zero emission vehicles in the automotive industry.

The Green Industries Growth Accelerator investment will support the expansion of strong, home-grown, clean energy supply chains across the UK, including carbon capture, utilisation and storage, electricity networks, hydrogen, nuclear and offshore wind. This will enable the UK to seize growth opportunities through the transition to net zero, building on our world-leading decarbonisation record and strong deployment offer.

HMRC’s internal manuals provide some useful information on the definition of a business repair. This is important because it is required to identify the asset on which work has been carried out.

This is because:

• the cost of repairing a worn or dilapidated asset is normally an allowable expense;
• the cost of replacing the whole or the ‘entirety’ of an asset is not a repair; it is capital expenditure and not an allowable expense.

HMRC’s guidance goes on to explain that what forms the asset or entirety is a question of fact. It is important to ascertain whether the ‘asset’ is in fact a separate asset or is part of a bigger asset.

The basic starting point is to establish the facts about the specific asset you are considering and then to ask the question; does this look like a separate asset? Is it something that stands apart from other assets, is it freestanding or is it something that is removable? This is a question of fact and degree; there are no ‘tests’ that can be applied.

With buildings and structures, the question is whether the item replaced appears to be a free-standing asset. The fact that it is connected to another structure, for example by a flue, does not make it part of that larger asset.

It also needs to be considered whether something has become part of something else. If something is a ‘fixture’ then it has become part of the building and not an entirety in its own right. 

There is a benefit-in-kind (BiK) trivial exemption that applies to small non-cash benefits like a bottle of wine, or a bouquet of flowers given occasionally to employees or any other BiK classed as 'trivial' that falls within the exemption. By taking advantage of the exemption employers can simplify the treatment of BiKs whilst at the same time offering a tax efficient way to give small gifts to employees.

The trivial benefit rules provide a great opportunity to give small rewards and incentives to employees as long as the gifts are not provided as a reward for services performed or as part of the employees’ duties. However, gifts to employees on milestone events such as the birth of a child or a marriage or other gestures of goodwill would usually qualify.

The employer also benefits as the trivial benefits do not have to be included on PAYE settlement agreements or disclosed on P11D forms. There is also a matching exemption from Class 1A National Insurance contributions.

The tax exemption applies to trivial BiKs where the BiK:

• is not cash or a cash-voucher; and
• costs £50 or less; and
• is not provided as part of a salary sacrifice or other contractual arrangement; and
• is not provided in recognition of services performed by the employee as part of their employment, or in anticipation of such services.

The rules also allow directors or other office-holders of close companies and their families to benefit from these gifts but with an annual cap of £300. The £50 limit remains for each gift subject to the £300 of non-cash benefits to be withdrawn per person per year. The £300 cap does not apply to employees. If the £50 limit is exceeded for any gift, the value of the benefit will be taxable.

After the end of its financial year, a private limited company must prepare full annual accounts and a company tax return. In most cases a company’s tax return must be submitted within 12 months from the end of the accounting period it covers. Online Corporation Tax filing is compulsory for company tax returns. Company tax returns must be submitted using either HMRC’s own software or third-party commercial software approved by HMRC and in the required format.

The accounting period for Corporation Tax is normally the same 12 months as the company financial year covered by the annual accounts. There is a separate fixed date for the payment of Corporation Tax which is 9 months and 1 day after the end of the relevant accounting period. This means that a company is usually required to pay any Corporation Tax due in advance of the filing deadline of a company tax return.

A company has a right to amend its company return within 12 months from the statutory filing date. Examples of when a return may be amended include claims for group relief and elections rebasing for capital gains.

There are penalties for late submission of company tax returns. There is a standard penalty of £100 for a late submission of the return within 3 months of the due date and a £200 penalty if the return is over 3 months late. Companies that submit late returns for 3 or more accounting periods in a row are subject to increased penalties. There are further tax based penalties for companies that do not file a return within 18 months of the end of the relevant accounting period and which have not paid the tax due. These penalties can be either 10% or 20% of the unpaid tax depending on the lateness of the filing.

Company owners with the popular 31 March year end date, will have a Corporation Tax payment date – for the year to 31 March 2023 – that will be due for payment on or before 1 January 2024.

Student Loans are part of the government's financial support package for students in higher education in the UK. They are available to help students meet their expenses while they are studying, and it is HMRC’s responsibility to collect repayments where the borrower is working in the UK. The Student Loans Company (SLC) is directly responsible for collecting the loans of borrowers outside the UK tax system.

The main finance package elements available to students include loans for tuition fees and maintenance loans (to help with living costs). The maximum loan amounts are capped with the maximum amount depending on a student’s circumstances. Maintenance grants are also available under certain circumstances. The grants do not have to be repaid but do reduce the amount of available maintenance loan a student can claim.

Students that have finished their studies and entered the workforce must begin to make loan repayments from the April after they have finished their studies or when their income exceeds an annual threshold.

Since 6 April 2023, the thresholds and rates are as follows: Plan 1 – £22,015, Plan 2 – £27,295 and Plan 4 (Scottish student loans) – £27,660. The terms of loan repayment for courses of study started before 01 September 2012 are referred to as 'Plan 1', and those started after 01 September 2012, are referred to as 'Plan 2'. Repayments will be deducted at a rate of 9% of income over the threshold. The threshold for postgraduate loans is £21,000 and repayments are deducted at a rate of 6%

Taxpayers that have made repayments but whose total annual income was less than the respective thresholds can apply for a student loan refund. An application cannot be made until after the relevant tax year has finished. Taxpayers can also apply for a refund from the Student Loans Company if the loan debt has been repaid in full.

The Student Loans Company repayment call waiting times are currently far longer than usual due to exceptionally high volumes of refund requests. Taxpayers should first check if they are due a refund by looking at https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/getting-a-refund

Parents may be eligible to receive childcare support from HMRC using the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. The TFC scheme can help parents of children aged up to 11 years old (17 for those with certain disabilities) to pay for approved childcare.

The TFC scheme assists working families with their childcare costs. There are many registered childcare providers including childminders, nurseries, breakfast and after school clubs and approved play schemes signed up across the UK. Parents can pay into their account regularly and save up their TFC allowance to use during school holidays. 

The TFC scheme provides for a government top-up on parental contributions. For every £8 contributed by parents an additional £2 top up payment will be funded by Government up to a maximum total of £10,000 per child per year. This will give parents an annual saving of up to £2,000 per child (and up to £4,000 for disabled children until the age of 17) in childcare costs. 

The TFC scheme is open to all qualifying parents including the self-employed and those on a minimum wage. The scheme is also available to parents on paid sick leave as well as those on paid and unpaid statutory maternity, paternity and adoption leave. In order to be eligible to use the scheme parents will have to be in work at least 16 hours per week and earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. If either parent earns more than £100,000, both parents are unable to use the scheme.

You may have been entitled to a Cost of Living Payments of £301 (paid April/May 2023) and should be about to receive £300 (payable early November 2023) and a further £299 due spring 2024. Payments are limited to persons claiming the following benefits.

• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Income Support
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit
• Child Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit

The payments will be made separately from your benefit payments.

You will not get a payment if you are only receiving New Style ESA, contributory ESA, or New Style JSA.

If you have a joint claim on the qualifying dates, a single payment of £301, £300 and £299 will be sent using the same payment method used between these dates if you are eligible.

If you are getting both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, you will receive a Cost of Living Payment for Child Tax Credit only, which will be paid by HMRC.

If you are getting tax credits from HMRC and a low income benefit from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), you cannot receive a Cost of Living Payment from both HMRC and DWP. You will usually be paid by DWP.

Your payment might come later, for example if you’re awarded a qualifying benefit at a later date or you change the account your benefit or tax credits are paid into. You will still be paid the Cost of Living Payment automatically.

If you have received a Cost of Living Payment, but later it is found that you were not eligible for it, you may have to pay it back.

Gift Hold-Over Relief is a tax relief that effectively defers Capital Gains Tax (CGT). The relief can be claimed when assets are given away (including certain shares) or sold for less than they are worth to help benefit the buyer. The relief means that any gain on the asset is 'held-over' until the recipient of the gift sells or disposes of them. This is done by reducing the donee's acquisition cost by the amount of the held over gain.

The person gifting a qualifying asset is not subject to CGT on the gift. However, CGT may be payable when the asset is sold for less than it’s worth. Gifts between spouses and civil partners do not trigger capital gains. A claim for the relief must be made jointly with the person to whom the gift was made.

If you are giving away business assets, you must:

• be a sole trader or business partner, or have at least 5% of voting rights in a company (known as your 'personal company'); and
• use the assets in your business or personal company.

You can usually claim partial relief if you used the assets partly for your business.

If you are giving away shares, then the shares must be in a company that is either:

• not listed on any recognised stock exchange; or
• your personal company.

The company's main activities must be in trading, for example providing goods or services, rather than non-trading activities like investment.

A trust is an obligation that binds a trustee, an individual or a company to deal with the trust assets, such as land, money and shares, and which form part of the trust. The person who places assets into a trust is known as a settlor and the trust is for the benefit of one or more 'beneficiaries'.

The trustees make decisions about how the assets in the trust are to be managed, transferred or held back for the future use of the beneficiaries. They are also responsible for reporting and paying tax on behalf of the trust. A trust needs to be registered with HMRC if it pays or owes tax.

Different types of trust income have different rates of Income Tax. For example, in respect of accumulation or discretionary trusts the trustees are responsible for paying tax on income received. The first £1,000 is taxed at the standard rate. For trust income over £1,000, the rate is 39.35% for dividend-type income and 45% for all other income.

With reference to interest in possession trusts, the trustees are also responsible for paying tax on income received. The rate is 8.75% for dividend-type income and 20% for all other income.

There are also different rules for bare trusts, settlor-interested trusts and other types of trusts. It is therefore important that the Income Tax rules are considered at the outset as well as the CGT implications of the various types of trusts.

In general, there is no Capital Gains Tax (CGT) when you sell your home. This applies to a property which has been used as the main family residence. An investment property which has never been used as your own home does not qualify for relief. This relief from CGT is commonly known as Private Residence Relief.

Taxpayers are usually entitled to full relief from CGT where all the following conditions are met:

1. The family home has been the taxpayers only or main residence throughout the period of ownership.
2. The taxpayer has not let part of the house out – this does not include having a lodger.
3. No part of the family home has been used exclusively for business purposes (using a room as a temporary or occasional office does not count as exclusive business use).
4. The garden or grounds including the buildings on them are not greater than 5,000 square metres (just over an acre) in total.
5. The property was not purchased just to make a gain.

If a property has been occupied at any time as an individual’s private residence, the last 9 months of ownership are disregarded for CGT purposes – even if the individual was not living in the property when it was sold. The time period can be extended to 36 months under certain limited circumstances. There are also special rules for homeowners that work or live away from home.

Married couples and civil partners can only count one property as their main home at any one time.

The second review of the State Pension age has been published by the Department for Work and Pensions. The State Pension age is currently 66. The review has stated that a further increase in the State Pension age to 67 for those born on or after April 1960 will take place as planned between 2026 and 2028. Following this announcement, the government has confirmed the State Pension age will rise to 67 by the end of 2028.

The Pensions Act 2014 requires the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to regularly review the State Pension age. There had also been plans for a further gradual rise in the State Pension age to 68 between 2044 and 2046 for those born on or after April 1977. The government plans to have a further review within two years of the next Parliament to reconsider the rise to age 68.

This will ensure that the government is able to consider the latest information to inform any future decision on the State Pension age. This will include life expectancy and population projections, the economic position and the impact on the labour market. 

The government has said they remain committed to the principle of providing 10 years notice of changes to State Pension age, enabling people to plan effectively for retirement. All options for the rise to the State Pension age from 67 to 68 that meet the 10 years notice period will be in scope at the next review.

National Insurance credits can help qualifying applicants to fill gaps in their National Insurance record. This can assist taxpayers to build up the number of qualifying years of National Insurance contributions and which can increase the amount of benefits a person is entitled to, such as the State Pension.

This could happen if someone were:

• employed but had low earnings;
• unemployed and were not claiming benefits;
• self-employed but did not pay contributions because of small profits; and
• living or working outside the UK.

National Insurance credits are available in certain situations where people are not working and therefore, not paying National Insurance credit. For example, credits may be available to those looking for work, who are ill, disabled or on sick pay, on maternity or paternity leave, caring for someone or on jury service.

Depending on the circumstances, National Insurance credits may be applied automatically or an application for credits may be required. There are two types of National Insurance credits available, either Class 1 or Class 3. Class 3 credits count towards the State Pension and certain bereavement benefits whilst Class 1 covers these as well as other benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Taxpayers may also be able to pay voluntary contributions to fill any gaps if they are eligible.