Category: General Notices

VAT Payment Deferrals

HMRC have announced that VAT payments due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 will automatically be deferred to help businesses.

  • This therefore includes the VAT Return payments due for the periods ended 29 February, 31 March and 30 April 2020 and any VAT Payments on Account due in that period.
  • VAT returns should be prepared and submitted as normal by the due date.
  • This will be applied automatically, there is no need to call HMRC to apply for the deferral.
  • Tax payers will be given until 5 April 2021 to pay any VAT liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period.
  • If you are due a refund on your VAT return, HMRC will process these refunds as normal.

Where you pay by Direct Debit – If you have a direct debit set up to take VAT payments automatically, you will need to cancel this to make sure that the payment is not made to HMRC as soon as possible. 

 

 

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The latest guidance on COVID-19 for small businesses

Latest Government Guidance

Attached is the latest government guidance which includes the information we have on;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-those-affected-by-covid-19/support-for-those-affected-by-covid-19

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

 

QuickBooks Online Deal

We have a certain number of QuickBooks online Plus subscriptions on offer at £10 + VAT per month. If you go to QuickBooks directly, the price is £30 per month!

The benefits of using online software such as QuickBooks is;

  • Bank Feeds – you can set business accounts up to feed bank transactions into the software.
  • You can create projects and categories within the software to track profits and losses by jobs or projects.
  • You can raise sales invoices and send statements from QuickBooks.
  • You can review outstanding and overdue invoices in QuickBooks.

With Making Tax Digital set to be rolled out to all business from 2020 at the earliest, this is a good opportunity to get set up on software so that you are prepared. Currently the rules only apply to businesses that are VAT registered and have turnover over the VAT threshold (currently £85,000 per year) but HMRC plan to bring more businesses in to Making Tax Digital from 2020, although it may be later.

https://woodandassociatesllp.com/category/making-tax-digital/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital

You can do a free trial of QuickBooks if you did want to have a look to test it out here – https://signup.quickbooks.intuit.com/?locale=en-gb&offerType=trial&bc=OBI-LL1&offerId=20011450.

 

Paying tax bills

From 13 January 2018, HMRC will no longer be accepting payments from personal credit cards to pay tax liabilities. This will include payments for personal tax liabilities, VAT, and PAYE.

That means that if you are planning on settling your personal tax liability that is due by 31 January 2018 and was planning on using a credit card, you will need to make payment before 13 January 2018. If you are self-employed, you should assess your finances now to consider how you are going to pay any tax liability that is due by 31 January 2018.

The rule changes have come in due to EU restrictions which prohibits merchant fees being recharged to payers. HMRC cannot currently take payments at a cost to the public finances, so this will mean they are no longer able to accept credit card payments.

 

Scam Letters

There has been a number of letters posted out recently, such as the letters below, which are made to look as though they could be letters from Companies House. These letters generally state that money is owed or is due, and requests payment by the due date.

Please read letters carefully if they are requesting payment. The letters usually say that if the fees are left unpaid, the company will not be listed on the register of companies. If the letter has not been sent from Companies House, it will be a separate “register or business directory” to the Companies House register.

If you receive one of these letters, you can check if the letter is genuine by contacting Companies House on 0303 123 4500.