Author: Emily Wilson

Did you know that over £1.3 billion of pension tax relief has gone unclaimed by the highest earners in the UK?   The pension provider PensionBee analysed unclaimed pension relief between 2016 and 2021, and revealed a staggering amount of unclaimed […]

One of the many criticisms aimed at the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is that anyone caught by the charge needs to submit a self-assessment tax return even if all of their tax is collected under PAYE. However, this […]

Although the lifetime allowance was effectively abolished from April 2023 as the lifetime allowance charge was removed, it has been retained on statute for a year to allow time for the intricacies to be ironed out. Draft legislation, to take […]

Hard on the heels of the Sunday Times Rich List, will new proposals for a wealth tax gain any traction? In 2020, a group of economic research bodies set up the Wealth Tax Commission to examine the options for a […]

The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. For 2021/22, the gap was at an all-time low of 4.8% (or £35.8 billion), although in […]

The government has changed the taxation system for self-employed individuals and partners in partnerships, requiring them to pay tax on their trading profits earned during the tax year instead of the accounting year.  The tax year 2023/24 will act as […]

With basis period reform now underway, HMRC is looking at further tax simplification for sole traders and partnerships by increasing the cash basis turnover threshold. The cash basis scheme removes complexities such as accruals and most capital allowances. The cash […]

More than 12 million taxpayers file self-assessment tax returns, but less than 3% do so using a paper return. Given this low demand, HMRC is reviewing the current paper filing service. HMRC stopped sending out paper tax returns three years […]

New measures affecting pension allowances announced in the March Budget could mean your retirement planning strategy needs to be reviewed. If Jeremy Hunt did produce a ‘rabbit-out-the-hat’ in his Spring Budget, it was the announcement of the effective abolition of […]