This year’s budget did not bring a great deal for advisors to get their teeth into. There are some points that will certainly affect millions of taxpayers though, so we have summarised the key points below.
There are also steps that taxpayers should consider taking before the end of the tax year, when various new rules and rates will come into effect.
- The tax-free dividend allowance (the band on which dividends could be received free of income tax) is to be reduced from £5,000 to £2,000 from April 2018. Having only been introduced in April 2017 the allowance is already being reduced which will affect all taxpayers receiving dividends, including business owners and investors.
- There will be a 1 year delay for quarterly reporting under the Making Tax Digital (MTD) rules for businesses that have a turnover below the VAT threshold (£85,000 for 2017-18). This will be good news for those businesses but unfortunately there do not appear to be any changes to these controversial proposals for other businesses. Plus, the so-called pilot scheme will not have run its full course, so there is no chance of everyone learning lessons from the process.
End of Year Planning
- Residential property rental. From April 2017 the phasing in of restrictions on relief for interest costs for higher rate taxpayers will begin. Initially 25% of such costs will be affected, however this will rise 25% each tax year until all higher rate relief on finance interest is blocked.
- If pension contributions or pension scheme planning might be desired, setting up and contributing to a pension scheme before the end of the tax year (if one is not already in place) could ‘bank’ allowances for the year under the carry-back rules. Those with existing pension schemes have until the end of this year to use up any unused annual allowance from 2013-14.
- If possible, consider declaring dividends where the tax free allowance of £5,000 has not been used up yet.
- Consider new deemed domicile rules if non-UK domiciled. From April 2017 deemed domicile rules may apply to individuals who have been resident for 17 of the previous 20 years. Previously these only applied to inheritance tax but the new rules extend to income tax and capital gains tax meaning those affected will have to report their worldwide income and gains on an arising basis.