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Spofforths' Tax Consultancy Team are hosting a series of relaxed sessions to help explain some of the key areas of corporate tax planning that effect all businesses.

With the Coalition Government in place, there have been several changes to tax and employment legislation and it's important that businesses know the current lie of the land. I am positive that these seminars will help business owners understand how they can operate tax efficiently and maximise profit.

HMRC have lost at tribunal in the case of The Bridport & West Dorset Golf Club Limited. The case concerned the VAT treatment of Green Fees paid by non-members to use the course at golf clubs.

Hundreds of mumpreneurs attended the popular BusinessMums Summit at the Thistle Hotel in Brighton. They visited the Spofforths stand and showed great interest in our range of business support services.

I have just read that the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has completed its review of tax advantaged employee share schemes. The OTS has spent its time considering the special tax reliefs available for government approved share schemes such as Save As You Earn (SAYE) and the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme. As a result of their review they have recommended introducing a self-certification process, merging the EMI with another scheme called Company Share Option Plans (CSOP) and harmonising definitions, time limits and modifying certain conditions.

In his budget the Chancellor announced the introduction of a new cash basis for calculating tax for small unincorporated businesses with a turnover less than the VAT registration threshold of £77,000. Although no details are currently available, the scheme, which is intended to be voluntary, will be introduced in April 2013.

We would like to congratulate our client Turbosound on winning a 2012 Queen’s Award for Innovation, recognised for the development of two acoustic design innovations at the heart of the company’s ground-breaking Flashline loudspeaker system. Five arena-sized systems have been shipped and are already in use on concert tours around the world. This is the third Queen's Award that Turbosound has won in its 30 year history, alongside the Export Achievement Awards granted in 1987 and 1997.

If you are a personal service company you may be interested to know that HMRC are due to release a new 'business entities test' shortly. This new tool can be used to assess whether or not your company is likely to be at risk of the IR35 rules. By answering a small number of indicative questions you score points and the total score will be reflect whether or not your company is considered to be at a low ,medium or high risk.

Following on from my blog last week, HM Revenue & Customs have now released their risk assessment questions in relation to IR35. There are 12 tests ranging from business premises to billing with points being attributed to you based on your answers. The guidance published by HMRC does not confirm whether or not your are caught by the rules governing IR35 but will give an opinion as to whether or not your business is at risk to the legislation. The publication has been heavily criticised by several business groups due to the lack of clarity and fairness in dealing with the issues.h

The October edition of Sussex Life is now in print and features our Tax Consultant, Jo White, who looks at some key issues that charity treasurers might face. Jo was asked to produce the case study style feature that is sure to benefit those who seek specialist charity advice. You can read the full article which appears on page 277 by clicking here.

Enterprise Management Incentive schemes (EMI) are a great way to reward, retain and incentivise key members by giving them the opportunity to buy shares in their employing company in a very tax efficient way. Under the scheme an employee is given an option to buy shares in the future at a fixed price. Assuming certain conditions are satisfied, it has always been the case that any uplift in value is liable to Capital Gains Tax rather than Income Tax (which would be the case without the EMI scheme), at lower rates of tax.

On 1 November 2012, HMRC started a ‘new approach to Business Records Checks’ (BRCs). The target audience of these checks are small and medium sized businesses which is why we are writing to clients.