Are you prepared for changes to the IR35 rules?

Exactly a year later than planned, changes to the off-payroll rules – known as IR35 – will take effect in the private sector next month. The emergence of COVID-19 put paid to the changes affecting large and medium-sized private-sector organisations this time last year, but now it's for real.

They were originally introduced back in 2000 to ensure that someone working like an employee, but through a company, pays similar levels of tax to other equivalent employees.

Non-compliance was forecast to cost the Treasury around £1.3 billion by 2023/24 if not tackled, prompting the Government to reform the rules starting with the public sector from April 2017.

This month the insider covers:

• Hardest-hit businesses offered new Government grants of up to £9,000
• Pre-christmas furlough extension stems the tide of redundancies
• Record number of small businesses 'set to close for good in 2021'
• Covid-19 sees retail sales slump to a 25-year low in 2020

Useful guide that covers: Personal Allowances, Inheritance Tax, Tax Credits, Entrepreneurs' Relief, VAT, Penalties, Corporation Tax, Business Deductions, Captial Gains Tax, ISAs, Pension Contributions and Non-UK Domicile Taxation.

Finally the guide touches on upcoming changes.

Get on track for a comfortable retirement.

If you have a defined contribution pension scheme – whether private or through your employer – your retirement savings have probably been hit quite hard by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 12 months.

That's because pension funds invest in the stock market and recent turbulence, which has caused big rises and falls, have had a significant impact on how much is in your pot.

The average pension lost around 15% when the coronavirus first hit the stock market back in March 2020, before recovering 13% of the lost ground by the end of August 2020.

Meeting your obligations amid COVID-19 disruption.

It's not often that HMRC makes exceptions to its tax deadlines or late-filing penalties, but the past year has, as in so many ways, been different.

Between optional deadline deferrals, new payment schemes and temporary reliefs, keeping on top of the changes to the usual tax timetable hasn't been easy.

In total, HMRC has made more than 60 temporary policy changes or clarifications in response to the impact of COVID-19, and plans to "keep the situation under constant review".

As a general rule, however, we recommend sticking to your usual tax deadlines if you can.

This month the insider covers:

• Annual investment allowance remains at £1m until 2022
• HMRC issues last reminder for 2019/20 personal tax returns
• One-year freeze for business rates multiplier in England
• National living wage to increase alongside age threshold fall

Reaching international markets in 2021 and beyond.

The UK has left the EU, and for British exporters, that presents both opportunity and uncertainty.

While the new trade agreement places no tariffs or quotas on goods traded between the UK and EU from 1 January 2021, it may come with additional costs and bureaucracy as the UK is no longer part of the single market and customs union.

There's potential for businesses to branch out to new markets outside of the EU, but that comes with a new set of rules and procedures to navigate now that the transition period has come to an end.

The effects on supply chains from 1 March 2021.

Those working in the UK's construction industry will have to handle and pay VAT differently from 1 March 2021, unless there's another last-minute Government U-turn.

This is when the VAT domestic reverse charge for building and construction services, to use its full name, will finally take effect at the third time of asking. In this article, we'll refer to it simply as the 'reverse charge'.

This month the insider covers:

• VAT-registered traders urged to prepare for life after Brexit
• Furlough scheme extends UK-wide until the end of March
• Government body urges Capital Gains Tax overhaul
• Self-employed fear tax returns may affect fourth SEISS claim

Planning ahead to boost your business's resilience.

During what would normally be the busiest period of the year for businesses in retail, hospitality and other sectors, many will now be keeping a close eye on their cashflow as they deal with the impacts of COVID-19.

While Government-backed schemes like furlough, grants and loans will provide some much-needed support, there could be additional disruption to contend with as the UK reaches the end of its transition period with the EU and new rules take effect from 1 January 2021.

Reporting and paying capital gains tax within 30 days.

Earlier this year, a new rule requiring capital gains tax on UK residential property to be reported and paid to HMRC within 30 days kicked in.

This ushered in another change to tax rules affecting residential property owners, which seeks to raise more tax from the disposal of additional homes and to collect this tax quicker.

For many of the 1.2 million disposals of residential property in the UK each year, there will be no capital gains tax liability due to private residence relief.

This month the insider covers:

• Group slams latest taxable grants for the self-employed
• Govt. extends furlough scheme ahead of lockdown in England
• Sunak hints at spring tax hikes to 'balance the books'
• Three in five bounce-back loans may never be repaid, watchdog claims

Entrepreneurs' relief is no more (in name at least).

Last March, one of the headline-grabbing measures announced in what will be the only Budget speech of 2020 surrounded what we knew as entrepreneurs' relief.

The relief was designed to be an incentive for entrepreneurs to start a new business by reducing the amount of capital gains tax payable when the time came to dispose of (or sell) certain business assets, where conditions are met.

But in reality, the Government clocked onto the fact that less than one in ten entrepreneurs admitted this carrot was tasty enough to entice them to start a new business.

The pros and cons of changing your main residence.

With property being one of the most reliable investments around in a period of historic low-interest, many money-savvy people these days end up owning additional properties.

They might rent them out, live in them or simply sit on them to sell on when the time is right.

Whatever your reason for owning multiple residential properties, it's important to think hard about which you define as your main home for legal and tax purposes.

This month the insider covers:

• Commission set to recommend national living wage freeze
• Chancellor reveals new support measures amid second-wave fears
• Tax group calls for extension to the annual investment allowance
• Fraudulent furlough claims or those paid in error cost £3.5bn

A property tax shake-up fuels a house buying surge.

If you are considering moving home in the second half of 2020/21, you are by no means alone.

In the month leading up to 8 August 2020, 149,000 properties were put on the market – the highest number since before the financial crash in 2008.

This might be attributed to the pent-up demand caused by the lockdown, as well as owners falling out of love with their home after being confined to it for so many months.

Life after mortgage interest relief for landlords.

Historically, landlords have enjoyed generous income and capital gains tax reliefs which helped make residential property an attractive investment for those looking to add to their monthly incomes or provide for retirement. But over the years the Treasury has eroded these reliefs, both income and capital.

You might remember mortgage interest relief at source, which encouraged home ownership by offering tax relief for interest payments on a mortgage.

This month the insider covers:

• Video-witnessed wills become legal in England and Wales
• Businesses claim late payments crisis deepens during lockdown
• Furloughed workers get redundancy pay protection
• Firms 'unable to prepare' for end of Brexit transition period

Why 2019/20 is the year to get it done early.

With everything that's happened so far this year, it might be easy to forget your obligations to file a tax return for 2019/20 by midnight on 31 January 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic crisis has caused chaos with businesses up and down the country, most of which closed entirely during April 2020.

The Government has introduced several unprecedented measures to help them with the crisis, including deferring some key dates and deadlines involving self-assessment.

Four main methods for valuing a business.

Whether you're making exit plans or you want to give confidence to investors, knowing the value of your business is a vital step.

From the inside, it might be hard to say what that value is. You've put long hours of hard work into building your business from the ground up, but what does that mean to a buyer or investor in monetary terms?

As a starting point, it's important to work out what it is you're actually selling. Is it the business's name, and the reputation that comes with it? Is it the lease on the premises – and is this currently owned by you or by your company?

This month the insider covers:

• Capital Gains Tax under review as Treasury considers overhaul
• Applications open for second phase of self-employed income support
• Making Tax Digital to 'apply to all vat-registered traders by 2022/23'
• MPs: let opted-out workers re-enrol back into workplace pensions early

New measures announced in economic update.

Since the Budget in March, businesses have seen a stream of different support schemes and policies announced to help them manage the financial impacts of the coronavirus lockdown.

When Chancellor Rishi Sunak stood in the House of Commons again on 8 July, it was in the context of the gradual reopening of the economy, with several lockdown restrictions having been lowered on 4 July.

The update wasn't an official Budget speech or fiscal statement, and it only lasted around half an hour, but it contained several measures focused on a "three-point plan for jobs".

Managing and planning during COVID-19.

Even among those who follow good tax-planning practice and maintain forecasts running several years forward, it is unlikely that many foresaw the dramatic end to the 2019/20 tax year.

With the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, the economy shrank a record 20.4% in April 2020, and 19.1% in the three months to May 2020.

The impact on businesses across the board has been significant and although the economy is reopening slowly, it is clear a return to the 'old normal' is some time away or may never return at all.

It's safe to say Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not expect to be delivering the first official fiscal statement less than four months after his maiden Budget speech back in March, but here we are.

The economic impact of COVID-19 has resulted in the UK's debt-to-GDP ratio breaking the 100% mark for the first time since 1963, while the economy shrank by a monthly record of 20.4% in April.

While Sunak's latest announcement was more of a fiscal plan than an emergency summer budget as some were predicting, and ran for only around 30 minutes, there was more to it in terms of tax than we have seen in many recent spring and autumn statements.

This month the insider covers:

• UK economy slumps into recession after record contraction in April
• Builders' cashflow chaos prompts further reverse charge VAT delay
• Government clarifies furlough scheme stance for employers
• Self-employed grants 'are liable for Tax and National Insurance'