Business Trips

[northernladuk]

That question is impossible to answer, but I can't help but feel these types of schemes will slowly disappear with the renewed focus on anti-avoidance provisions like http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/avoidance/tax...ce-schemes.pdf

Who would buy in to a scheme that has nothing but words in the website, not a hint of how it has been done and a load of unqualified assurances and quotes? A minimum of 84% take home? 21 year track record but the company was only incorporated on 19/04/2012.

Walk away.

[VirtualMonkey]

Who would buy in to a scheme that has nothing but words in the website, not a hint of how it has been done and a load of unqualified assurances and quotes? A minimum of 84% take home? 21 year track record but the company was only incorporated on 19/04/2012.

Walk away.

I'm with NLUK everytime on this one. These schemes seem to be based on loopholes and back door ways of doing things. It's not upfront and completely honest in my opinion and not how I want to do business.

[Wanderer]

Who would buy in to a scheme that has nothing but words in the website, not a hint of how it has been done and a load of unqualified assurances and quotes? A minimum of 84% take home?

Only 84% take home? You can get close to this with a LTD company anyway with relatively little risk. Walk away.

[zayf]

Only 84% take home? You can get close to this with a LTD company anyway with relatively little risk. Walk away.

Can you give any suggestions how do you i do that, The only things that i claim for are,

Salary which is around £7k
and Mileage which is around 40 miles a day
Daily Lunch if i eat any.

I have discussed with my accountant that Although I am on Flat rate vat, Can I buy a car for business(I am an IT Contractor), He is not you can't, dont know why I can't ?

[Clare@InTouch]

Can you give any suggestions how do you i do that, The only things that i claim for are,

Salary which is around £7k
and Mileage which is around 40 miles a day
Daily Lunch if i eat any.

I have discussed with my accountant that Although I am on Flat rate vat, Can I buy a car for business(I am an IT Contractor), He is not you can't, dont know why I can't ?

You can buy a car, but generally you'll pay more in personal tax than you save in CT due to the benefit in kind. Unless you're looking at an electric or low emission brand new car. You'll never be able to reclaim the VAT on a car, but you possibly could on a van.

Pension contributions are tax efficient, and you could also consider:

Use of home (£4 a week, or more if you can justify it)
Professional subscriptions
Computer equipment
Postage, stationery, advertising
Childcare vouchers
Staff entertainment up to £150 per year, per person
Spouse/partners salary, if they do any work for you
Books
Some life insurance policies
Professional insurances - indemnity, liability

And anything else that you need in order to run the business. If it's wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade you can usually claim it. If there's any personal benefit, there is usually a personal tax consequence. As with most tax though, there are exceptions. Best advice is to ask your accountant - it's what you pay them for!

[Wanderer]

Can you give any suggestions how do you i do that

It depends on what your company income is, obviously as you earn more you will pay more in tax. Have a look at this calculator. It says that on £250/day you could be taking home 84% of your company's income. Plug in your figures and see what it says.

If you are earning over about £250/day and take more than about £32k in dividends then you will get hit with a personal tax charge on your self assessment because you will become a higher rate tax payer. Company directors often pay dividends up to this limit and retain the rest in the company and pay it out in a later tax year when they are earning less or wind up the company in a few years time and take the money as a capital distribution so they only pay 10% tax on the retained funds.

If you have a spouse who doesn't work or earns money but well under the higher rate tax threshold then you can give them shares and do income splitting to avoid paying higher rate tax.

All that presumes you aren't IR35 caught.

Can I buy a car for business(I am an IT Contractor), He is not you can't, dont know why I can't ?

The reason your accountant says you "can't" do it is that it will cause a lot of accounting hassle for them very little tax benefit for you so it's probably reasonable advice.... It's been discussed here a bit, search for "company car". The short answer is that company cars will incur a benefit in kind tax charge on you and unless the vehicle is a super efficient one then you are probably better off (tax wise) not having a company car and just claiming the mileage allowance for business use.

Note that a motorcycle is NOT the same as a car for tax purposes and if the bike is exclusively for business use then there may be tax advantages in buying one through the company if bikes are your thing. This was also discussed a while ago, you can do a search.

[zayf]

what is "benefit in Kind". how is Self assessment linked to company car.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions :-)

[BA to the Stars]

what is "benefit in Kind". how is Self assessment linked to company car.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions :-)

I would suggest that you read the very useful guides listed on the right of the page.

If you are running a company you really need to read up on what you can and cannot do, it can increase your company profitability and your personal earnings as well as avoiding any pitfalls.

This help is free - next time we invoice

[northernladuk]

what is "benefit in Kind". how is Self assessment linked to company car.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions :-)

Get an accountant. You are clearly struggling with this. This a free forum and it's advice is to be taken as such. Get professional advice.

[Notascooby]

what is "benefit in Kind". how is Self assessment linked to company car.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions :-)

I know its not General - but I'll go 17