Author: Lotus Accountancy

A cap on the amount of the payable research and development (R&D) tax credits for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) comes into force for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2021. The cap limits the amount of payable R&D tax credit that an SME can claim to £20,000 plus 300% of its total PAYE and national insurance contributions liability for the period. The cap does not apply to those companies who: • Have employees creating, preparing to create or managing intellectual property; and • Do not spend…

The off-payroll working (OPW) rules finally come into force for the private sector on 6 April 2021.The rules aim to ensure that PAYE is accounted for where a contractor would have been an employee of the client, but for the fact that the client has a contract with the contractor’s personal service company rather than the contractor personally.With OPW being introduced, many more contractors may be encouraged to operate via an umbrella company.

The fourth SEISS grant will be open to some taxpayers who became newly self-employed in 2019/20. To protect the scheme from fraud, HMRC is writing to up to 100,000 of these taxpayers, asking them to complete pre-verification checks.HMRC is asking some of those who started self-employment in 2019/20 and who wish to claim the fourth and fifth self-employment income support (SEISS) grants to complete pre-verification checks to confirm their identity and provide evidence of trade.Taxpayers will receive a letter between 8 March and mid-April 2021, notifying them that they will receive a phone…