Unincorporated businesses – including sole traders, trusts and those businesses working as partnerships, and anyone else that pays tax on trading income – face a major change that will affect the way and the time they are taxed on their profits. 
 
The so-called Basis Period Reform will ultimately take effect from the 2024/25 tax year, but sole traders and other organisations need to start thinking about how this change could impact them sooner rather than later. 
Anyone filing VAT returns from April 1, 2022 onwards now has to file their return digitally as HMRC’s Making Tax Digital reaches its next phase. 
 
All businesses registered for VAT – even if they have turnover below the threshold – must file their returns this way from now on. The premise for changing to the MTD regime is to reduce the number of common mistakes made, according to HMRC, and will save taxpayers time when it comes to managing their tax affairs. 
 
However, it is also a key plank of digitising the UK’s tax regime, and MTD is likely to have increased revenue to HMRC thanks to reduced errors in both 2019 and 2020, said HMRC. 
The new tax year on April 6 is accelerating quickly towards us, and now is the time to make sure that any last-minute allowances you may not have made the most of in the 2021/22 tax year are mopped up. 
 
There are plenty of allowances that have a time limit on each tax year, and if you can use these last few days to maximise the benefits, then it would be a good deed done. 
Married Couple’s Allowance can be transferred between spouses and civil partners, and while 2m couples have claimed this since it was introduced back in 2015, there are many more people who are entitled to claim it. 
Inheritance tax (IHT) is one of the most unpopular form of taxes due to the extremely high 40% tax rate which typically is more than most would pay during their lifetime. Making plans to minimise IHT has never been more important. 
PwC initial suggested there would be around £4.9 billion of fraud associated with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, which it subsequently reduced to £3.5 billion. 
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) receipts last year were extremely different in comparison to previous years. This is due to a number of factors; the SDLT tax relief for properties worth up to £500,000 ended June, 2021 and the tax relief for properties worth between £125,000 and £250,000 was also brought to an end on September 30. 
 
These two deadlines created a huge spike people complete purchases properties under these thresholds thereby avoiding having to pay SDLT. According to Government data, transactions in October to December last year were 10% lower than the previous quarter, and 13% lower than Q4 2020. 
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