Landlords should realise that HMRC will know about their lettings through Airbnb, so full disclosure of all their taxable property income is essential, including for all prior years.
HMRC has made it easier for self assessment taxpayers to pay the tax they owe incrementally on a monthly basis, by extending the threshold for ‘time to pay’ applications, as part of efforts to ease financial stresses cause by the pandemic
Depending on how businesses and self-employed individuals prepare their accounts, there could be unexpectedly large tax bills for those that have received small business or retail, hospitality and leisure grants during the pandemic as early as this tax year.
To support the self-employed during COVID, the government announced its SEISS scheme, providing grants matching employees on furlough. The first payout started in May, and the government has announced another payout will be available in August 2020, again to match the extension of furlough to October 2020.
Under the self-assessment system, a taxpayer is required to make payments on account – advance payments towards the eventual tax and National Insurance liability – where the previous year’s self-assessment bill was £1,000 or more, unless more than 80% of the tax liability is deducted at source
Based on recent years HMRC will potentially issue at least 1 million late filing penalties. It is important to be ahead of the game in terms of advising clients who have failed to meet the filing obligation and to be able to address disputes with HMRC.
