Category Archives: VAT

Mar 20 2013
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Budget 2013, VAT

Budget 2013 – VAT

There were no changes announced to the rate of VAT.

The VAT registration and de-registration limits have been increased with effect from 1 April 2012 to £79,000 and £77,000 respectively

 

Mar 21 2012
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Budget 2012, VAT

Budget 2012 – VAT

There were no changes announced to the rate of VAT.

The VAT registration and de-registration limits have been increased with effect from 1 April 2012 to £77,000 and £75,000 respectively.

The Chancellor announced a number of changes to address some long standing VAT anomalies as follows:

  • applying VAT to approved alterations to listed buildings to bring them into line with non-listed buildings;
  • applying VAT to self storage operations to bring them into line with other forms of storage;
  • applying VAT to a few cases of hot foods and sports drinks where it did not previously apply;
  • confirming that VAT applies to hairdressers’ ‘rent a chair’ scheme and to the supply of cold food for consumption on the supplier’s premises;
  • ensuring holiday caravans are taxed at the standard rate.

 

 

Mar 24 2011
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Budget 2011, VAT

The Budget 2011 VAT

There were no changes announced to the rate of VAT.

The VAT registration and de-registration limits have been increased in line with inflation, with effect from 1 April 2011, to £73,000 and £71,000 respectively.

The Chancellor also announced a change in the low level consignment relief level for VAT, from £18 to £15 from 1 November 2011.  This is the threshold below which goods imported from outside the EU are VAT free.

Comment: This measure is mainly to target operators setting up in the Channel Islands to ship relatively low value items (such as DVDs) to the UK VAT free.  If you ever wondered why companies such as play.com send everything you order in separate packges – here is your answer – if the value of each package is less than £18 (soon to be £15), they can ship it VAT free, giving them a price advantage over UK based suppliers.

 

Mar 24 2011
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Budget 2011, VAT

The Budget 2011 Capital Gains Tax

The capital gains tax (CGT) annual exempt amount will increase to £10,600 for 2011/12 for individuals, personal representatives of deceased persons and trustees of certain settlements for the disabled. The annual exempt amount for most other trustees is £5,300.

The CGT threshold will in future increase with CPI rather than RPI.

For capital gains above the annual exempt amount the CGT rate for basic and higher rate tax payers will remain at 18 and 28 per cent respectively.

Entrepreneurs’ relief

Gains made in respect of certain business assets may qualify for entrepreneurs’ relief.

The amount of an individual’s gains that can qualify for entrepreneurs’ relief was subject to a lifetime limit of £5 million before the Budget. This limit will be increased to £10 million for gains arising on or after 6 April 2011.

Gains qualifying for the relief will continue to be taxed at a 10% rate.