Paying tax underpayments via tax code

One of the less well-known ways of paying your Self-Assessment tax bill is to do so through your tax code.

This can only be done where all the following apply:

you owe a Self-Assessment balancing payment of less than £3,000;
you already pay tax through PAYE, for example you’re an employee or you get a company pension
you submitted your paper tax return by 31 October or your online tax return online by 30 December

The coding threshold also entitles taxpayers to have tax underpayments

Car fuel benefits for employees

The car fuel benefit rules only apply to company cars that attract a car benefit tax charge. This means the rules do not apply to fuel provided for use in an employee’s own car.

However, employers can pay up to 45p per mile for company related trips in an employee’s own car. If these journeys clock up more than 10,000 miles in any tax year, the rate per mile drops to 25p. As long as the above rates are applied any mileage expenses paid will be tax-free. If rates paid are higher, any excess will

Option to tax (VAT) land and buildings

There are special VAT rules that allow businesses to standard rate the supply of most non-residential and commercial land and buildings (known as the option to tax). This means that subsequent supplies by the person making the option to tax will be subject to VAT at the standard rate.

The ability to convert the treatment of VAT exempt land and buildings to taxable can have many benefits. The main benefit is that the person making the option to tax will be able to recover VAT on costs (subject

Challenging your council tax band

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is a government body in England and Wales and an executive agency of HMRC. The Agency values properties for the purpose of Council Tax and for non-domestic rates in England and Wales. The council tax bands were set on 1 April 1991 for England and on 1 April 2003 for Wales and range from Band A – F.

If you believe that your council tax listing is incorrect you can challenge this with the VOA. A recent press release from the VOA has highlighted that some 70,000

Don’t miss out on this tax allowance

HMRC is using Valentine’s Day to issue a reminder to married couples and those in civil partnerships to sign up for the marriage allowance – if they are eligible and haven’t yet done so.

The marriage allowance applies to married couples and those in a civil partnership where a spouse or civil partner doesn’t pay tax or doesn’t pay tax above the basic rate threshold for Income Tax (i.e., one of the couples must currently earn less than the £12,570 personal allowance for 2021-22).

The allowance