Tackling the cost-of-living crisis

The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss has, as promised, sought to tackle the cost-of-living crisis in her first few days in office. She is the fourth Conservative Prime Minister to govern the UK in a little over six years. The government has seen many major changes over this time including Brexit, the corona pandemic and now a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and volatile energy markets.
One of the Prime Minister’s first moves after her appointment was to appoint
Accommodation expenses and benefits

There are special rules for the provision of living accommodation to employees under certain circumstances. In most cases, employees will pay tax on any living accommodation provided by an employer unless they qualify for an exception. However, where an employee qualifies for an exception, there is no tax to pay on the provision of living accommodation. The definition of living accommodation includes houses, flats, houseboats, holiday homes and apartments. It does not include hotel rooms or
VAT Capital Goods Scheme

The VAT Capital Goods Scheme (CGS) is a means of adjusting the initial VAT recovery in respect of certain assets over either 5 or 10 years. The scheme seeks to agree a fair and reasonable attribution of VAT to taxable supplies and non-taxable supplies relating to the use of an asset over its lifetime.
The adjustment period for land and buildings is 10 years and for other CGS assets, 5 years. This adjustment period also considers any non-business use of the asset. The CGS is intended primarily
UK residence and tax

UK Income Tax is generally payable on taxable income received by individuals including earnings from employment, earnings from self-employment, pensions income, interest on most savings, dividend income, rental income and trust income. The tax rules for foreign income can be overly complex.
However, as a general rule if you are resident in the UK you will need to pay UK Income Tax on your foreign income, such as:
wages if you work abroad;
foreign investments and savings interest;
rental
Interest rates on student loans from September 2022

Student loans are part of the government’s financial support package for students in higher education in the UK. They are available to help students meet their expenses while they are studying. It is HMRC’s responsibility to collect repayments where the borrower is working in the UK. The Student Loans Company (SLC) is responsible for collecting the loans of borrowers outside the UK tax system.
The interest rates that will apply for the 2022-23 academic year were announced last month. Earlier in
Back to school – help with childcare costs

As children have returned to school, HMRC is reminding parents that they may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) to help pay for breakfast and after school clubs.
The TFC scheme can help parents of children aged up to 11 years old (17 for those with certain disabilities). The TFC scheme supports working families with their childcare costs. There are many registered childcare providers including childminders, breakfast and after school clubs and approved play schemes signed up across the
PAYE Settlement Agreements

A PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA) allows employers to make one annual payment to cover all the tax and National Insurance due on small or irregular taxable expenses or benefits for employees.
The expenses or benefits included in a PSA must be defined as one of the following;
minor – e.g., a small birthday present;
irregular – e.g., one-off relocation expenses over £8,000 (these are tax-free below £8,000); and
impracticable (difficult to work out the value of or divide up between individual