Content
Pot and kettle
No more stealth
Pensions hit
A place in the sun
Ready or not...
Nice motor
Making allowances
Good times, bad times
Tax-free checkup
Three square meals
Funny question
Dividend rules OK?
Too good to be true?
Pay my friend
Early EIS
Mind the halfpennies
Just the ticket
Flat rate changes
Foreign Service
This year, next year
Partial exemption
Penalties
Compliance checks
Under their eye
Howzat?
Know your rights
Discipline
Don't be mean
Redundancy
Two sorts of absence
Warranties
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We are all Europeans now. One of the fundamental rules of the European Union is that governments cannot treat their own businesses more favourably than businesses from other member states - you can't be mean to foreigners just because they are foreign. It's surprising how often our Government forgets this. We've had business-friendly rules for "furnished holiday letting" (FHL) for many years. Now someone has pointed out that only UK properties qualified - zut alors! Verboten! So the Chancellor has announced that the generous rules will be extended to properties elsewhere in Europe, and backdated to April 2003 if you have the records - but then the whole scheme will be withdrawn on 6 April 2010. We are allowed to be mean to foreigners as long as we are mean to ourselves as well. There probably aren't many people who have a foreign holiday cottage which qualifies as FHL - if you didn't think you could benefit, you probably wouldn't have ticked all the boxes. If you think you might, we can look into whether you should make a claim for repayment of past tax. If you have any FHL property, in the UK or elsewhere, it will be important to plan for the withdrawal of the relief. Capital gains tax is reduced to only 10% on most sales of FHL property, so there could be an immediate jump to the normal 18% rate on 6 April 2010. That might cause a scramble to sell and a collapse in the market. There may be a transitional period in which sales can still be made at the old tax rate. If you have any furnished holiday lettings, it will be important to think about the changes in tax treatment. We will be happy to discuss them with you.  |