Year End Tax Review 2009/2010 Contents Lead articles The year ahead... This year, next year Pension hit Employees Too much NIC NIC and pensions Company cars Tax-free benefits Business - General Time to incorporate? His and hers Family bonus Profit and loss Show me the money Can't pay, won't pay? Turning back the clock Business - VAT Standard VAT or flat VAT? VAT goes down - must come up? European revolution A good start for VAT Happy returns? Investments Top-up savings Rainy day money Capital Gains Gains favoured Splitting gains A place in the country Holiday lets end Families Family fortunes Where there's a Will Credits and debits Piggy banks Still trustworthy? Administration Penalty shoot-out Paperwork, paperwork Pay tax later Opportunity knocks again Charity Give and save Non-Domiciled People Home and away Interest Interesting times

Profit and loss If you run a business - whether it's a sole trade, a partnership or a limited company - the end of your accounting period is the most important date for tax planning. You can move income and expenditure from one year to another, changing the rate of tax and delaying tax payments, by reviewing your plans for purchases and sales of capital assets or the payment of bonuses and other significant expenses. If the accounting date is different from the end of the tax year, there are some advantages and pitfalls in the mismatch between the two - for example, a salary payment may be an expense for the company either earlier or later than it is income of the employee. It's worth thinking about the opportunities and the possible problems around the two year ends. One of the big changes in recent years has been the introduction of an "annual investment allowance". You can write off the first £50,000 of expenditure on most plant and machinery against the current year's profits, so you get full tax relief on that very quickly. There's also a temporary first year allowance of 40% for businesses who spend more than £50,000 before 31 March/5 April 2010 (depending on whether you are a company or unincorporated). So if you are thinking of investing in plant, it's worth looking at the date. Action Point! Have you reviewed the likely taxable profits before your year end?