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

Turning back the clock If you are making losses in your business, you can use the "carry back" rules to get back tax you paid on past profits. Normally you can only set a loss back one year. This has been extended to 3 years, for the first £50,000 of loss only, for income tax traders with losses in 2008/09 or 2009/10, and for companies with losses in accounting periods ending from 24/11/2008 to 23/11/2010. If you are currently making a loss which you expect to be able to carry back, you can defer the payment of the tax liability for the previous period - normally you would have to pay the tax and claim it back when you can produce the accounts to prove that you made the loss. The tax rate on small company profits is going up to 22% in April 2011. If you claim a loss against 2006 you might only get relief at 19%, when it could be 22% going forward. Still, 19% of a bird in the hand is likely to be worth more than 22% of a bird in the bush! Action Point! Are you making losses in your business?