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

European revolution Apart from the increase in the VAT rate on 1 January 2010, there is another set of changes which will affect anyone who supplies goods or services to customers in the rest of the EU. Everyone who makes any foreign sales needs to be ready. If you sell services to foreign-registered business customers, there are some changes which may affect whether you have to charge them UK VAT or not. There is also an entirely new requirement to file detailed reports of the supplies of services that you don't charge in the UK because the customer will deal with it in the other country. You'll have to send in the first European Community Sales List in April. If you sell goods to business customers in the EU, the rules for zero-rating your despatches don't change, and you should already be used to filing quarterly sales lists showing your customers' VAT registration numbers. However, after 1 January 2010, you will have to file these returns much quicker - you may have to file them monthly, depending on your level of sales, and you will only get 14 days for a paper return rather than the 42 days you get at the moment. So you may need to comply with this new rule by 14 February. There's some general information on the HMRC website, but it will be important to consider exactly how your own particular business is affected. Action Point! Do you sell any goods or services to customers elsewhere in the EU?