Harnett Accontants

Tag: accountants in richmond

  • – Mortgage Slowdown Continues

    Accountancy

    – Mortgage Slowdown Continues

    brings you this report from the BBC Business News website, showing that the number of mortgages being given by banks is still shrinking. The findings show that banks are still rationing their funds following the financial crises, however building societies have been seeing a strong revival in this sector.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “The number of mortgages approved for home buyers, but not yet lent, rose in July, the Bank of England said. There were 47,312 approvals last month, up from 44,124 in June.

    However, this was still less than the monthly average of nearly 51,000 approvals recorded in the previous six months. The figures suggest that the banking industry’s rationing of mortgage funds is still continuing.”

    If you need help or advice to make sure that your business and your personal finances are operating in the most tax efficient way, please contact and we will arrange a free one hour no obligation consultation. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with accounting and tax?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • Harnett Accountants Hammersmith – Gifting Assets And Shares

    Accountancy

    Harnett Accountants Hammersmith – Gifting Assets And Shares

    Harnett Accountants Hammersmith brings you another useful piece of tax saving advice. If you plan to gift assets or shares to your relatives, there are several taxes you need to consider:

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    You won’t make an actual profit or gain when you give away assets or shares, so you may not expect to pay capital gains tax. However, when the gift is made to a person connected to you, such as your son or daughter, UK tax law deems you to have made a transfer of the asset at its market value. This means you could well make a paper gain on the gift, which will be subject to capital gains tax. This does not apply to a gift to your spouse or civil partner.

    You need to calculate this gain to see if it needs to be reported on your tax return. Where the gain from the gift, together with any other gains you make in the year, exceeds your annual exemption of £10,600, all those gains must be reported on your tax return.

    To calculate the amount of the gain you need to know the market value of the items given, at the date of the gift, and the cost or value when you acquired the items. If you acquired the assets before 31 March 1982, the value at 31 March 1982 is taken as your cost value, so you need a value at that date as well. We can help you will the calculation of the gain, but it would be wise to engage a specialist valuer to determine the value of the assets (particularly property) at the date of the gift and at 31 March 1982 if required.

    If the asset (such as property) you plan to give away is located in another country you need to take local tax advice as to whether gift tax will apply. This is not a tax we have in the UK, so any gift tax paid in another jurisdiction will not be offset against UK tax paid on the same gift. Local transaction taxes such as VAT or stamp duty may also apply, so do your research first.

    Stamp duty does not apply to shares which are transferred as a gift.

    Stamp duty land tax generally applies to the transfer of land in the UK, but it will not apply if the recipient gives nothing in return for the property, i.e. it is a pure gift. However, if the recipient agrees to take on a mortgage attached to the property, the outstanding value of that mortgage will be treated as consideration for the property and stamp duty land tax will apply to that consideration.

    What This Means For You

    Most gifts of assets you make will be treated as potentially exempt transfers for inheritance tax, which means they escape inheritance tax as long as you live for at least seven years after the date of the gift. You can look to take out insurance to cover the cost of inheritance tax that will become payable in respect of the gifts made during your lifetime. Gifts made into a trust may be subject to inheritance tax immediately.

    If you need advice on gifting assets or shares in the most tax efficient way possible, please contact Harnett Accountants Hammersmith for a free no obligation consultation. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with VAT returns and compliance?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • – Self Billing

    Accountancy

    – Self Billing

    offer this useful advice on self billing:

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    ‘Self-billing’ is where the customer in the supplier/customer relationship raises the invoices to themselves for work done or goods provided by the supplier, instead of the supplier raising those invoices. Self-billing helps large organisations that need to pay out lots of small amounts to hundreds of suppliers. It allows their purchase invoices to be standardised which saves costs when processing, and payments to be made automatically at the time the invoice is raised.

    However, there are significant disadvantages for the supplier who agrees to self-billing. The supplier losses control of when invoices are raised and may have no control over the amount billed and the amount of VAT shown on the invoice.

    Although the VATman’s guidance on their website says that the recipient of the supply (i.e. the customer who raises the self-billed invoice) is responsible for ensuring the invoice carries the correct VAT amount, it is actually the supplier who remains responsible for the amount of VAT charged.

    If you are signed-up to self-billing as a supplier don’t assume that the VAT shown on the invoices you receive from your customers is correct. You will remain responsible for any errors.

    If you need advice about self billing or VAT payments, please contact for a free no obligation consultation. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with VAT returns and compliance?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • Harnett Accountants Hammersmith – September Tax Q&a Part 2

    Accountancy

    Harnett Accountants Hammersmith – September Tax Q&a Part 2

    Harnett Accountants Hammersmith Welcome you to part 2 of our monthly tax Q&A.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    Q. My business recently bought an e-book reader from an online retailer. It will be used for business purposes but the retailer is refusing to provide me with a VAT invoice, saying their products are not provided for business purposes, so VAT invoices are not provided to VAT registered customers. How can I get the VAT invoice I need to claim back the VAT charged to my business?

    A. If the customer (you) asks for a VAT invoice the supplier must provide one, but in practice you can’t force the retailer to comply with the VAT law. As long as you have documentary evidence that VAT was charged – the amount and rate – and evidence that you have tried to obtain a VAT invoice, you can reclaim the VAT charged in your VAT return.

    Q. I own a number of rental properties but this year I’ve been sued over unpaid service charges. The dispute has been resolved, but I’ve been left with legal costs. Can I deduct those legal costs from the property rental income for the year?

    A. In general any legal fees associated with acquiring or improving the property or defending the title to the property or extending a lease on a property cannot be deducted from the rental income, as they are capital expenditure. Other legal fees associated with annual bills or service charges should be allowable. You should keep all the paper work associated with the dispute just in case the Taxman asks about the legal fees in future.

    Remember to send in your questions by email to have them answered in next month’s Q&A from Harnett Accountants Hammersmith. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with VAT returns and compliance?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • Harnett Accountants Kensington – Ir35 And Visits From The Taxman

    Accountancy

    Harnett Accountants Kensington – Ir35 And Visits From The Taxman

    Harnett Accountants Kensington are pleased to present more useful tax tips for your business

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    IR35 Business Tests Released

    If you provide services through your own personal service company you will be aware of the tax law known as IR35. This tax rule imposes an extra charge on your company, if you would be treated as an employee of your customer or customers, if you worked for the customer directly. It is very difficult to pin down when IR35 should apply, as it depends on the relationship between the contractor and the customer, which will be different in every case.

    The Taxman thinks he can generalise about what makes some companies fall within IR35 and others escape it. He has drawn-up a set of business entity tests, complete with a scoring system, to help you judge whether your business would be at high, medium, or low risk of being investigated for falling under IR35.

    These business entity tests are not derived from the tax law. They merely represent the Taxman’s view of the risk of a business falling within IR35.

    The scoring attached to the tests is controversial, as it penalises businesses that have no bad debts, never pay to advertise and operate from the owner’s home. These IR35 business entity tests do not change the IR35 law one bit, and will probably be ignored by the Tax Tribunal.

    If you choose to use the IR35 business entity tests, you don’t have to declare your score to the Taxman, the tests are merely for your own guidance. However, if you are concerned that the business entity tests produce a high risk score for your business, we should discuss why this is the case. Are there any changes which can be made to the way your business operates which would make it less likely to be caught by IR35?

    What This Means For You

    We can advise you on the correct tests for IR35, which would be recognised by the Tax Tribunal, so do ask if you would like some reassurance.

    The Taxman has wide powers to inspect your business, but he is supposed to give you at least seven days notice to check on your business property, computer or business records. He is permitted to turn up without warning, but only if tax is immediately at risk, such as where fraud is suspected.

    In spite of these strict rules, tax inspectors do try to examine business records without a prior appointment, or where an appointment has been arranged, the officers may turn up hours early before the tax adviser has arrived. If the Taxman pitches up at your workplace and demands access to your business records, know your rights:

    – Ask to see the inspectors’ ID, which they must carry and check this ID is genuine by telephoning the HMRC office they claim to be from – You don’t have to let the tax officers into your building, and their rules say they must not gain entry by force – You and your staff are not obliged to answer the tax officers’ questions – You are required to provide access at any reasonable time to any computer you use for your business, and help the tax officer extract the computer records, but that’s where your responsibility ends – The tax officers are not supposed to rummage around in your stuff. They can examine materials and records brought to them but they do not have search powers.

    Remember if tax officers turn up unannounced, call us without delay!

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with property tax advice?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • Harnett Accountants Putney – Cable Confirms Business Bank

    Accountancy

    Harnett Accountants Putney – Cable Confirms Business Bank

    Harnett Accountants Putney brings you this report from the BBC Business News website, confirming that the government is moving ahead with plans for its business bank:

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “The government is moving ahead with plans for a government-backed “business bank” to boost lending to UK companies.

    The business secretary, Vince Cable, said he hoped such a bank would “shake up the market” and help boost overall lending to firms.

    Existing government schemes such as the regional growth fund have been criticised for not lending allocated funds to businesses fast enough. The UK economy has been stifled, and a low level and relatively high cost of borrowing is one factor which has squeezed UK businesses.

    To date there have been several government schemes to increase lending to businesses, or to offer them tax relief, but they have all been run by different organisations and in different ways, and this has led to a lot of confusion for UK businesses (particularly amongst SME’s) over which finance and tax relief schemes they are actually eligible for.

    Details of the business bank are yet to be revealed, but the overall objective is to unite all of the various schemes and incentives under one roof to boost lending to UK businesses and make information clearer and more accessible.

    If you need help or advice identifying which finance schemes or tax relief incentives your business qualifies for, please contact Harnett Accountants Putney, and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with accounting and tax?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • – Taxman Must Steer Clear Of Advisory Board

    Accountancy

    – Taxman Must Steer Clear Of Advisory Board

    brings you this report from the Accountancy Age website, warning that the taxman must not be allowed on the advisory panel which will look at tax schemes.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “THE TAXMAN MUST STAY CLEAR of an advisory panel proposed to determine whether tax schemes are abusive, according to the CIoT and ATT.

    In response to the consultation on introducing a general anti-abuse rule (GAAR), the tax bodies warned that the proposals risk handing too much power to HM Revenue & Customs.

    A panel for looking into the true purpose of tax schemes – and determining whether they are contrived to avoid tax – should have no HMRC representatives.”

    If you need advice about reducing your tax bills, or running your business in the most tax efficient way, please contact and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with accounting and tax?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • Harnett Accountants Chiswick – Tax Crackdown On Track

    Accountancy

    Harnett Accountants Chiswick – Tax Crackdown On Track

    Harnett Accountants Chiswick brings you this article from the BBC Business News website, reporting that the government is on track for its target to raise £4bn in the crackdown on tax avoidance.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “The government is “on track” to raise £4bn this year via schemes to crack down on tax dodgers, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander will say.

    The Lib Dems have pledged to raise £9bn by tackling tax avoidance by 2015.

    Mr Alexander will promise to get more from the “small minority of wealthy people who don’t play by the rules”.

    The number of staff dealing with tax-evasion in Liechtenstein will be doubled as part of a crackdown on those “hiding” assets in offshore havens.”

    The government has offered a deal to those coming forward voluntarily over unpaid taxes that extra penalties will not be higher than 10% of the tax due. This is part of a wider crackdown on the 5000 or so UK investors thought to have secret accounts in offshore tax havens.

    If you need advice about taxes, or help to make sure that you are paying exactly the right amount of tax, and running your business in the most tax efficient way possible, please contact Harnett Accountants Chiswick and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with accounting and tax?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • – Tax Evasion Cases Fall By 25%

    Accountancy

    – Tax Evasion Cases Fall By 25%

    brings you this article from Accountancy Age, revealing that serious tax evasion cases have fallen by nearly 25% over the last year.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “Serious tax evasion cases identified by HM Revenue & Customs has dropped nearly a quarter over the last 12 months.

    In 2011/12, there were 3,456 suspected cases, the lowest number for five years and down 23% on the 4,506 identified in 2010/11, according to figures obtained by law firm, Pinsent Masons.

    What Hmrc Says

    HMRC defines a case as ‘serious’ where £50,000 or more has been evaded, or when prosecution is possible.”

    It’s thought that HMRC’s tough anti avoidance measures are responsible for the decline. HMRC’s has nearly doubled its property raids over the last 12 months, and public awareness of tax avoidance has grown considerably.

    If you need advice about taxes, or help to make sure that you are paying exactly the right amount of tax, and running your business in the most tax efficient way possible, contact our accountants in Wimbledon and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with property tax advice?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.

  • – Stamp Duty Loophole Closed By Hmrc

    Accountancy

    – Stamp Duty Loophole Closed By Hmrc

    brings you this article from Accountancy Age, reporting that the taxman has won a major victory by shutting down a stamp duty tax loophole.

    💡
    Reviewed for 2026/27: All tax figures and HMRC rules in this article reflect current guidance for the 2026/27 tax year.

    Key Considerations

    “The Taxman has claimed a significant victory in a tribunal in its continued fight against tax avoidance schemes.

    Durham-based property company Vardy Property took advantage of a regulation initially devised to prevent double taxation. It wanted to avoid paying £290,000 of stamp duty on the £7.25m purchase of a business park in Stockton-on-Tees in 2006.

    The sub-sale relief was intended to exempt legitimate intermediaries, for example house-builders, from paying stamp duty twice – first after buying the land, and then after selling the completed house.”

    This is seen as a significant victory by the taxman as it sends a clear message that using legitimate tax schemes to avoid tax will be spotted and clamped down on by HMRC.

    If you need advice about taxes, or help to make sure that you are paying exactly the right amount of tax, and running your business in the most tax efficient way possible, contact our accountants in Kingston and we will arrange a free, one hour, no obligation consultation. You can contact us through our website or on 020 8977 3883. Also you can . Additionally, you can keep reading our daily blogs.

    📌 Important: Tax rules change regularly. Always verify current figures at gov.uk/hmrc or speak to a qualified accountant.
    📞
    Need help with property tax advice?
    Harnett and Co are ICAEW chartered accountants in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. We give clear, practical advice to businesses and individuals across West London and Surrey. Book a free consultation today.