Events

Crime pays...

I think that 1 April has come early. I read in the Daily Telegraph that in  Holland, a bank robber has been allowed to claim a deduction of £1400 for the cost of the gun he used in an armed robbery in which he stole £4700.
The Court reduced the amount of restitution he had to pay by the cost of the gun on what was said to be “sound legal precedents”.
Peter Vaines
Haarmann Hemmelrath

The uncertainty continues over the NIC treatment of employers' contributions to a funded unapproved retirement benefit scheme. Nobody ever thought that NICs applied to contributions to FURBS — except the Inland Revenue who in 1997 published a press release expressing its view. It has never satisfactorily explained its reasoning, but many people have paid NIC just for an easy life. However, in 2000, the case of Tullett and Tokyo Forex International Limited v Secretary of State for Social Security came to the rescue.

First year allowances

First year allowances (FYAs) were re-introduced in 1998 for companies and businesses that are SMEs and currently stand at 40% of the expenditure incurred in the first chargeable period for plant and machinery generally. In addition, claims can be made at a rate of 100% for specialist items such as energy-saving equipment and 50% for small enterprises in the year ended 31 March 2005.

Conference

Meeting Points

RALPH RAY CTA (Fellow), TEP, BSc (Econ), Solicitor, Consultant to Wilsons of Salisbury, reports on the Tolley's Tax Planning for 2005 Conference.

Reverter to settlor

Meeting Points

MATTHEW HUTTON MA (Oxon), CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP reports highlights of IBC's Capital Taxes Conference held in London on 9 June 2004.

A satisfactory conclusion

Readers may recollect my article 'Another Trap to Avoid', published on 4 October 2001 at page 13. This concerned the rather unusual, but not unknown situation, where a taxpayer has both employment and self employment within the same National Insurance contributions year and pays Class 1, Class 2 and Class 4 contributions during the same year.