On Thurs 28th April, we held a business breakfast with Harwood Hutton at Fredrick’s hotel in Maidenhead.  Some of the leading Thames Valley SMEs came along and were treated to a talk from the well respected tax expert Cormac Marum.  Cormac enlightened us about his experiences of commenting on the Chancellor’s budget, both for the Broadsheet newspapers on Budget Day together with his stints on the Radio – so we knew we were in for a treat!

Cormac delivered a first rate Post Finance Bill 2016 Review which included:

• The Business Tax roadmap – how there are now more flexible tax loss offsets, and changes to tax deductions for interest.
• The Apprentiship Levy will apply + 0.5% on every employer’s wage bill – raising £11.3bn overall
• The new band system for Stamp Duty Land Tax is now 5% on Non-residential Freehold properties worth £250k to £5m
• Members’ Voluntary Liquidations – Dividends received during liquidation can now be classed as income or capital.
• Despite the hikes in Dividend taxation, it’s still more tax-efficient to take low salary and high dividends than to take salary and top-up bonuses.
• How to raise outside investment efficiently – Entrepreneurs’ relief will be extended to external investors.
• The two main HMRC-favoured approaches to Share incentives are now Enterprise Management Incentives (‘EMI’) and Employee Shareholder Status (‘ESS’)
• The changes around capital gains tax include new definitions of ‘trading company’ and ‘trading group’.

If you want to know more about any of these areas, please contact:

Cormac Marum
Harwood Hutton Ltd
22 Wycombe End, Beaconsfield
01494 739500
cormacmarum@harwoodhutton.co.uk