Month: April 2021

Clued up on Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grants?

Have you taken full advantage of the government’s SEISS grants during the pandemic? They may have been heavily criticised for not being available to all self-employed people but they were certainly a lifeline for many during extremely testing times.

In the March 2021 Budget, the government announced details of the fourth and fifth SEISS instalments. From this month, it is possible to claim for the fourth grant (covering February to April 2021) but there are significantly different criteria for this and the fifth instalment (covering May to September 2021).

If you weren’t able to apply for the first three SEISS grants, you may now be eligible, so it’s worth reading this comprehensive article from Sage with all the details of the grant criteria. Make sure you’re claiming what is available if it will help to get your business back on its feet post-COVID.

Find out more:

SEISS: What you must do to claim the fourth and fifth Self Employed Income Support Scheme grants | Sage Advice United Kingdom

Top tax planning tips for individuals

Are you making the most of tax reliefs and allowances to make your personal tax as efficient as possible? We outline areas for consideration here:

Inheritance Tax & Capital Gains Tax planning
It’s never too soon to distribute assets and minimise IHT. Transfer items that are IHT-exempt and remember your deeds of variation. Assets transferred to a spouse are CGT-exempt and transferring into joint names is tax efficient.

Personal allowance
Additional rate taxpayers making personal pension contributions, salary sacrifice and gift aid donations preserve their personal allowance and reduce additional rate tax paid. Income tax reductions can be made by investing through tax efficient schemes. 

Spouses
Make the most of a spouse’s tax allowance if you are a higher rate payer and plan carefully for your jointly owned property income.  

Families
It may be worth claiming tax credits, especially if self-employed. Plus, child benefit for those earning over £50,000 must be repaid, so utilise gift aid donations and pension contributions.

Residency
Don’t fall foul of the statutory residence test and elect just one of your properties as your main residence. 

Want to find out more? Read our full article here.