The tax year is soon coming to an end. Having got over the January rush it’s not long until we start all over again! Meanwhile, we all celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) this week – a key moment to recognise women’s achievements in the workplace and beyond.  At Smarter we want to maintain a focus on equity, diversity and inclusion all year round whilst offering appealing job opportunities for all.  We are always on the lookout for new members of staff for both offices, at all levels and are particularly looking for anyone with practice experience. If you know anyone who may be interested, then please ask them to contact us!

This is just a quick note to update you on a few things that are happening over the coming weeks:

• Spring Budget 15^th March 2023 – The Chancellor will deliver his spring budget next week and it’s a little bit early for rumours, but the expectation is that he will extend household energy bill support at the same level for another 3 months. We await news on the business help from 1 April 2023. We will bring you news following the statement.
• Corporation Tax 130% Super Deduction – A reminder that the Corporation Tax Super Deduction comes to an end on 31 March 2023. We have blogged about this before, but if you are Limited company buying capital equipment you can get an extra 30% off your taxable profit on the purchase of those assets. The purchases must be for brand new items and they must be received by 31 March 2023.
• End of Year Tax Planning – The 5^th April is the end of the tax year. Maximise your allowances before this date. This includes ISA Investments, Personal Pension payments and using Capital Gains Allowances where possible.
• New Tax Year – There are some things that we already know about:
  • Capital Gains Tax Allowance – This reduces to £6,000 from 6 April 2023. Until now it has been £12,300 per annum, however the reduction was one of the measures announced in the Autumn statement.
  • Minimum / Living Wage Increase – Each April the Minimum / Living Wage rates are increased. With inflation the rises are bigger this year:
    • National Living Wage £10.42
    • 21-22 Year Old Rate £10.18
    • 18-20 Year Old Rate £7.49
    • 16-17 Year Old Rate £5.28
    • Apprentice Rate £5.28
  • Martin Lewis Pension Top Up – Many of you may have heard Martin Lewis talk about this issue over the past month or so. National Insurance payment ensures your entitlement for the State Pension, and if you make 35 years of contributions in your working life you will qualify for the full state pension when you reach the retirement age. For those that have missed years you can make a voluntary contribution of around £824.20 per year to make up for any lost years. You have until 31 July 2023 to make voluntary contributions for the 2006/07 to 2016/17 years. After this date you can only make up contributions for the previous 6 tax years. We recommend that if you are unsure, you check your National Insurance Record, which can easily be done by signing up for a Personal Tax Account (or signing into this account if you already have one). Within that account you will be able to see your National Insurance record and work out if you have years to make up. If you are short of years, then it could be worth paying the missing years now to increase your state pension value in the future. To sign into an existing Government Gateway account or set up a new one, click here >

Smarter Recruiting Now!

And, as a reminder, we are on the lookout for new members of staff for both offices, at all levels, ideally people with practice experience. If you know anyone who may be interested, then please ask them to contact us!

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Best wishes and stay safe,