Paying voluntary National Insurance Contributions could
boost your State Pension
Help people increase their State Pension by sharing important
information about filling gaps in their National Insurance (NI)
records.
People have until 5 April 2025 to make voluntary contributions to
cover gaps dating back to 6 April 2006. After April 2025, they
will only be able to fill gaps for the previous 6 tax years.
Basis Period Reform: reporting on a tax year basis
From April 2024, sole traders and partners in a business will
have to report their profits on a tax year basis, if they don’t do
so already. This is also known as Basis Period Reform.
We have updated our online guidance (which now also supports
individuals reporting trading income from a partnership) to
support completion of the Self Assessment tax return and
working out transition profit in 2023-24 on GOV.UK.
To ensure your clients or members meet the filing deadline of
31 January 2025, advice is to file with a ‘provisional figure’ for
overlap relief and amend it when confirmation is received from
HMRC.
You and your clients or members can find further guidance to
get help with basis period reform on GOV.UK.
VAT on private school fees
The Government has announced that school and boarding fees
will be taxable at the standard rate of VAT of 20%. This will be
for school terms starting on or after 1 January 2025.
Schools can find important information on when and how to
register for VAT, including what details they need to input
during registration online.
They can also check if they need register for VAT if they receive
private school fees on GOV.UK.
They can also watch our recorded webinar for VAT which explains
how to recognise the goods and services they need to charge
VAT on and reclaim VAT for online.
Simple Assessment: reminder to pay
We are reminding more than half a million taxpayers who have
received a Simple Assessment letter to pay by the forthcoming
deadline, if they haven’t already done so.
Anyone who has received a Simple Assessment letter will have
a payment deadline of either 31 January 2025 or three months
from the date of issue of the letter, whichever is later.
We send Simple Assessment letters to people who owe Income
Tax that cannot be collected automatically (for example, through
Pay As You Earn) and who are not in Self Assessment.
There are various ways to pay, including via the HMRC app,
online, by bank transfer, or by cheque. Anyone who anticipates
difficulty paying on time should contact HMRC so we can provide
practical advice and support. They can find details about how to
contact HMRC with Income Tax general enquiries on GOV.UK.
For more information, customers can refer to their Simple
Assessment letter or view more information on paying their
Simple Assessment tax bill on GOV.UK.
Please consider sharing this information with your clients
or members, should they approach you with Simple Assessment
queries.
HMRC compliance consultations update
In the Autumn Budget 2024, the Government outlined the
next stages of modernising and reforming HMRC’s tax
administration framework (TAFR).This includes: |
