Trivial benefits are one of the simplest tax-free perks available to small businesses, yet most creative agencies, studios and freelance-heavy teams never use them. If your business is run by a handful of director-shareholders and a small permanent team, a bit of planning around trivial benefits can put genuine value back into your team's pockets, tax-free, with almost no admin. What Counts as a Trivial Benefit HMRC's trivial benefits exemption lets a company give small, non-

Discretionary trusts are one of the most flexible tools in inheritance tax (IHT) planning, letting trustees decide who benefits, when, and by how much, rather than fixing shares in advance. That flexibility comes at a cost, though: discretionary trusts sit inside their own IHT regime, with charges on the way in, every ten years, and on the way out. Here's how the rules work and when a discretionary trust is worth considering. What is a discretionary trust? A discretionary tru

Pensions reward patience, but the moment you start taking money out is where the tax rules get sharp. A handful of small decisions at that point - which pot you touch first, how much you take at once, whether you tidy several pots into one - can cost thousands, and some of them cannot be undone. These are the ones that come up most often. The £10,000 trap Your annual allowance, the most you can pay into pensions each year with tax relief, is £60,000 for 2026/27. Take taxable

HMRC's replacement National Insurance credits service was due to open in April 2026. It has slipped by a year and will now open in April 2027. If you are a parent or carer who never claimed Child Benefit, that is another year before the gap in your record can be filled. Who this affects - people who: were eligible for Child Benefit for a child under 12 at any point from 7 January 2013 did not claim it, often because the high income child benefit charge made claiming look poin

Plan 5 is the newest student loan repayment plan, and 2026/27 is the first year employers have had to operate it through PAYE. The first Plan 5 borrowers began repaying in April 2026, so if you run a payroll there is a new deduction category to get right - and one default that can catch you out. Who is on Plan 5: anyone who applied to Student Finance England and started their course on or after 1 August 2023 that is wider than degrees: it covers undergraduate courses, PGCEs,

HMRC has confirmed that from September 2026 it will begin signing sole traders and landlords up to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax itself, without waiting for them to register. If you were due to join MTD in April 2026 and still haven't, the decision is about to be taken out of your hands — but being enrolled is not the same as being ready. What HMRC has announced MTD for Income Tax became mandatory on 6 April 2026 for people with qualifying income above £50,000. Take-up ha

Corporation tax late filing penalties have gone up for the first time since they were introduced in 1998. The new amounts apply where a company's filing date falls on or after 1 April 2026 - in practice, that means accounting periods ending on or after 1 April 2025. What a late return now costs: £200 if it arrives within three months of the filing date, up from £100 £400 if it is later than that, up from £200 £1,000 and £2,000 respectively where it is the third accounting per

Football's Championship referees have just won an eight-year fight with HMRC over whether they count as employees — and buried in the small print of that decision is a test that matters just as much to a freelance designer, copywriter or video editor as it does to anyone running the line at Ipswich on a Saturday afternoon. If you work for yourself and take on repeat work from the same clients, it's worth understanding why. The final whistle on PGMOL v HMRC Professional Game M

If your business feeds or entertains families — or you’re simply planning a summer of days out with the kids — there’s a new VAT change worth knowing about. From 25 June 2026 to 1 September 2026, the government is temporarily cutting VAT from 20% to 5% on children’s meals, children’s tickets, and admission to a wide range of family attractions. Here’s what’s covered, what isn’t, and what businesses need to do. What’s Changing? Announced by the Chancellor on 21 May 2026 an

Every director asks the same question sooner or later: can I put this through the company? The test never changes — was the cost incurred wholly and exclusively for the business? A private element means either no claim, or a claim for the business proportion only, and paying for something personal usually lands the director with a benefit in kind charge instead. Two things changed for 2026/27: the mileage rate has risen for the first time in fifteen years, and the flat-rate w

For years, inheritance tax was something most employee benefit trusts could safely ignore. The restriction of business property relief from 6 April 2026 has changed that. If your company has an employee benefit trust, or you are thinking of setting one up, inheritance tax now belongs in your routine trust housekeeping rather than in the "unlikely to matter" pile. What an EBT is, and why inheritance tax rarely bit An employee benefit trust (EBT) is a discretionary trust set up

Most owners of a family business intend to pass it on. Far fewer have written down how. Until this year that was mainly a risk to family harmony rather than to the tax bill, because business assets usually passed free of inheritance tax. From 6 April 2026 that is no longer automatic — and for the first time in decades, a successful family business can create a real inheritance tax liability. Here is what has changed, who it affects, and the questions worth answering now rathe

Dividend Tax Rates Are Going Up — What It Means for You From 6 April 2026, the amount of tax you pay on dividend income is increasing. If you run a limited company and pay yourself through a combination of salary and dividends — which many directors do — this change will affect your take-home pay. Here's what you need to know. What's Changing? The basic rate of dividend tax rises from 8.75% to 10.75%, and the higher rate increases from 33.75% to 35.75%. There is no change to

For most families the home is the largest asset in the estate, and the one with the fewest planning options. There is one route that works genuinely well, but only in narrow circumstances: gifting a share of the property to adult children who already live in it. Done properly it can take several hundred thousand pounds out of an estate. Done carelessly it achieves nothing at all, and can cost more than it saves. The idea in one paragraph You give an adult child a share of the

Where the reliefs stop Business Property Relief covers shares in unquoted trading companies, sole trader businesses and partnership interests. Agricultural Property Relief covers qualifying farmland. Neither covers investment assets. A portfolio of let properties, a stocks and shares account, investment property held inside a company — all sit fully in the estate. The same assets also carry capital gains tax at the main rates if you sell in your lifetime. There is no relief o

Taking a client for lunch, sending tickets to a private view, or covering the bar tab after a pitch feels like the cost of doing business — especially in agency and studio work, where relationships often are the business. But HMRC has never allowed a tax deduction for entertaining clients, and that hasn't changed for 2026/27. The numbers: - Client entertaining is disallowed for Corporation Tax (companies) and Income Tax (sole traders and partnerships) under s.1298 Corporation

Buy a property, do it up, sell it on. Whether that profit is a capital gain or trading income is not something you get to choose - it depends on the facts, and HMRC can take a different view from yours. In 2026/27 the gap between the two answers is around 18 percentage points. What each treatment costs If you are an investor, the profit is a capital gain. Capital gains tax is 18% on gains falling within your basic rate band and 24% above it, after the £3,000 annual exempt amo

HMRC treats most Cryptoasset disposals as subject to Capital Gains Tax, not gambling or currency. This article covers the basics for UK individuals. Background Information Crypto is not “money” for UK tax. Each disposal — selling, swapping, gifting (other than to spouse), or using crypto to buy goods — can trigger CGT. CGT Computation Use Section 104 pooling: all tokens of the same type are pooled; acquisition costs averaged.Allowable costs: purchase price, transaction fees,

Overview Disposing of a buy-to-let can trigger several UK tax obligations. This article outlines how Capital Gains Tax (CGT) applies, the relevant rates and allowances, and the reporting requirements when selling residential property. Background Information Most buy-to-lets are owned personally rather than through a company. Since April 2020, lettings relief has been restricted and Private Residence Relief (PRR) only covers periods of actual occupation plus the final 9 months

Overview The UK Inheritance Tax (IHT) nil-rate band (NRB) is £325,000. The residence nil-rate band (RNRB) gives an additional £175,000 for property passed to direct descendants. This article explains how to combine them. Background Information Transfers between UK-domiciled spouses/civil partners are generally exempt. On the second death, unused NRB and RNRB can be transferred. Allowance Table Allowance Amount (£) Nil-rate band (NRB) 325,000 Residence nil-rate band (RNRB) 175