APIs to connect business systems

The last 18 months has been difficult for most sectors; however, one industry that has had to adapt and be more agile than most has been the hospitality sector. Firstly, they had to deal with lengthy periods of lockdown that initially closed many premises completely. Even as the lockdowns eased and the restrictions began to be lifted, restaurants and other hospitality businesses have had to be increasingly innovative to continue to operate.

Following the introduction of IR35 legislation in April to the private sector, there has been some concern that fishermen operating through their own personal service companies (PSC’s) would be caught under these new rules. The impact of the legislation for those within the IR35 rules means payments made to the PSC will now be operated via payroll with Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions deducted at source rather than the much lower Corporation Tax rate applying to profits within the PSC. This will also remove the opportunity for contractors to draw dividends from their PSC from inside IR35 income, which would have seen them benefit from lower tax rates. Businesses which engage with PSC’s are responsible for assessing the status under IR35 unless they qualify for the Small Companies Exemption.

HMRC routinely promote the benefits of filing Self Assessment Tax Returns early, and we agree that there are many advantages to doing so. One such benefit is that it enables you to ascertain and manage your tax payments.

Following what has been a very challenging 16 plus months for Energy Sector businesses, along with most other business, the world is starting to settle back into ‘normality’, whatever that may be now.  

Following HMRC’s drive to aid the economic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic and a surge in recent enquiries into tax affairs of individuals and companies alike, HMRC have confirmed that e-money value transfer systems and Crypto assets are on their watchlist of assets they will be looking closely into. This is particularly the case, since it is known such assets are commonly used by organised crime. HMRC now receives information from crypto exchanges on transactions carried out by crypto asset investors based in the UK and may also receive information on crypto asset transactions under the Common Reporting Standard.