Autumn Statement ’15 – Tax Briefing

The Autumn Statement ’15 was accompanied this year by the Spending Review, which took primary focus. Please see below for details on what tax changes were included with the headlines and some that were sneaked into the underlying paperwork:

– A 3% SDLT surcharge for second homes or buy to let residential properties. This was the main topic of debate at our recent seminar and will come into force from 1 April 2016 and applies to properties valued at £40,000 or above

The challenges here will be around declaration of a house as investment/second home rather than the main home and policing this

The surcharge will apply to companies in general, but necessarily corporate developers of property

– Capital gains tax will be payable on disposals of residential property 30 days after the sale, as from 2019

People who have at some point lived in the house will therefore have very little time to calculate their entitlement to principle private property relief. This can sometimes be very complicated

– Changes to tax relief for pension contributions will be announced in the Spring Budget of ‘16

– Electronic tax accounts from 2019, businesses and landlords will have to report at least quarterly

– A restriction from April ’16 on tax relief for travel and subsistence expenses for workers engaged through an employment intermediary, such as an umbrella company or a personal service company

– A new separate criminal offence to be introduced for offshore evaders, intent will not be key

– A 60% penalty surcharge for taxpayers that are caught by the General Anti-Abuse Rule will be introduced and large companies will have to publish their tax strategies with regard to the UK