Q. I work as a consultant through my own company based in Surrey. I have just secured a contract in Manchester, which is expected to last eight months

A. Your workplace in Manchester will qualify as a temporary workplace as the contract is expected to last for less than 24 months. Thus all reasonable travelling and accommodation expenses connected with that assignment can be reimbursed to you by your company. You should provide receipts for all the expenses, unless the amount is covered by a dispensation agreement your company has with the Tax Office, such as for mileage claims.

Q. I was trying to sell my business before the new tax year, to avoid a potentially large tax bill from an increase in the rate of capital gains tax.

A. The rate of capital gains tax (CGT) has been kept at 18% for 2010/11, so you have not lost out by delaying the sale into the 2010/11 tax year. In fact you may benefit from entrepreneurs' relief that applies to gains on the disposal of businesses, and reduces the effective rate of CGT down to 10%. The cap on this relief has been doubled to £2 million for gains made on and after 6 April 2010.

Q. My company was late submitting its VAT return and payment for the quarter to 30 September 2009. The VAT office has sent a surcharge notice, but the

A. If there were some exceptional circumstances that contributed to the late filing of your VAT return and payment, such as a death of a close family member, or a fire at your company premises, you may well have a reasonable excuse. In this case you should ask for the surcharge to be reviewed, but you need to do this within 30 days of the date of the letter from the VAT office. The reviewer will overturn the surcharge if they agree you had a reasonable excuse for late filing. You should provide a full written explanation of the circumstances that caused the delay, including any independent evidence you have, such as a report from the fire service.

Q. I was born in Croatia but I've lived in the UK for 20 years. I recently inherited an apartment in Croatia which is let out. Do I need to pay tax in

A. As you were born in Croatia your home country is outside the UK, and you probably have the tax status known as 'non-domiciled'. This is not certain as your domicile for tax purposes depends on a number of matters, including whether you intend staying in the UK in the future. If you are non-domiciled you may be able to ignore your overseas income for UK tax purposes, if the total income and gains left outside the UK each tax year amounts to less than £2,000. However, you must include on your UK tax return any overseas income or gains you bring into the UK, known as a 'remittance'.

Where your overseas income and gains amounts to more than £2,000, you currently have a choice:

pay an annual £30,000 tax charge and ignore your overseas income (which remains overseas) for UK tax purposes; or

declare all your overseas income and gains on your UK tax return.
This a very complicated area of tax and you should discuss your personal circumstances with us before deciding what to include on your UK tax returns.

Q. I've just realised I missed £280 of income off my tax return for 2008/09, which I submitted online in January 2010. What should I do?

A. Although this is a relatively small amount you should correct your tax return for 2008/09. However, before you do so double check that you have also included all the expenses and deductions for that tax year, as it looks bad to the Taxman if you correct your return, or 'amend' it in tax-speak, more than once. As you filed your return online you can also amend it online, just log into the self-assessment online area of the HMRC website and pick your 2008/09 return to amend. You have until 31 January 2011 to do this. You may have some more tax to pay for 2008/09 if your extra £280 of income is not covered by losses, allowances or expenses. You should pay the extra tax due as soon as possible as interest will be charged from 31 January 2010.

Adding Overseas Purchased to Sales

If your business is not VAT registered you need to keep a 12-month rolling total of your sales ('taxable supplies' in VAT-speak), to check this total does not exceed the VAT registration threshold (currently £68,000). Taxable supplies are those sales which would be subject to VAT (at 0%, 5% or 17.5%), if your business was VAT registered. Once your 12-month taxable supplies total exceeds the VAT registration threshold you must register your business for VAT within 30 days.

Unfortunately you now also need to keep track of the value of the services you purchase from any overseas businesses. Since 1 January 2010 most overseas services supplied to a business from another business (B2B) are subject to the reverse charge. This means you as the customer need to act as both the supplier and customer for the transaction for VAT purposes.

You must add the value of the overseas services acquired to your total purchases, and add the same value to your taxable supplies total, for VAT purposes only. The addition of the overseas services to your taxable supplies total may push this figure over the compulsory VAT registration threshold, in which case you must register your business for VAT in the UK.

It doesn't matter whether the business you are purchasing the service from is registered for VAT or not. You still have to apply the reverse charge treatment to the value of the service acquired. There are some exceptions for services relating to land and transport. Please ask us if you are uncertain about when you should apply the reverse charge or register for VAT.

Is Interest on Corp Tax Allowable?

Q. My company has paid interest on late paid corporation tax. Is that interest tax allowable?

A. Yes. Interest paid to the Tax Office on late paid corporation tax is tax allowable for the company for the period in which the interest was paid. Likewise interest paid by the Taxman because corporation tax has been paid early, or in excess of the amount due, is taxable.