Module 1 - Income Tax Flashcards
How often is income tax assessed?
Annually
Who sets Income Tax Rates and how often are they set?
Parliament, annually.
When calculating income tax - what is the first step?
- Add up all income that could be subject to income tax in tax year (gross income)
What are the four types of income and in what order are they calculated?
- Earned Income
- Savings Income
- Dividend Income
- Chargeable Gain from Life Assurance Bonds
When calculating income tax - what is the second step?
- Take off allowable deductions such as business and property losses to give net income
When calculating income tax - what is the third step?
- Calculate any reductions to personal allowances and then deduct personal allowance to give taxable income.
When calculating income tax - what is the fourth step?
- Extend basic / higher rate tax brackets (for personal pension contributions / gift aid)
When calculating income tax - what is the fifth step?
- Calculate tax (in correct order - tax tower)
When calculating income tax - what is the sixth and final step?
STEP 6 - ADD ANY CHILD BENEFIT HIGH INCOME TAX CHARGE & DEDUCT TAX REDUCERS (e.g. transferable personal allowance)
Thinking of the tax tower, what catagories should income be split into and what order should tax be applied? Hint: There are 4 in total.
1st - EARNED INCOME (earnings, pensions, rental income and anything not classed as savings or dividend income)
2nd - SAVINGS INCOME
3rd - DIVIDEND INCOME
4th - CHARGEABLE GAIN FROM LIFE ASSURANCE BONDS
There are 6 basic types of earned income, what are they?
- Trading Income = Self Assessment
- Employed Income = PAYE including from pensions & benefits. Income tax is deducted by employer / pension provider and paid to HMRC on your behalf.
- Income from Property = Rent
- Income from Savings = interest on cash savings, payments from purchased life annuities and gains from life assurance contracts.
- Income from Investments = dividends from equity based investments.
- Other = intellectual property, copyright, image rights, patents etc.
For the purposes of completing a tax calculation, what type of amount should be used for all savings and dividend incomes (i.e. gross or net)?
Gross
From April 16 interest from UK banks and building societies is paid gross.
This is due to the introduction of the tax-free personal savings allowance.
Since April 17, this also applies to unit trusts, investment trusts and OEICS’s
When calculating tax for savings - should we use gross or net figures?
Gross
When calculating tax for dividends - should we use gross or net figures?
Gross
What calculation will give us the gross amount from a net figure?
Simply take the net interest figure and divide by 0.8 to gross up by the 20% deducted at source.
For example:
Net interest of £800 / 0.8 = gross interest of £1,000.
Are allowable deductions calculated before or after personal allowances and tax rates?
BEFORE
Allowable deductions are amounts that we can deduct from our total income figure BEFORE we apply our allowances and our tax rates.
Being able to make such deductions effectively ensures that full relief for taxation is given upfront. Once deducted, we will have a ‘net income’ figure to carry forward to our next step.
Name 3 allowable deductions
- Interest payments for certain qualifying loans.
(purchase shares in the borrower’s company, to pay an inheritance tax liability or to invest or buy plant and machinery for a partnership) - Charitable giving (Payroll Giving)
- Pension Contributions (Net Pay Arrangement & Relief by Claim Schemes)
What is the limit for the tax relief for interest payments on qualifying loans?
£50,000 OR 25% of individuals adjusted income - whichever is higher.
How to calculate adjusted total income?
Adjusted Total Income = Total Income + Payroll Giving - All Types of Pension Contributions
When it comes to pension contributions and charitable giving they are either allowable deductions or rate extenders - which is which?
Allowable Deductions = Payroll Giving, Net Pay Arrangement (Most common type of pension) & Relief by Claim Schemes
Basic Rate Band Extenders = Gift Aid & Relief at Source Schemes (Personal Pension Scheme)
Thinking about allowable deductions and where a loan is taken for a qualifying purpose, what amount of interest may be deducted from the gross income?
THE FULL AMOUNT OF INTEREST
When it comes to qualifying loans - name three qualifying purposes.
- Investment in your own company
- Buy plant & machinery for a partnership
- Settle an inheritance tax liability (term of relief limited to twelve months)
Can entire qualifying loans be an allowable deduction?
No, only the interest.
How do you calculate ‘adjusted total income’?
Adjusted Total Income = Total Income + Charitable Donations via Payroll Giving - All types of pension contributions.
What is the Tax Relief Limit for interest payments for qualifying loans?
The limit here is £50,000 or 25% of the individuals ‘adjusted total income’ - whichever is higher.
What is payroll giving?
This scheme allows employees to make contributions to a nominated charity from their gross income, giving the effect of tax relief at their highest rate.
Does the employer have to offer payroll giving?
No
In payroll giving who nominates the charity?
The employee
In essence, there are three different types of pension scheme? What are they?
Net Pay Arrangement (Most common type)
Relief by Claim
Relief at Source Scheme (Personal Pension Scheme)
With a net pay arrangement - at what point is the employee’s pension contribution taken off - before or after tax?
BEFORE
The employee’s contribution is taken off before tax is calculated, meaning that the full benefit of tax relief is given upfront; this type of pension contribution is therefore an allowable deduction in calculating ‘net income’.
Thinking of interest payments on qualifying loans - when it comes to the tax limit, which type of adjusted income do we need to use - total or net?
‘adjusted TOTAL income’
BONUS - which is calculated how?
Total Income + Payroll Giving Contributions - All types of pension contribution
Residents of which countries are eligible for a UK personal allowance?
UK & EEA (European Economic Area = EU Countries + Lichtenstein, Iceland, Norway)
From when does the allowance apply?
From birth
For minors, where the source of funds producing the income is their parents’, it is treated as the parents income unless…
the income received is under £100 in which case it would be treated as the child’s.
Before off setting net income against the personal allowance, it is important to consider anything that might….
reduce the available personal allowance.
Name 3 things that may reduce the personal allowance
► Employee benefits, such as company cars
► Underpaid tax from previous years
► Adjusted Net Income over £100,000 reducing availability of personal allowance
How are employee benefits shown on an individual’s tax coding?
Employee benefits are shown on an individual’s tax coding as a reduction to the available personal allowance.
For example, if a car is deemed to have a taxable value of £4,300 this amount will be removed from the individual’s personal allowance.
For most benefits - are employees taxed on the market value of the benefit or the actual price paid by employer?
Market Value In the case of a company car, the list price.
When considering “in-house” benefits what is the value of the benefit in kind?
The value of the benefit in kind is the marginal cost to the employer, NOT the open market value of the benefit.
Certain employee benefits are tax-free. Name 7 of them.
► Home-working (Additional household costs of up to £6 can also be claimed)
► Group Income Protection – where premiums are paid by the employer and income is paid out to the employee as taxed income in the event of a claim
► Provision of meals including light refreshments and the Christmas party/annual event costing no more than £150 per person.
► Mobile telephones but only one per employee and not tablets or other devices.
► Removal expenses up to £8,000 with the excess taxable.
► Work-related training including first aid and health and safety
► Long service awards - 20 or more years and only for tangible things or shares in the company providing the cost to the employer is not more than £50 foreach year of service and a similar awards hasn’t been paid to the employee in the last 10 years. Cash awards are taxed as income via PAYE as normal.
► Workplace nurseries meeting certain requirements
How are company cars taxed?
On the list price and it’s fuel emissions. Broadly speaking, the more polluting the car, the higher the rate of taxation.
Are diesels and petrol taxed the same?
No Diesel is considered to be more harmful to the environment and a higher rate of tax will be due than for petrol. There is a surcharge on diesel cars (not diesel hybrid cars) set at 4% up to a maximum 37% unless the car meets the ‘Real Driving Emissions 2’ (RDE2) standards.