New tax forms 2009/10 and online calculator for 2010/11

We are glad to confirm that the new SA Tax Return and most popular supplements for 2009/10 have been uploaded in our Tax Forms section.

If you need any form or tax return supplement which is not listed, please do not hesitate to contact us on query@taxundo.com

You can also visit our Tax Calculator section, where you will find a selection of handy tools to calculate your tax online. The rates and allowances for the current year 2010/11 have been implemented, so you can make calculations for the whole period up to 5 April 2011.

Who is likely to be affected?
1. EU and European Economic Area (EEA) residents who pay UK tax on their earnings as a seafarer. Broadly speaking a seafarer is a person who works on a ship.
General description of the measure
2. Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2010 to extend the Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction to EU and EEA resident seafarers, ensuring the provisions are compatible with the EU Treaty.
Operative date
3. The measure will have effect on and after 6 April 2011.
Current law and proposed revisions
4. Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction can provide 100 per cent UK tax relief for the earnings from carrying out duties as a seafarer wholly or partly outside the UK, during an eligible period. One of the qualifying conditions for Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction is that the claimant must be ordinarily resident in the UK. This condition will be extended so that seafarers who are EU or EEA residents can claim Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction on their earnings as a seafarer that are liable to UK income tax. There are no other changes to the provisions for Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is committed to providing access to face to face advice for customers who need this form of support. Most of their Enquiry Centres open standard hours – five days a week from 8.30am to 5pm regardless of local customer visits, but as more customers contact them online or by telephone, visits to Enquiry Centres have fallen 40 per cent since 2006/07.

They tested shorter opening hours in 10 Enquiry Centres in 2008 and feedback from the pilot was that customers were broadly happy with the change in opening hours. Following extensive consultation with national and local representative customer groups, their staff and other affected parties, they have changed the opening hours of a further 58 Enquiry Centres to reflect when their customers are most likely to want appointments for advice. A list of the opening hours for each office is available see Enquiry Centres opening hours. They have also published an Equality Impact Assessment of the wider changes they are making to the opening patterns across our Enquiry Centre network.

HMRC will still be able to assist the elderly and people with disabilities to access face to face advice in its Enquiry Centres, including wheelchair access, induction loops and (by appointment) signing support for customers with hearing disabilities as well as lighted magnifiers for customers with sight disabilities. These services are based on individual needs, and will not alter as a result of any changes to Enquiry Centre opening hours.

In order to protect vulnerable customers, they have a made an important change to the way in which they allow Tax Credits claimants to access emergency payments in the 58 locations where they have moved to new opening patterns. Where needed, these will in future be accessible over the phone, rather than from the Enquiry Centre, to ensure customers are not disadvantaged.

Most of the time freed up by the shorter opening hours for some Enquiry Centres will be recycled to other customer service work.

All agent registrations and changes to agent details relating to Self Assessment (SA) and PAYE are now dealt with by a centralised team based in Longbenton. Such registrations and changes should be made in writing and sent to:

HM Revenue & Customs
Central Agent Authorisation Team
Agent Maintainer
Benton Park View
Longbenton
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ

The Central Agent Authorisation Team (Agent Maintainer) are now responsible for creating agent records within SA and PAYE and keeping them up to date. New agent codes will be notified by letter.

All agents acting for taxpayers within these systems must be allocated a national agent code. Once you have a code, it should be quoted on all 64-8 agent authorisation applications. Your agent code can also be used to register for appropriate online services.

Centralising this process will provide a single route for agent codes which will be dealt with by a specialist team. Centralisation will also help HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) provide a more efficient, effective and consistent customer service.

There may be exceptional circumstances when you need to discuss issues around this process. HMRC are looking at the best way to do this and will provide an update in the near future.

Any written correspondence to change the details of agents who are based abroad (including Channel Islands and Isle of Man) should be sent to:

HMRC
CAR Residency
Abroad Agent Maintainer
St Johns House
Unit 353 Merton Road
Liverpool
L75 1BB

Two more toolkits have been developed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to make it easier for agents to get their clients’ tax returns right first time. These are:

• Private and personal expenditure (Income Tax Self Assessment)
• Capital Gains Tax for land and buildings

Each toolkit is packed with useful information including:

• a checklist to help agents address the key risks from HMRC’s point of view
• explanatory notes, which identify the underlying risks, how to mitigate those risks and a brief outline of the tax treatment
• cross references to the relevant guidance available online

The use of the toolkits is entirely voluntary but those who do choose to use them will benefit from:

• having access to the latest information on HMRC’s view of risk and common errors
• help for agents and their clients to get it right first time, reducing the likelihood of an HMRC compliance check
• assistance in enabling agents to focus their work to the areas of highest tax risk
• help to demonstrate reasonable care

The current pilot will run up to 31 January 2010 and will be evaluated during February/March. Once the HMRC have completed the evaluation they expect to make these toolkits available via their website.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announce their latest interest rates charged on late payments and paid on overpayments. These rate changes are made as advised in the announcement of 29 July 2009 on harmonising interest rates across all taxes.The rate changes announced today are:

• an increase to the repayment rate for quarterly instalment payments and early payments of Corporation Tax (CT) not due by instalments (for accounting periods ending on or after 1 July 1999) which take effect from 21 September 2009
• an increase in both the late payment and overpayment rates of interest for all other taxes and National Insurance contributions (NICs) which take effect from 29 September 2009

Details of rate changes

As part of its ongoing plans to improve customer service and efficiency HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is changing the way it processes PAYE records. Central to these plans is a major IT upgrade which will for the first time make all PAYE records available on one computer system.

Whilst they are upgrading their systems there will be a temporary period of planned service interruption from 12 June. This will continue until the new service is available to all trained staff and outstanding records are brought up to date.

How will customers be affected?

During this period some elements of their PAYE service will be temporarily interrupted. In addition the National Insurance Computer System will be unavailable for a short period.

At this time HMRC will still be able to provide general advice and guidance but will be unable to answer specific questions regarding individual National Insurance records or most recent PAYE changes.

There will be a corresponding temporary effect on the Department for Work and Pensions’ operations as well.

Guidance on the new tax appeals and review system has been published today by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

As part of wider reform of the tribunals system, the tax appeals system changed on 1 April 2009. The guidance explains how the new appeals system works for all the different taxes and duties affected, across both direct and indirect tax.

All of the previous tax tribunals, including the General Commissioners, the Special Commissioners and the VAT & Duties Tribunals, are now combined within the Tax Chamber of a new First-tier Tribunal. A new Upper Tribunal will hear appeals from First-tier Tribunal decisions.

Before an appeal is considered by the new tribunal, customers have a new statutory right to a review of the issue by someone in HMRC who has not previously been involved in their case.

The guidance explains the various options open to customers, including what they need to do and when, and is available online at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/dealingwith/appeals.htm.

New versions of form P45 were introduced from October 2008. These must be used from 6 April 2009 and any stocks of the old A5 versions of the form should be destroyed. The pre-printed A4 versions of the P45 are available now and should be used as soon as the employer has used up their existing stock of the A5 version.  They do not have to wait until April to start using the new version of the form. Supplies of these are available from the Employer Orderline.

The new versions of the form include the date of birth and gender fields. This will help the HMRC to match an employee’s information with their records when the forms are processed and reduce the number of queries the HMRC send to employers.

Employees may not recognise the new forms. Employers should reassure them that the form P45 has only changed in appearance and, apart from the new date of birth and gender fields which must be completed, the information requested and the procedures around it remain unchanged.

A P45 is the form employers complete when an employee stops working for them. It is a record of the pay and the tax that has been deducted so far in the tax year. A P45 has four parts - part 1, part 1A, part 2 and part 3. Employers send part 1 to HMRC and usually give the employee the other three.

To help taxpayers to file their Self Assessment tax returns online this financial year, HMRC are introducing a fast-track UTR process for those who were self-employed during 2007-08 but who have not yet registered with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and received a UTR.

The fast-track has been be available from Monday 8 December 2008 and will be running till the end of January 2009. It can be only accessed using the Helpline for the Newly Self Employed Tel 0845 915 4515. The Helpline is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, Monday to Friday and from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, Saturday and Sunday.

If you use this service the HMRC will aim to post your UTR to you within five working days.