Thursday 30 November 2017

FRANCE: CFE bills are now released and are due for payment by 15 December

The CFE (Contribution Fonciere des Entreprises) bills for Micro-entrepreneurs (formerly Auto-entrepreneurs) and other businesses are now available online.

Access your CFE avis via your "espace professionnel" and follow the links to the CFE avis to make the payment online.   

No prompts or reminders are sent out by the Tax Administration, so you forget to pay this at your peril!

Monday 27 November 2017

Letters from URSSAF (Union de Recouvrement des Cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d'Allocations Familiales)




Following the release earlier this year of data to URSSAF by the Tax Administration, we are aware that many expatriates living in France have recently received a letter from URSSAF stating that contributions to the PUMA health regime (formally CMU) will be due from them within the next month.  The normal rate of PUMA contributions is 8% of the household's "revenus de patrimoine" ie investment income and capital gains.

Expatriates in France in possession of an S1 healthcare certificate from their home country are urged to obtain an Attestation from CPAM which should show code 70 on the attestation, meaning that their healthcare costs are borne by their home country ie United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland etc and, thus, the PUMA charge is not applicable.

If the attestation does not show code 70, it is possible there was a clerical error when the S1 was first registered with CPAM.  Often the CPAM forms erroneously show a retired person as “inactive” rather than “autres/retraité” so it will be necessary to get this amended to show the all-important code 70.

Friday 14 July 2017

MTD Part Six: Common sense prevails!



The Treasury announced yesterday that there will be a significant revamping of the proposals for MTD.

Businesses with income below the £85,000 VAT threshold, and which previously were caught under the original proposals, will no longer have to report online under the digital regime.  The Treasury have said they can join the digital revolution “at a pace that is right for them” although tax reporting online may be brought in at some point in the future.

The modified proposals see businesses above the VAT threshold being required to keep online digital records from April 2019 – but only for VAT reporting.  For other taxes, there is no requirement to keep or update digital records quarterly until “the system has been shown to work well and no earlier than 2020”.

PetersonSims are delighted at this announcement and Gerry Sims FCA said “At last, common sense has prevailed and the Government has listened to the views of the accounting profession and recognised that MTD would have been a significant time and monetary cost for business, just at the point when they would be facing other economic challenges associated with Brexit ”.

The new legislation will form part of the new Finance Bill which is expected to be introduced before Parliament’s summer recess.

Saturday 1 July 2017

New Expatriate Tax Director


PetersonSims are expanding the Expatriate Tax team and we are delighted to announce the appointment of Oliver Dupuy as Expatriate Tax Director from 3 July.   Oliver joins us from Ernst & Young, having worked in a senior role in expatriate tax in their Cambridge, London and Moscow offices.
He joins our existing Expatriate Tax team, providing advice on all aspects of expatriate taxation and bringing a wealth of Big 4 experience to our clients.  Oliver is located in our new offices in Letchworth and can be contacted by email at odupuy@petersonsims.com or by telephone on +44 (0)208 068 1400

Sunday 25 June 2017

Queen’s Speech and the Finance Bills


Following the Queen’s Speech last week, it is rumoured that a number of Finance Bills will be published on 28 June, which may include the proposed legislation regarding the changes to the “non-dom” regime.

However, a leading Counsel, closely involved with the drafting of the “non-dom” legislation has publicly stated that it is likely that the proposed changes to the “non-dom” regime would be deferred such that the new rules would apply with effect from 6 April 2018.  It is thought that it would be too difficult to introduce this complex legislation part way through the current tax year and that non-doms are  already experiencing too much uncertainty in their tax situation in the 2017/18 tax year. However, until that draft legislation is published non-one will know the approach the Government will take with regards to implementation of the proposed “non-dom” changes.

If you have any questions on the proposed “non-dom” legislation, then please contact Paulette Peterson on ppeterson@petersonsims.com

Thursday 4 May 2017

French Tax Refund Scam!



BEWARE Scam emails (example below) have been sent out to French taxpayers purporting to come from the French Tax Administration.   If in any doubt contact your local SIP and do not respond.   

Cher(e) client(e) :

Vous avez choisi de télérégler vos impôts par Internet et nous vous en remercions.

Après les derniers calculs d'administration fiscale d'impôt sur le revenu,nous avons déterminé que vous êtes admissible à recevoir un remboursement de notre part d'un montant de 158,40 €

Quelles sont les démarches à suivre pour effectuer mon remboursement d'impôts ?

Veuillez accéder à votre dossier personnel est mettre à jour vos coordonnées postales et bancaires pour que votre remboursement soit effectué dans les plus brefs délais et vous nous permettez dans les 3 jours ouvrables pour traiter votre situation.
ATTENTION! :
ce lien est valable pour une durée de 48 heures.

Vous pouvez consulter les Conditions Générales d'utilisation de votre espace particulier.
En vous remerciant de votre confiance.

La Direction générale des finances publiques

Suivez-nous sur Twitter@dgfip_officiel et sur Facebook : Direction Générale des Finance

Thursday 9 March 2017

Spring Budget 2017


Philip Hammond's first and last Spring Budget is not quite as bland as, perhaps, it initially seemed, and some of the key points are discussed below:

The Chancellor has drastically cut the dividend allowance that was introduced by his predecessor, down from £5,000 to just £2,000 per annum, which will not go down well with OMBs (owner managed businesses).  This measure will impact from April 2018 so there is still one more year (2017/18) at the current level of dividend allowance of £5,000 tax-free.

The self-employed, with profits in excess of £16,250, are on the receiving end of a hike in their Class 4 National Insurance Contributions, although this increase is an effort to ensure more equity in the National Insurance Contributions between the employed and self-employed, now that the self-employed are receiving better state pension provision under the new state pension rules, which commenced in April 2016.

From 1 April 2017, the VAT registration and deregistration thresholds will increase in line with inflation by £2,000 to £85,000 and £83,000 respectively.

As discussed elsewhere on our News Blog, the date for the implementation of Making Tax Digital has been postponed for one year, until April 2019, for those businesses and landlords whose income is below the VAT threshold.

The main changes to the non-dom regime legislation have been well documented and draft legislation is already out for consultation but, in the Budget yesterday, there were a few minor additions - namely the extension of the transitional rule permitting non-doms to segregate their existing "mixed fund" accounts so that now this applies to pre-2007/08 accounts, too.   In addition, in order to encourage UK investment by non-doms, the Chancellor announced some changes to Business Investment Relief to make it more attractive and more widely available.

There is no change to the proposed reduction in corporation tax rates, so the new 19% rate will apply from next month, as originally intended.

If you have any questions on any of the above, or on other provisions announced yesterday, then please contact us on:  info@petersonsims.com
 

MTD: Part Four - A Reprieve!


Philip Hammond delivered some very welcome news yesterday when he announced that, for all businesses & landlords with income below the VAT limit (now £85,000), the implementation of Making Tax Digital will be delayed for one year until April 2019.

This reprieve of one year offers the opportunity, at last, for proper foundations to be laid for MTD and it gives HMRC more time to run simulations and iron out the problems which will inevitably crop up within their systems.  It also provides more time to implement digital support for the small businesses and landlords impacted by MTD.

HMRC's original time frame of April 2018 was always over ambitious.   Software firms, in particular, were facing impossible deadlines to provide the software packages that would underpin MTD and the accountancy profession was anxious that HMRC's proposed support systems would be inadequate.  Education of those impacted by MTD can now be delivered in a staged and measured way, with businesses having the time to get proper help to prepare for "D-day" in April 2019. 

In addition, this one-year postponement will also allow more time for the professional accountancy bodies and other interested parties to continue to lobby the Government over those parts of the original MTD proposals that we feel have not been properly analysed, including the very important issue of the real cost to businesses of MTD.

Sunday 5 February 2017

MTD: Part Three - The Government's Response


After an unprecedented 3,000 + responses to HMRC's six Consultation Documents on Making Tax Digital, we finally got the official response from the Government.....and it basically says not much is going to change from the original proposals.

There are still concerns that HMRC has responded to public concerns with only some "window dressing".   There is to be a period of further consultation regarding the two main aspects of the MTD proposal  that have given most concern - namely the decision on the hoped-for increase in the exemption limit up to the VAT threshhold and the timescale for implementation.  However, this period of consultation is only three and one-half weeks instead of the usual 12 weeks!   

Most professional commentators still consider the pace of change is too ambitious and could damage the economy at a delicate time, post-Brexit when the country's smaller businesses will be facing other, more pressing, challenges.  A fundamental change in reporting and taxation for these businesses could just tip some over the edge as the perceived view is that HMRC's projection, of a reduction in costs for these businesses, is totally wide of the mark.   If the public's concerns are taken onboard, we could perhaps expect to see a postponement, possibly only for one year until April 2019, but even that would be widely welcomed.

At least HMRC has now agreed that Excel spreadsheets, beloved of most businesses and accountants, can be used for digital record -keeping, which is seen as a major softening of HMRC's original proposal.  Furthermore, the penalties regime will be sympathetic to late submissions in the early days.  

So, we are still waiting for the Government's answers on the two fundamental issues of the exemption limit and the implementation timetable, but with such a short second consultation period, we will hopefully get some answers soon!  

Tuesday 17 January 2017

MTD: Part Two - a little glimmer of hope!

The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has released their Report on Making Tax Digital and it is scathing of HMRC's programme for MTD. 

The Chairman of the TSC said "Without sufficient care, MTD could be a disaster. Implemented carefully, with long transitional arrangements where necessary, and, having drawn on information from fully inclusive pilots, Making Tax Digital could be designed for the benefit both of the economy and of the tax yield, but with a rushed introduction, it will benefit neither".

The TSC have criticised the digitising of business records and quarterly reporting, especially for small businesses and have commented adversely on the speed at which HMRC proposed the implementation of MTD.  "Just over a year is too short a lead time for such a fundamental change …and there should be a comprehensive set of pilots of the end-to-end system before it is made mandatory for all businesses."

The TSC also expressed concerns that the envisaged cost benefits of MTD to the Exchequer would not materialise and that the collateral damage to millions of small businesses up and down the country would be very significant.

Four crucial areas of concern were specifically commented upon in the Report:

·       the threshold of £10,000 should be raised to the VAT threshold of £83,000

·       the proposed timetable - an April 2018 start date - should be postponed until at least 2019/20 or even later

·       comprehensive pilots of the proposed system are essential, covering the full cycle of four quarterly updates and an end of year reconciliation and these must be evaluated before MTD goes "live" for the first tranche of small businesses

·       software availability is key and this must be fully trialled and free for small and less complex businesses  

So we must now await the Government's response to the Consultation but at least the TSC's Report offers some glimmer of hope that we are not to be prematurely bullied into MTD.

We will report further when the Government's response is made public.