Timing the date of a dividend payment from a company can determine both the amount and the due date of the tax payable. This may be a particularly useful strategy in a close- or family-owned company.

The deadline for filing the self-assessment tax return for 2018/19 is 31 January 2020. This is also the date by which any outstanding tax for 2018/19 must be paid and, where payments need to be made on account, the date by which the first payment on account of the 2019/20 liability must be made.

The domestic reverse VAT charge for building and construction services was due to come into effect from 1 October 2019. However, in early September it was announced that the start date had been put back one year. As a result, the charge will now apply from 1 October 2020.

Although it is possible to strike off a company and for distributions made prior to dissolution to be treated as capital rather than as a dividend, this is not an option where the amount of the distributions exceeds £25,000.

The VAT domestic reverse charge for building and construction services comes into effect from 1 October 2019. The reverse charge represents part of a government clamp-down on VAT fraud.

When calculating the profit or loss for a property rental business, it is important that nothing is overlooked. The receipts which need to be taken into account may include more than simply the rent received from letting out the property.

The high-income child benefit charge (HICBC) applies to claw back child benefit from either the claimant or his or her partner where at least one of them has income of £50,000 or more.

Entrepreneurs’ relief is intended to reduce the rate of capital gains tax to a flat rate of 10% on certain qualifying business disposals. Certain aspects of the relief have recently changed, and this may affect any subsequent tax liability.

A tax exemption enables an employer to meet small personal expenses when an employee stays away from home for work, without the employee suffering a tax charge and without any need to report the expenses to HMRC.

Where property is jointly-owned, the way in which the rental income can be split between the joint owners for tax purposes depends on whether the joint owners are married or in a civil partnership or not.

A new property allowance of £1,000 was introduced from 6 April 2017. The allowance means that individuals with income from property of less than £1,000 do not need to pay tax on that income. Further, they do not need to tell HMRC about it. The allowance is available in addition to the personal allowance (and other allowances, such as the marriage allowance, to which the individual is entitled).

Inheritance tax (IHT) is starting to be more of a concern to many people. Most estates (the assets you leave when you die) are still not charged with inheritance tax, as the total value is not high enough, but more estates are being dragged into the IHT net because of property prices. However, with sensible planning a lot can be done to mitigate the effects of IHT.

There are a number of tax concessions available to married couples and civil partners which recognise that their financial affairs may be interlinked. One of these concessions relates the transfer of assets between spouse and civil partner for capital gains tax purposes.

Autumn Budget 2018 announced a new measure, designed to counter fraud in the construction industry, which has seen gangs of criminal traders artificially extending the chain of supply of labour services, then failing to account for all the output VAT due to HMRC by collecting the VAT on the supplies (sales) and then going "missing" before passing the VAT on to HMRC.