Posts Tagged ‘tax relief’

Gift Hold-over Relief

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

This relief will help you to defer capital gains tax (CGT) when you give away chargeable assets or if you sell something subject to CGT for less than its market value. The relief is called Gift Hold-Over Relief and could be claimed if you give away business assets (including certain shares) or sell them for less than they are worth to help the buyer.

Gift Hold-Over Relief means:

  • you don’t pay Capital Gains Tax when you give away the assets
  • the person you give them to pays Capital Gains tax (if any is due) when they sell (or ‘dispose of’) them

Tax isn’t usually payable on gifts to your husband, wife, civil partner or a charity.

Eligibility

The conditions for claiming relief depend on whether you’re giving away business assets or shares.

If you’re giving away business assets you must:

  • be a sole trader or business partner, or have at least 5% of shares and voting rights in a company (known as your ‘personal company’)
  • use the assets in your business or personal company

You can usually get partial relief if you used the assets only partly for your business.

If you’re giving away shares the shares must be in a company that’s either:

  • not listed on any recognised stock exchange
  • your personal company

The company’s main activities must be in trading (e.g. providing goods or services) rather than non-trading activities like investment.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2015 at 12:00 am by Slaters and is filed under Capital Gains Tax, Company Tax, Personal Tax, Tax, Tax planning, Tax relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Staff loans for would be tenants

Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis announced recently government-wide support for a new scheme that will become available to thousands of potential tenants.

The minister said he was determined to “create a bigger, better private rented sector”.

All of Whitehall has now agreed to offer deposit loans to staff looking to take up new tenancies in the private rented sector, following in the footsteps of the Department for Communities and Local Government. This includes the Home Office, Ministry of Defence, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department of Health.

More help for tenants

The scheme, which works in the same way as a staff season ticket loan, will allow employees to borrow some of their salary upfront in order to pay for rental deposits, which is then repayable from salary payments over up to a year. It is available to be taken up in both the public and private sectors.

The Department for Communities and Local Government last October became the first government department to roll the scheme out to its staff, with ministers pushing other parts of government and the public sector to follow suit. The department is working with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to increase availability across the private sector.

Brandon Lewis said:

With millions of people across the country renting their home we are determined to create a bigger, better private rented sector that is fair to tenants.

Today’s move will mean thousands of people will be offered a helping hand to rent privately through season ticket style loans from their employers.

I hope to see more employers in the public and private sector joining the scheme in the near future.

The tenancy deposit scheme can be adapted by different employers to suit their needs, but generally employees are offered interest-free loans to pay their deposits when they move into a privately rented home, which are then paid back through their salary over the course of up to a year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 at 12:00 am by Slaters and is filed under Landlords, Personal Tax, Property, Tax relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.