101 Ways to Pay Less Tax (2013/14)

101 Ways to Pay Less Tax (2013/14):

Revised and updated in line with the 2013 Budget for this new eighth edition.

Pay less tax this year by lowering your tax bill with this book of easy-to-follow "how to avoid tax" hints and tax saving tips from a team of pay-less-tax experts.

This new 2013/14 edition of the bestselling 101 Ways to Pay Less Tax provides a wealth of tips to help you save paying tax. Every tax-saving tip is from a team of tax-saving experts at H M Williams Chartered Accountants, a national award winning tax-saving specialist firm of chartered accountants.

The tax-saving tips included in this book are all legitimate ways to help reduce your tax bill - that is, showing you how to avoid tax rather than evade tax. And there's so much you can legally do to reduce your tax bill and pay less tax.

With tax-saving tips relating to:

• Tax-saving for those with low incomes
• Even more tax-saving for those with high incomes
• Pensioners and tax
• Tax and Employees
• Business tax and Employers
• Company cars and tax-saving
• Business tax: Running a business and avoiding tax
• National Insurance
• Capital Gains Tax
• Inheritance Tax
• Tax: Overseas aspects
• Tax saving when someone dies
• Pensions and avoiding tax 
• Property Tax
• Pay less tax: Savings
• Charitable giving and avoiding tax
• Tax, Marriage and children

Start to pay less tax NOW with 101 Ways to Pay Less Tax (2013/14).

About the Authors

Authors Ashley Smith, Tim Smith, Iain Watson and Hugh Williams are all accountants at HM Williams Chartered Accountants and have been winners of the prestigious Butterworth Tolley Best Tax Team Award. The firm has also been awarded the coveted Daily Telegraph/Energis Customer Service Award in the Professional and Business Services, Small Organisation category. In 2007, it won the 2020 award for the most innovative medium-sized UK accountancy practice.

Other Tax-Saving Guides from Lawpack:

• Tax Answers at a Glance
• How to Avoid Landlord Taxes
• 127 Landlord Tax Questions Answered

101 Ways to Pay Less Tax (2013/14): Contents

General principles of tax planning

1. Working Tax Credits
2. Child Tax Credits
3. Universal Credit
4. Use an accountant
5. Pay tax on time
6. The fundamentals of tax planning

For those with low incomes

7. Become a foster carer
8. Claim tax back on any interest you receive

For those with high incomes 

9. The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)
10. Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) 
11. Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)
12. Community Investment Tax Relief 
13. Maximise pension contributions 
14. Use all your pension allowance 
15. What income is free from tax? 
16. Pension contributions and the over 50s

For married couples and civil partners 

17. Equalise your incomes
18. Pay your spouse to work in your business

For employees 

19. Claim a flat-rate expense allowance
20. Professional subscriptions
21. Claim incidental expenses when travelling on business
22. Claim expenses against your employment income
23. Claim for the use of your home as an office 
24. Submit your Tax Return on time
25. Join the company pension scheme
26. When losing your job
27. Would you pay less tax if you went self-employed?
28. Moving because of your job?
29. Employee-owners

For employers

30. Short-term employment contracts
31. Share schemes
32. Tax-free benefits you can give to employees
33. Tax-free loans to employees

Company vehicles

34. Vans have some tax-saving attractions
35. Company cars 
36. The best (and worst) ways of providing company cars 
37. Claim approved mileage allowance payments for your car
38. Avoid the fuel tax charge 
39. Own your own car rather than using your employer’s

For those running their own business

40. Travelling expenses
41. Limited companies
42. Introduce goodwill to create a large director’s loan account and pay very little tax 
43. Don’t automatically reclaim VAT on fuel 
44. The flat-rate VAT scheme
45. National Insurance
46. Annual Investment Allowance and First-Year Allowances 
47. The benefit of short-life assets 
48. Use your business’s losses
49. Have you claimed for all your business expenses? 
50. Farmers and averaging
51. Partnerships 
52. Claiming tax relief on interest 

National Insurance

53. Get a state pension forecast well before retirement age 
54. Don’t pay too much National Insurance (1) 
55. Don’t pay too much National Insurance (2)
56. Don’t pay too much National Insurance (3)
57. Deferral of your state pension 

Capital Gains Tax 

58. Make use of the annual Capital Gains Tax exemption (1)
59. Make use of the annual Capital Gains Tax exemption (2)
60. Don’t overlook claiming relief for shares that are now worthless
61. Entrepreneurs’ Relief 
62. Assets you can sell without incurring Capital Gains Tax 
63. Enterprise Investment Schemes
64. Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes
65. Venture Capital Trusts
66. Other investments with tax advantages
67. It can be a good idea to crystallise capital gains if there is going to be no tax to pay
68. Claim Rollover Relief 
69. Time your sales to defer payment of Capital Gains Tax 
70. Reduce or eliminate Capital Gains Tax on a second home 

Inheritance Tax 

71. Check-up to see what your Inheritance Tax is likely to be
72. What gifts are exempt from Inheritance Tax?
73. Inheritance Tax business/agricultural property relief 
74. Changes to the tax-free band

Overseas aspects

75. Can you save tax by going abroad?

When someone dies

76. Don’t overpay Inheritance Tax on assets that are sold
77. Remember to claim full probate costs when someone dies
78. Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax considerations 
79. Should I consider a deed of variation? 

Pensions 

80. Take out a pension 
81. You may be able to take out a pension even if you are not earning
82. Maximise your tax-free lump sum entitlement 
83. Always take independent legal advice before drawing your pension

Property 

84. Rent a room 
85. VAT and rent 
86. Have you claimed for all the expenses you can?
87. Claim the interest on any loan you take out to buy the property 
88. Do you and your spouse/civil partner jointly own the property? 
89. Forestry 

Savings and investments

90. Get your interest paid gross
91. ISAs 
92. National Savings and Investments 
93. Premium savings bonds

Charitable giving 

94. Gift Aid 
95. Charities 

Marriage and children 

96. Give children assets when they are not worth very much 
97. What are the best investments for children?
98. Plan separation and divorce carefully

And finally ... 

99. Free HMRC explanatory publications – a good source of tax information 
100. Tax-planning dos 
101. Tax-planning don’ts