Employers must act as a tax collector for HMRC, deducting tax, National Insurance and, if applicable, student loan deductions, from their employees’ pay and pay these over to HMRC with their employer’s National Insurance contributions. The payments must reach HMRC by 22nd of the following tax month where payment is made electronically, and by the

Last reviewed: November 2026 The tax-free dividend allowance is £500 for 2026/27, and dividend tax rates for basic and higher rate taxpayers went up by 2 percentage points on 6 April 2026. If you take dividends from your own limited company, your tax bill for this year will be higher than last year on the

It will not always be apparent when a hobby tips over into a trade and the point at which you need to declare your income to HMRC. There is no statutory definition of a trade beyond that a trade includes a ‘venture in the nature of a trade’. Consequently, in deciding whether a trade exists,

In the halcyon days of buy-to-let ownership, landlords were able to benefit from lettings relief if they sold a let property which at some point had been their only or main residence. This could reduce the chargeable gain by as much as £40,000. While the relief still exists, it is now only available to landlords

Tax changes in recent years to the way that unincorporated landlords are treated for tax purposes, particular in respect to relief for interest, have resulted in an increase in the number of landlords operating their property rental business through a company. Is this a good idea? We take a look at some of the issue