The following tax changes came into effect Monday 6 April 2015
Following on from our previous blog posting: tax changes that were effective from 1 April 2015 (and that mainly affected Companies), we have included below tax changes that affect individuals from 6 April 2015, the start of the 2015-16 tax year.
- Individuals over the age of 55 have flexible access to their defined contribution pension savings
- The Income Tax Personal Allowance increases to £10,600
- The higher rate income tax threshold increases to £42,385
- The new Marriage Allowance comes into effect
- The starting rate of savings income tax reduces from 10% to 0% for savings up to £5,000
- The cash ISA limit increases to £15,240
- Child Trust Funds can now be transferred into Junior ISAs
- Spouses can now inherit their deceased partner’s ISA benefits
- If an individual dies before the age of 75, they can now pass on their unused defined contribution pension savings free of income tax
- Beneficiaries of individuals who die under the age of 75 with a joint life or guaranteed term annuity can now receive any future payments from such policies free of income tax
- Employers will no longer have to pay employer NICs for employees under the age of 21
- Class 2 NICs for the self-employed can now be collected through Self-Assessment
- The Employment Allowance extends to include people employing care and support workers to look after themselves or family members
- A new annual remittance basis charge of £90,000 is introduced for non-domiciled individuals who have been resident in the UK in at least 17 of the last 20 years, and the charge paid by non-domiciled individuals who have been resident in the UK in at least 12 of the last 14 years has increased from £50,000 to £60,000
- Non-UK resident individuals, trusts, personal representatives and narrowly controlled companies are now subject to Capital Gains Tax on gains accruing on the disposal of UK residential property
- Capital Gains Tax annual exemption amount has increased to £11,100
- The Capital Gains Tax charge on disposals of properties liable to ATED extends to cover residential properties worth £1 million – £2 million
- The requirement that 70% of Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme money must be spent before EIS or VCT funding can be raised is removed
- The Fuel Benefit Charge multiplier for both cars and vans increases by RPI
- The Van Benefit Charge increases by RPI – in 2015-16 the Van Benefit Charge rate paid by zero emission vans is 20% of the rate paid by conventionally fuelled vans
- Tax Credit payments are stopped in-year where, due to a change in circumstances, a claimant has already received their full annual entitlement
Please contact us if you need more information on any of the above changes.