Planned dividends, Death penalties, HMRC bank accounts

Last week we returned to the topic of the new dividend tax, as without forward planning many shareholders will see their tax bills increase in 2016/17 by at least 7.5%. We also explored the problems that can arise from errors in a deceased person's tax return, and updated accountants about the new HMRC bank accounts.

This is an extract from our topical tax tips newsletter dated 3 March 2016 (5 days before we publish an extract on this blog). You can obtain future issues by registering here>>>

HMRC bank accounts 
HMRC is moving it's bank accounts again, for the third time in 15 years. This is part of the open tendering policy under which key Government contracts are regularly reviewed. For banking facilities this appears to occur every seven years. 
  
This time the accounts are moving from the RBS and Citi Banks to Barclays Bank, but most taxpayers won't have to do anything different. The account numbers and sort codes of the HMRC accounts are moving to the new bank, so all UK electronic payments will proceed as normal. Also all cheques sent to HMRC will be processed as normal. 
  
However, taxpayers who pay HMRC from a bank account situated outside the UK will have to use a new IBAN number, the details of which are shown in the links below. Overseas HMRC “customers” are being informed about this bank account change via a personalised letter, but you could tell your non-resident clients by email rather quicker. 
  
The next big tax payment date which will be important to overseas residents is 30 April 2016 when the ATED charge for 2016/17 is due. ATED is payable by companies or other non-natural persons who hold UK residential properties which are worth over £500,000 (threshold reduces from £1 million on 1 April 2016). This can include companies or partnerships with corporate members which are resident outside the UK. 
  
To pay the ATED charge the taxpayer must quote their ATED reference number. However, to get an ATED reference number the taxpayer must first submit an ATED return, which is due on the same day: 30 April 2016. So if this is the first year the taxpayer is due to pay the ATED charge, the ATED return must be submitted early in order to get a reference number to pay the ATED charge on time. 

This is an extract from our topical tax tips newsletter dated 3 March 2016 (5 days before we publish an extract on this blog). You can obtain future issues by registering here>>>

The full newsletter contained links to related source material for this story and the other two topical, timely and commercial tax tips. We've been publishing this newsletter weekly since 2007; it's clearly written and focused on precisely what accountants in general practice need to know about each week. You can obtain future issues by registering here>>>