Businesses owing over £2.3 million in VAT annually must make advance payments on account. These are based on the previous year’s VAT liability and paid in instalments. Late payments incur penalties, but adjustments may be possible for fluctuating liabilities.

The payments are usually based on the previous year’s VAT liability, and businesses are required to pay 1/24th of their estimated annual liability to HMRC by the last working day of the second and third months of the VAT quarter.

For example, if your VAT quarter ends on 31 March, your payments on account for that quarter will be due by 31 May and 30 June. Businesses that fail to make these payments on time will be subject to interest and penalties.

The payments on account and the balancing payments must be made electronically and cleared funds must be in HMRC's bank account by close of business on the due date. Businesses making POA do not benefit from the seven extra calendar days allowed to other VAT registered businesses for paying electronically.

The payment amount is calculated by HMRC based on the previous year’s VAT liability. If your liability changes and fluctuates by more than 20%, you may be able to request an adjustment to reduce your payments. This request must be approved by HMRC, and any adjustments will only be applied once HMRC has confirmed that the changes are valid. If the amount of VAT payable is higher than anticipated, the payment on account may increase, but it cannot exceed your total VAT liability from the previous year.

Maintenance Payments Relief reduces Income Tax for those making court-ordered payments to an ex-spouse or civil partner. To qualify, one party must have been born before 6 April 1935. The relief is 10% of payments, up to £428 per year.

To qualify for this relief, all of the following conditions must apply:

• Either you or your ex-spouse/civil partner must have been born before 6 April 1935.
• You must be paying maintenance under a court order after the relationship has ended.
• The payments must be for the maintenance of your ex-spouse or former civil partner, provided they are not remarried or in a new civil partnership, or for children under 21.
• This relief offers a 10% reduction in the maintenance you pay, up to a maximum of £428 per year (10% of £4,280).

To claim, you must contact HMRC. The process involves providing necessary documentation, such as proof of the court order and payment records.

This benefit is designed to reduce the overall tax burden, helping someone manage their financial responsibilities after a separation.

However, it's important to note that this tax relief is limited due to the age condition — it only applies if either party was born before 6 April 1935, which significantly restricts its usage.

Self-employed individuals earning £12,570 or more annually must pay Class 4 National Insurance Contributions (NICs). For 2024-25, rates are 6% on profits up to £50,270 and 2% above this. Certain groups are exempt, and voluntary Class 2 NICs may be beneficial.

Class 4 NIC rates for the tax year 2024-25 are 6% for chargeable profits between £12,570 and £50,270 plus 2% on any profits over £50,270. There are no changes to these rates for 2025-26.

A number of categories of people are exempt from paying Class 4 NICs, these include:

• People under the age of 16 at the beginning of the year of assessment.
• People over State pension age at the beginning of the year of assessment. A person who attains State pension age during the course of the year of assessment remains liable for Class 4 NICs for the whole of that year.
• People receiving profits in their capacity as a trustee, executor or administrator of a person liable to tax under ITTOIA2005/S8.

The mandatory payment of Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the self-employed was abolished effective from 6 April 2024. It can be beneficial for some self-employed people who do not pay NICs through self-assessment to make voluntarily Class 2 NICs. This can help them to access certain contributory benefits including the State Pension. It is important to confirm that this would be beneficial before making any voluntary payment. The current weekly rate for making voluntary Class 2 NICs is £3.45 and is increasing to £3.50 in 2025-26.

Most self-employed individuals pay Class 2 and Class 4 NICs through self-assessment. Certain self-employed roles, such as examiners, moderators, invigilators, and ministers of religion without a salary do not pay National Insurance through self-assessment but may want to pay voluntary contributions.

Group relief helps reduce the overall Corporation Tax of a group of companies by allowing them to share losses. For example, if a parent company has profits of £1,000 and its subsidiary has losses of £100, the group is treated as making £900 in total profits for tax purposes, instead of paying tax on the full £1,000. The group would then pay tax on the £900.

Group relief lets one company transfer its losses to another company within the same group, but it doesn’t treat the group as a single entity for tax purposes. Each company remains a separate legal entity. The surrendering company must actively consent to the claimant company utilising its losses.

Key points of group relief:

• Losses and certain other amounts can be transferred between companies in the same group.
• The amount that can be claimed is the lower of the surrendering company’s available losses and the claimant company’s total profits.

There are special rules that apply:

• to UK permanent establishments of companies resident outside the UK and overseas permanent establishments of UK resident companies, if there is the possibility of relief being given in a jurisdiction other than the UK,
• if there are arrangements that could affect the group relationship, or
• if the loss arises to a 75% subsidiary resident in an European Economic Area territory.

A Tribunal has ruled that a deputy security manager was unfairly dismissed, despite performing “no prescribed tasks” while ‘working from home’, many hundreds of miles from his place of work. Mr. Kitaruth travelled from London to Cornwall to visit with his parents for four days, during which the hearing found no evidence that he did any work.

When his line manager, Mr. Stride of OCS Security Ltd., summoned him to a mid-week meeting in the office he learned of Mr. Kitaruth's location leading to his subsequent dismissal for "gross misconduct". However, Mr. Kitaruth won his case for unfair dismissal after the Tribunal found that the company had failed to interview the line manager during their investigation.

Mr. Kitaruth told the Tribunal that he had an informal arrangement in which he verbally agreed with Mr. Stride on the dates that he would ‘work from home’, as August was a quiet month at the conference centre. The Tribunal found that Mr. Kitaruth “genuinely believed he had been given permission” although there was possibly of a misunderstanding arising between himself and his line manager, as evidenced by the message train on WhatsApp. Despite the pretext of 'working from home' there was no evidence that he had performed any tasks and, although he responded to "calendar invites, phone calls, liaising with the officers and emails,” he did not do so in a timely manner.

Judge Tamara Lewis noted that it was “extremely poor practice” for the company to take just six weeks to investigate and dismiss Mr. Kitaruth, and then to take a further seven and a half months to hear and reject his appeal. Moreover, the Judge found that "no reasonable employer would have failed to interview Mr. Stride formally before reaching a decision to dismiss the claimant," and hence, "For this reason, the dismissal was unfair.”

Employers should always publish, adopt, and follow to the letter any formal disciplinary procedures before terminating the employment of any contracted employee.