December 2023

Please don't forget that if you are writing to or visiting our Penarth office, we are now at Office 10, Workspace Penarth, Albert Road, Penarth, CF64 1FD. Our telephone numbers and email addresses have not changed.

Christmas & New Year Opening

Please note our offices will be closed from noon for the afternoon on Thursday 21st December, all day Friday 22nd December and we will also be closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day

During the days between Christmas and New Year, please let us know if you would like to visit one of our offices and we can ensure we are available for you

Advisory fuel rates for company cars

New company car advisory fuel rates have been published and took effect from 1 December 2023.

The guidance states: 'you can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply'. The rates only apply to employees using a company car.

The advisory fuel rates for journeys undertaken on or after 1 December 2023 are:

HMRC guidance states that the rates only apply when you either:

• reimburse employees for business travel in their company cars
• require employees to repay the cost of fuel used for private travel

You must not use these rates in any other circumstances.

The Advisory Electricity Rate for fully electric cars is 9p per mile. Electricity is not a fuel for car fuel benefit purposes.

If you would like to discuss your company car policy, please contact us.

Real Living Wage to increase by 10%

The Real Living Wage is set to increase by 10%, the Living Wage Foundation has announced.

The rate will rise to £12 an hour across the UK and £13.15 an hour in London. The increase will affect over 460,000 people working for 14,000 Real Living Wage employers across the UK.

Unlike the National Living Wage (NLW), the Real Living Wage is independently calculated based on rising living costs and applies to everyone over 18.

National Insurance changes

Jeremy Hunt used his Autumn Statement speech to cut the main rate of employee NICs from 12% to 10% for 27 million workers across the UK. This is set to take effect from 6 January 2024. If you are running your own payroll, please note you will need updated software to calculate the change.

For the self-employed, the Chancellor abolished Class 2 NICs and cut Class 4 NICs from 9% to 8%, effective from 6 April 2024.

Chancellor makes Full Expensing permanent and offers a business rates support package in the Autumn Statement

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt used his Autumn Statement to make Full Expensing permanent for those businesses investing in IT equipment, plant and machinery.

The Chancellor said he was aiming to stimulate economic growth and highlighted 110 measures for businesses in the Statement.

Full Expensing was first announced in the March Budget and was scheduled to last for three years but it now permanent. The rules allow a 100% write-off on qualifying expenditure on most plant and machinery (excluding cars) as long as it is unused and not second-hand.

There is also a business rates support package for the next five years to help high streets and protect small businesses. This includes a rollover of the 75% retail, hospitality and leisure relief.

Government agrees to international crack down on crypto tax evasion

The UK government has agreed an 'historic' commitment with 48 countries to combat criminals using crypto assets to evade tax.

The landmark agreement follows on from the UK's tax deal made in 2021 to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance and 'ensure the right tax is paid in the right place'.

The new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) flagship tax transparency standard that will require crypto platforms to begin sharing taxpayer information with tax authorities.

The new framework will allow international authorities to exchange information in order to enforce tax compliance and builds on the existing Common Reporting Standard system authorities utilise to share information.