Jon Stow Consulting – Tax Solutions

The BBC reports the Downing Street reaction to the comments of Peer Steinbruck, the social democrat German finance minister but The Times reports the comments with less spin.

I would not have thought the remarks were that controversial. I expressed similar views in this blog on 28th November, and I was not alone.

“You are old, father Gordon,” the young man said,”And your hair has become very grey;And yet you incessantly stand on your headDo you think, at your age, it’s the way?

“In … Continue Reading

Subsistence for sole traders and partnershipsHM Revenue & Customs have for many years allowed sole traders and people trading in partnership to claim reasonable subsistence costs on business trips involving overnight stays away from home, though they have generally resisted allowing costs of meals away from home or office on day trips, relying on case law which states that one eats to live, not to work. Claims to deduct the cost of lunch and other snacks on day trips have thus been refused.Of course employees have generally been allowed to reclaim such subsistence costs … Continue Reading

Only a few weeks ago I complimented the local office of HM Revenue & Customs on their prompt response to a request. The lady in question definitely earned Brownie points.A couple of weeks ago I telephoned the agent’s line of our local tax office to ask for a print of a subcontractor’s earnings for 2007-08 from their records. As I told the person, this was not to circumvent the proper checking of our client’s records and paperwork, but as an added check because at the beginning of the introduction of the new scheme in April 2007, some main … Continue Reading