Stamp Duty Land Tax

The specialist VAT areas that we can advise you on include:

• Health check reviews identifying both VAT risks and opportunities for savings

• International tax and dealing with trading outside the UK

• Land and property transactions, and the option to tax

• Acquisitions and disposals

• Succession – new entities and trust entity implications

• Diversification – VAT queries and strategy

• Brexit – compliance now, international

• Buying and selling, streamline logistics

• Making Tax Digital

• International trade

• Compliance – penalties and interest, returns and payments, registration, reviews and audits

• HMRC enquiries and negotiations

• Indirect tax investigations, independent reviews and appeals to the Tribunal.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a complex tax, and with the current land and property prices, it is a high additional purchase cost. When you purchase more than one property, or a mix of residential and non-residential property and land, reliefs are potentially available that could save you significant SDLT costs – sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Old Mill offers straightforward advice to give purchasers the peace of mind that they are paying the correct amount of SDLT and claiming all relevant reliefs. Our dedicated SDLT team understand complex legislation and case law and can provide you with comprehensive advice when dealing with your property purchase. You can be sure you will pay the correct SDLT and claim all available reliefs when meeting the qualifying conditions. We will work closely with your solicitor/ conveyancer in this process.

We understand that SDLT has to be paid within 14 days of completion and will ensure you receive our advice promptly.

We will be honest and inform you if we feel reliefs are unavailable. A fixed fee will be agreed upon before we undertake any work to ensure we provide you with the best service.

Based on the information provided by you, the estate agents, and your solicitor, we will:

• Provide a timely written report outlining any available reliefs and highlighting any risks

• Provide SDLT computations that show the tax position and available potential tax savings.

Research and Development (R & D)

The tax team at Old Mill specialises in helping South West forward-thinking businesses across all sectors to grow to the next level. Whether you’re a pioneering manufacturer, a farmer working on processes to extend product shelf life, or an entrepreneur developing cutting-edge digital communication channels, your R&D expenditure may qualify for the scheme. If it does, the rewards can be substantial.

Businesses across the South West are among the most progressive and forward-thinking in the UK. Yet, many may be missing out on tax incentives already worth an estimated £2bn by either being unaware of the scheme or assuming their research work will not qualify.

The R&D tax credit scheme rewards companies that invest in developing new products, processes or services or enhancing existing ones by offering tax relief on a range of revenue expenditures (including employee costs and materials). We can explore whether you are eligible to make an R&D claim and then advise and support you through the claim process by liaising with HMRC on your behalf.

If your business and the project meet the criteria, you could qualify for 230% tax relief on your R&D costs, which means that for every £100 spent, your company could reduce its taxable profits by an additional £130, saving Corporation Tax at a rate of £25 for every £100 spent.

Tax Investigations

Tax investigations are becoming increasingly common, costly and onerous. Our experienced specialist tax team offers a tax investigation service, along with a fee protection scheme –so that we can deal with HMRC enquiries on your behalf, giving you peace of mind and the time to enjoy the important things in life.

Tax investigations can be triggered by one of several things – consecutive years of unprofitability, figures inconsistent with your industry sector, or regular mistakes on your tax return are some common causes – but they can also be randomly generated.

Whatever the cause, HMRC does not need to tell you the reason for the investigation, and the onus will be on you to prove that your tax return is correct rather than on HMRC to identify errors. Investigations can take three months to at least a year and much longer in cases involving large, complex businesses.

Our tax investigation service is designed to help you avoid both the stress and the time demands of dealing with HMRC by dealing with HMRC on your behalf.

Our specialists have plenty of experience handling such enquiries and understand what responses you will need to make to HMRC to defend your position.

We offer a service which covers the cost of our fees in dealing with HMRC should they enquire into your affairs, these costs can be substantial as HMRC seek to close the tax gap and increase revenue for the government. To find out more please speak to a member of the team who can advise you further on the costs and what the service covers.