Author name: Merit Accountants

Your end client tells you the off payroll rules no longer apply, because it has become a small company. It sounds like good news. It might even be right. But if the client has got the size test wrong, the liability does not sit with them, it comes back to your company. So am I inside or outside IR35, and who is actually responsible for deciding in 2026/27?

You have a UK limited company, a UK company number, a UK registered office address and stock sitting in a Midlands fulfilment centre. You told Amazon you were UK established, because on the face of it you obviously are. Then the marketplace starts charging 20% on your sales, your margin disappears overnight, and HMRC wants a conversation

Your charity has just approved a £60,000 digital campaign. Some of it will be zero rated for VAT, some of it will carry 20%, and the difference is not about how much you spend or who you spend it with. It is about how the advertising finds its audience. So which digital channels qualify for the charity advertising zero rate, and which ones quietly cost you an extra 20%?

Your company owns a residential property worth more than £500,000. It is let to a tenant on a commercial basis, so there is no Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings to pay. That means there is nothing to file, doesn’t it?

Two subcontractors invoice the same £12,000 job. One gets £9,600 in the bank, the other gets £11,040. Same work, same rate, same contractor. The difference is entirely in how the invoice was put together and what came out before the CIS deduction was calculated. So what expenses can you claim under CIS, and which ones does HMRC refuse?

Your turnover is creeping towards £90,000, most of your customers are members of the public who cannot reclaim VAT, and registering means either a 20% price rise or a 20% cut in your margin. Someone in the pub tells you to split the business in two. So how do you avoid going over the VAT threshold legitimately, and what happens if HMRC decides your split was artificial?

You run a profitable company and you assume the first £50,000 of profit is taxed at 19%. Then you learn that your wife’s consultancy, which you have nothing to do with day to day, has quietly halved your limits and pushed you into marginal relief.

If you are a subcontractor working under the Construction Industry Scheme, 20% of every labour payment you invoice is taken off before it reaches your bank. On a £250,000 year that is £50,000 sitting with HMRC instead of funding your wages, your materials and your next job. So how do you apply for gross payment status, and what does HMRC actually check before it says yes?

Your company has had 20% taken off every labour invoice all year. The money is yours, it is sitting with HMRC, and you want it back. But the route a limited company has to take is completely different from the one a sole trader uses, and getting it wrong is the single most common reason these claims stall. So how do you claim your CIS tax back

You sell the same product two ways. On your own website you charge the VAT, file the return and pay it over. On a marketplace, the platform may account for it instead, and you may never touch it. Meanwhile the postage line on your invoice is quietly costing you money you did not budget for. So who actually owes the VAT on your online sales, and why does the delivery charge catch so many sellers out?