About clarelondon

Clare London took her pen name from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with her other day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with award-winning novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic, and sexy characters. Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter three stage and plenty of other projects in mind... she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home. Clare loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her here: Website: http://www.clarelondon.com E-mail: clarelondon11@yahoo.co.uk Blog: www.clarelondon.com/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarelondon Twitter: https://twitter.com/clare_london Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/clarelondon Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondon/ Google+ : https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ClareLondon/posts

HMRC hiccups

Posted on January 6, 2018 by clarelondon

Spare a thought for accountants and their clients this weekend, and anyone who’s wrapping up personal tax returns in the final month before the deadline of 31 January – the HMRC online access has been “down” since at least Thursday, and submissions are waiting in a draft limbo. Here’s hoping it’ll be up and running again soon, HMRC are diligently working on it. Maybe we’ve broken the system, leaving too many submissions to the last minute! 🙂

*makes note to chase clients for details even earlier next year*

Paying your Income Tax Bill

Posted on December 18, 2017 by clarelondon

HMRC will no longer accept payments by personal credit card after 12 January 2018.

The reason of the change is that from 13 January, the EU Payment Services Directive 2 prohibits merchants (including HMRC) from recharging associated fees back to customers. HMRC will not absorb the cost of credit card fees as this would be a cost to the public purse.

Payments by debit card or corporate credit card will continue to be accepted.

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Budget Nov 2017 summary

Posted on November 23, 2017 by clarelondon

Autumn Budget 2017: What measures did the chancellor announce?

Philip Hammond promised “a balanced Budget”, one that would maintain fiscal responsibility but help families cope with the cost of living. What measures did he announce to achieve his Budget aim?

Author : Emma Smith, Managing Editor, Accountancy Age

Date published : November 22, 2017

Philip Hammond promised “a balanced Budget”, one that would maintain fiscal responsibility but help families cope with the cost of living. What measures did he announce to achieve his Budget aim?

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Government Gateway – why you need one and how to get it

Posted on November 18, 2017 by clarelondon

Hello taxpayers!

This is the face of your future communication with HMRC on any kind of tax. They would like us all to communicate online, via a GOVERNMENT GATEWAY NUMBER.

From there you can set up an online account called a Personal Tax Account, so you can access at any time your tax position.

You can also use it to register for self-employment, including the range of taxes that may then be applicable. You can monitor these taxes through your Business Tax Account, including making your regular payments.

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Self Employed National Insurance – info for 2019/2020

Posted on November 16, 2017 by clarelondon

NEWS on the application of National Insurance rates from Accounting Web:

Classes 2 and 4 NIC were to be merged from 6 April 2018, with class 2 NIC abolished from that date. This merger will now take place from 6 April 2019.

Delay

In a written statement to the House of Commons released late yesterday, it was announced that the abolition of class 2 national insurance contributions (NIC) would be delayed by one year to 6 April 2019. This delay was justified by a need to consult more fully with interested parties in respect of the effect of the abolition of class 2 NIC on lower earners.

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National Insurance – check your state pension

Posted on November 14, 2017 by clarelondon

NATIONAL INSURANCE PAYMENTS are part of all taxpayers’ lives. As they’re currently under governmental review in some areas, let’s look at some of the overall information from the HMRC website.

Use this service to find out:

how much State Pension you could get (this amount is also known as your State Pension forecast)
when you can get it
how to increase it, if you can

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National Insurance – check your NIC record

Posted on November 12, 2017 by clarelondon

Check your National Insurance record

You can check your National Insurance record online to see:

what you’ve paid, up to the start of the current tax year (6 April 2017)
any National Insurance credits you’ve received
if gaps in contributions or credits mean some years don’t count towards your State Pension (they aren’t ‘qualifying years’)
if you can pay voluntary contributions to fill any gaps and how much this will cost

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