Most people strive to provide for their family. Pensions often form a substantial part of the mix and with a large pension, comes the potential for additional tax through the lifetime allowance and equally the potential to help minimise inheritance tax.

In the UK, value-added tax is payable on chocolate-covered biscuits – but not chocolate-covered cakes. McVitie’s classified Jaffa Cakes as cakes, which HM Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) accepted but always had misgivings.

Everyone wants to make sure they are claiming everything they can in order to reduce their tax bill. HMRC like business expenses to be wholly and exclusively for the business so things with dual-use are usually not able to be claimed for.

The Government introduced various schemes that have supported some businesses and individuals through the COVID 19 pandemic. The big question on many people’s minds has been “How will this be paid back?”.

There is no doubt that raising finance for new start businesses can be the most challenging time to raise funding. It is also true that ‘insufficient investment and/or working capital finance’ is a key factor in many start-up failures.