March 2025 Newsletter | Cylchlythyr Misol Mawrth 2025
1) Chancellor's Spring Statement - main headlines:
i. No additional increases to income tax, VAT or employee National Insurance.
ii. Forecast for UK economic growth for 2025 halved from 2% to 1%.
iii. Welfare reform - including change in criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the health element of Universal Credit is to be halved.
iv. Increase in employer National Insurance will go ahead as planned from April 2025, where employer NI rates will increase to 15% and the salary threshold at which employer NI becomes payable is reduced from £9,100 to £5,000.
v. No changes to ISA allowances (but could change in the Autumn Budget).
vi. Increase in late payment penalties for VAT and income tax - from April 2025, new penalty rates of 3% of the tax outstanding if payment is late by 15 days + 3% if overdue by 30 days + 10% per annum where overdue by 31 days or more.
2) Making Tax Digital for Income Tax - HMRC are implementing new legislation for income tax from April 2026 onwards that affects individuals who are self-employed and/or landlords. From April 2026, affected individuals may be required to file 'quarterly updates' to HMRC and be required to keep digital records.
We are contacting all of our affected clients to outline how this will impact them in the future, and a full analysis of the new legislation can be found on our website at:
https://huwaledaccountants.com/services/making-tax-digital-for-income-tax
Ask Huw and Aled
Q: What happens to an individual's estate if they die without a will? Is it true that the Crown can claim an estate if there are no relatives?
A: Over half of UK citizens do not have a will and if you die without a will, your estate is distributed in accordance with the rules of 'intestacy'. Usually, married/civil partners and some relatives may inherit an individual's estate under intestacy rules.
If there are no surviving relatives who can inherit under the rules of intestacy, the estate passes to the Crown. This is known as 'bona vacantia'.
It is believed that there are currently around 6,000 unclaimed estates in England & Wales.
Where there is no obvious next of kin of a deceased individual, heir hunters are often engaged in order to locate distant relatives, who can then make a claim on the individual's previously unclaimed estate.
Claims need to be made within 30 years of the date of the individual's passing (unless you live in Cornwall).
Due to a quirky, unchanged law from the Middle Ages, if a person in Cornwall dies without a will, and have no surviving relatives, the estate automatically goes to the Prince of Wales. A similar rule is in place in Lancaster, where the estate passes to the Duchy of Lancaster (owned by the King).
The best way to minimise complications and disruption when it comes to the handling of your estate is to have a valid will in place.
