With the withdrawal of Extra-Statutory Concession (ESC) for Theatre Angels from March 31st 2017, HMRC have issued guidance on the removal of the ability to regard distributions of profits as deductible expenses.
Withdrawal of the ESC will affect payments made to investors by the theatrical productions they’ve backed as Theatre angels. This means simply that these payments will no longer be deductible for the production company, and they will be taxed as profit distributions for the investors.
HMRC scam warning
Watch out for new fraudulent phone calls!
As follows:
“A bogus caller rings up an accountant and poses as an HMRC money laundering (ML) investigator. The caller says that they had previously sent a letter to the accountant about an ML report on one of their clients (the accountant may not have actually received a letter). The client then receives a call allegedly from their bank to say HMRC wants three years’ bank statements. So the client calls their accountant who confirms that HMRC has contacted them and so unwittingly gives credibility to the request for bank statements. The fraudsters then try to trick the client into giving them online access to their bank account to access the statements.”
Pro advice 1: If you can’t verify the identity of the person on the phone please never disclose any personal details.
Pro advice 2: If you receive a phone call like the above, or anything similar, then please report it on the Action Fraud website or call 0300 123 2040.