Preliminary income tax for 2009 - Warning

It's come to my attention that a number of people seem to be under the impression that taxpayers can simply base their preliminary income tax payment for 2009 on 100% of their 2008 liability. This is not necessarily the case. Taxpayers must take account of the income levy which kicked in during 2009 and apply it to their 2008 income when calculating their preliminary income tax obligation for 2009 on the "100% of 2008" basis.

It's also worth remembering that if you had 'one-off' claims (eg for film investment or similar) which reduced your income tax in 2008 that you should use the 'normalised' 2008 tax liability rather than the reduced version.
It can be something of a minefield when checking you've got sufficient paid so if in doubt get advice.

deadlyduck said:

It's also worth remembering that if you had 'one-off' claims (eg for film investment or similar) which reduced your income tax in 2008 that you should use the 'normalised' 2008 tax liability rather than the reduced version.
It can be something of a minefield when checking you've got sufficient paid so if in doubt get advice.

Click to expand...

Exactly...as the income levy is essentially a catch all mechanism it's applied to the "top line" (i.e. before capital allowances, film relief, BES relief etc).

There is a link to the relevant Revenue briefing [broken link removed]