If your company contracted with the travel agent, airline or hotel to provide tickets and accommodation, the cost is not immediately taxable on you. But where the trip had no business function the cost must be included on the annual form P11D and you will pay the tax due in the following tax year, or the next one. The company has to pay class 1A national insurance at 12.8% on the value of benefits declared on the form P11D, but you as the employee do not have to pay NI on the cost.

Alternatively you may have arranged the holiday yourself and then your company picks up the bill. In this case the cost of the holiday should be treated as extra salary at the time the company pays the bill, so effectively the cost is put through the payroll, incurring both employers and employees NI.

It is possible that some part of your trip is business related. Perhaps you have a customer in Switzerland you need to visit. If your company pays for you and your spouse to spend a week in Switzerland the total cost of the trip must be apportioned according to the business and private elements. You should record who attended the business meetings, on what days they were held, and any associated costs such as local travel, and meals. If your spouse was not involved in the business meetings, their air fare and accommodation is not a business expense, so must be declared on your P11D, or on their own P11D if they are also an employee of your company.

The tax rules are different for companies and for unincorporated businesses. When you work as a sole-trader or in a partnership, there is no employers' national insurance due when the business pays for the owner's private expenses such as a holiday. The private element of the trip is treated as part of the business owner's profit for the period and will be subject to income tax and class 4 NI, just like the rest of the profits made in the period.

HMRC have now decided not to reissue every single PAYE code. Instead employers will have to add 60 to every PAYE code that has an L suffix. This means code 543L will become 603L. For all other letter suffixes you must wait for a new PAYE code to be issued. L is the most frequently used suffix, so you as an employer are effectively doing HMRC's work, and picking up the costs incurred by the Chancellor's change of mind.

The new codes should be applied from the first payday on or after 7 September 2008. The PAYE tables, or your payroll computer system, will ensure that monthly paid employees, who are on the basic rate of tax will receive a tax reduction through the payroll of around 60 pounds over the remainder of the tax year. This will normally reduce the employee's total tax deductions for the month, but in rare cases it will create a refund for the employee of tax he has paid earlier in the tax year.

Where a refund of tax is due you should deduct the amount needed to make the refund from the total of PAYE, NICs, CIS and student loans due to be paid over to HMRC for that period.

If this total is not large enough to cover the refunds due to your entire workforce, you can ask for funding directly from HMRC. Do this by contacting the relevant HMRC Accounts Office by post or fax. You also need to inform the HMRC Accounts Office that there is no PAYE payment to make for the period, by telephoning 0845 366 7816 with your payroll details or online at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/howtopay/paye_nil.htm

HMRC are sending out new PAYE tables and guidance to all employers included on an employers' CD-ROM in August. You will also be able to order paper versions of leaflets and forms from the HMRC orderline (08457 646 646) after 12 August. If you have any questions about how to treat new employees, dealing with student employees or related matters do ask us.

Where you sell the assets and trade of your business, either out of your company or as a sole trader or partnership business, the transfer may qualify as a transfer of a going concern (TOGC). If TOGC applies you don't charge VAT on the transfer of the assets. The conditions for a TOGC to apply for VAT purposes are:

• the entire business is transferred as a going concern; or
• if only a part of a business is being sold, that part must be capable of separate operation; and
• the purchaser must use the assets in the same kind of business, which may be as part of an existing business; and
• the purchaser should already be VAT registered, or becomes VAT registered as a result of acquiring the business.

Your business need not be profitable at the time of transfer. The TOGC treatment can apply to a trading business sold on by a liquidator or by an administrative receiver.

If the conditions for TOGC are not met and you are VAT registered, you must charge VAT on the sale of each of the assets. Certain types of real property will be zero-rated or exempt from VAT, so ask us for advice in advance if the sale includes land or buildings.

If you are in that position you need to calculate the total of the mileage expenses you received in the tax year, and the maximum due using the HMRC rates. Say you claimed for 1500 miles at 25p you will have received 375 pounds(1500 x 25p), but using the HMRC rate of 40p you could claim a further 225 pounds against your taxable income (1500 x 40p 375 pounds).

You can make that claim on the employment pages of your tax return. Or if you don't complete a self assessment tax return you can simply write to the tax office that issues your PAYE code with the details of your claim. To make this easier HMRC have produced a claim form P87. You can also submit claims for the last six tax years back to 2002/03.