Income Tax 2021-22 by Ray Chidell, Juliet Connolly, Megan Saksida, Karen Speight and Lucy Webb (Claritax Books, £95)

This book aims to provide a broad coverage for accountants and others working as general practitioners, specialist tax advisers in other areas requiring guidance on income tax issues, and in-house professionals needing a practical day-to-day reference. It achieves that purpose admirably.

The commentary covers compliance, including the penalty regime; digitalisation and Making Tax Digital; computational aspects; employment and self-employment income; capital allowances; investment and property income; pensions; and international aspects. The authors are experienced writers with expertise in capital allowances, expatriate and employment tax and the provision of professional training. This volume sits alongside a number of general and specialist tax annuals published by Claritax Books.

Numerous clear worked examples are given on commonly encountered topics, including capital allowances, employment-related securities, property rental income and residence for tax purposes. The section on international aspects covers residence, double taxation, non-residents, foreign nationals coming to the UK and international assignments. Domicile and the remittance basis are briefly covered, but the complexities of offshore trusts are not, reflecting the non-specialist nature of this work.

With more than 900 pages, you’d expect this book to give wide coverage and, indeed, this is a strength, as are the extensive references to legislation and HMRC guidance. The writing style is clear and pitfalls and planning points are helpfully included at the end of each chapter.

The preface acknowledges the challenge for a smaller publisher in producing a high-quality tome on a subject as fast-changing as income tax. I commend Claritax for this first edition.

At £95, the book is competitively priced and it will be of interest to the general practitioner.

About the author

Stephen Yates, Director in private client tax at Rawlinson & Hunter and member of the Tax Faculty’s Private Client Committee