HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that it has doubled the number of inspectors trawling through the tax files of individuals earning £150,000 or more. Until recently, the taxman was mainly investigating ‘high net worth’ individuals – those earning £1 million or more – but now HMRC’s attention has moved to those a little… Read more…

Statement Summary For the third time in 2015, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has taken to the despatch box to update the Commons and country as a whole on the state of the nation’s finances. There was a lot of debate ahead of today’s Autumn Statement about the approach that George Osborne would take. Would… Read more…

PAYE legislation is changing from 5 April 2016, so employers who intend to or are already payrolling benefits and expenses must register with HMRC using the new online Payrolling Benefits in Kind (PBIK) service. Businesses will be required to align their existing payroll software and register to payroll using the new service. After this date… Read more…

According to new analysis of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) data, the cost of passing on wealth to the next generation has increased by three per cent or £5,000 in one year. The analysis by Prudential has revealed that in 2012/2013 – the latest year for which information is available –the British population paid more… Read more…

Members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) have raised concerns about the government’s proposals to reform taxation for non-domiciles, as they fear it could lead to an unfair result for those born in the UK who spend most of their lives abroad, but later return. A new Treasury consultation document has proposed that individuals… Read more…

Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) co-ordinated an agreement to automatically swap tax information with finance ministers from 51 countries. At the time, Chancellor George Osborne said that tax evasion was “not just illegal, it is immoral” and that because a tax evader was robbing their fellow citizens, they should be… Read more…

Plans to stiffen the penalties for offshore tax evasion have been criticised by lawyers and tax advisers who have warned that they could end up criminalising people and companies who have unwittingly broken the rules. The Treasury has put forward proposals for a new criminal offence for companies that facilitate evasion as well as a… Read more…

Official figures show that house prices in England have risen considerably faster than in the rest of the United Kingdom in the past year. House prices increased by 5.6 per cent in England, 0.8 per cent in Wales, 2.9 per cent in Northern Ireland and fell 0.9 per cent in Scotland, according to figures from… Read more…