This was the final Autumn Statement of the current Parliament ahead of the election in May 2015. Delivered with passion, George Osborne hailed the UK as having “the fastest growing major advanced economy in the world”. He announced that the “long-term economic plan was working” because “against a difficult global background, I can announce a… Read more…

Business Secretary Vince Cable has set up a taskforce to assess the potential impact of an employment appeal tribunal ruling on overtime and holiday pay. The taskforce is made up of representatives from government departments and business groups, including the Confederation of British Industry, British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses. Dr… Read more…

Thousands of UK businesses supplying digital services to consumers across the European Union (EU) can now register for a new online VAT service. Signing up to the VAT Mini One Stop Shop (VAT MOSS), which started accepting registrations on 20 October, means they will not have to register for VAT separately in each EU member… Read more…

Less than a quarter of small and micro employers feel confident about dealing with pension issues and many expect to turn to accountants for help. The findings come from research carried out by NEST (National Employment Savings Trust), a pension scheme that any employer can use to meet their new automatic enrolment duties. The research,… Read more…

More than 1,500 people a week are contacting a service that helps employers and employees to resolve workplace disputes without going to an employment tribunal. From April this year, anyone thinking of making an employment tribunal claim first has to contact workplace relations experts Acas, which then tries to resolve the dispute without the need… Read more…

The backlog of tax disputes waiting to be heard has reached a record high, new research has found. Law firm Pinsent Masons said on 25 November that 27,246 cases were waiting to be heard in the tax tribunals in the year ended 31 March 2014, up from 26,965 cases outstanding at 31 March 2013. The… Read more…

Almost one million employers are benefitting from the Employment Allowance across the UK, according to new figures. Introduced in April 2014, the allowance is available to businesses, charities and amateur sports clubs and allows employers to reduce their class 1 national insurance contributions by a maximum of £2,000 in the tax year. Around 1.25 million… Read more…

The government says it has improved safeguards to protect vulnerable taxpayers in its plans to recover tax and tax credit debts directly from taxpayers’ bank accounts. Direct Recovery of Debts (DRD) will give HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) the ability to recover cash directly from the bank, building society and ISA accounts of personal and… Read more…

Our office will be closed on Tuesday 24 December and reopen on Thursday 2nd January 2014.

New research has found that fewer than half of the smallest employers know their staging date – the date when they must start auto-enrolling eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. A survey by the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) found that only 46 per cent of employers with nine or fewer employees have… Read more…