The Low Pay Commission has recommended that the adult national minimum wage (NMW) rate should increase to £6.70 an hour from October 2015. If its recommendations are accepted by the government, the three per cent rise from its current level of £6.50 would be the largest real terms increase in the NMW since 2007. The… Read more…

Married couples and civil partners can now register to receive a new tax break. The government opened online registration for the marriage allowance, which will help to save couples up to £212 a year, on 20 February. It says that from 6 April 2015, more than four million married couples and 15,000 civil partnerships will… Read more…

More than eight million taxpayers who filed their 2013-14 tax return electronically by the 31 January deadline can now access their tax summary online. The summaries set out how much tax and national insurance each person paid in the tax year and how it contributed to public expenditure. The online summaries can be viewed by… Read more…

Employers who have not already done so are reminded to claim a £2,000 reduction in their national insurance bill. From April 2014, an estimated 1.25 million business and charity employers have been able to claim the Employment Allowance. The allowance is set against the employer’s Class 1 national insurance contribution (NIC) each time they run… Read more…

Businesses are set to be given greater protection from demands by government officials to enter their premises. Secretary of State for Local Government Eric Pickles has published proposals to change the law so that officials from the Valuation Office Agency, an arm of HM Revenue & Customs, no longer have an automatic right of entry… Read more…

Leading UK employers, including Barclays, Fujitsu and Sainsbury’s, have pledged to increase employment opportunities for new and existing disabled staff and develop good practice around disabled people in their workforces. Their commitment came on 28 January, as latest employment statistics showed there were now 250,000 more disabled people in work in Britain this year compared… Read more…

The government has published its plans for implementing a new EU Accounting Directive consolidating legislation on financial reporting. In a response to a consultation carried out last year, published on 27 January, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said it intended to introduce measures, including: adopting the maximum thresholds available under the directive to… Read more…

All small and micro businesses in the UK are to receive a written reminder about their auto-enrolment responsibilities. From the end of January, more than 1.5 million businesses across the UK will start receiving letters from the Pensions Regulator confirming their staging date – the date when they need to be ready to meet their… Read more…

Changes to the rules governing the names of companies and other businesses took effect on 31 January. The reforms, which have been introduced following consultation, will reduce the number of “sensitive” words and expressions that can be included in a business, limited liability partnership or company name without approval from Companies House. Those dropped from… Read more…

The government is seeking views on ways to make it easier for companies to claim research and development (R&D) tax credits. The tax credit regime provides valuable tax benefits to companies investing in R&D that advances science or technology. Currently, around 15,000 large, medium and small companies claim R&D tax credits, receiving more than £1.4… Read more…