The Government has launched a new savings account that offers savers a 50 per cent tax-free bonus on the money they deposit. The new Help to Save account will offer savers up to 50p for every £1 that they save, which could mean that people could benefit from as much as £1,200 of tax-free money… Read more…

On average, less than one in 10 SME loan applications to one nameless high street bank are successful. The figures were released by SME funding platform, Code Investing, whose CEO, Ayan Mitra, said: “Due to regulation, due to banks having huge cost structures, due to SMEs not having standardised data, there’s quite a big funding… Read more…

A freelance marketing and business development consultant has reached a settlement with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) after arguing that she should be entitled to holiday pay as she was considered to be a worker for tax purposes. Susan Winchester had claimed £4,200 in holiday pay against HMRC after she was deemed to fall within… Read more…

The Chancellor has announced that the 2018 Budget will take place on Monday 29 October 2018, having given just half the usual 10 weeks’ notice of the date. The Autumn Budget, which took place for the first time last year, having been moved from the traditional spring date, was initially trailed to take place annually… Read more…

In the last few years the property sector has been hit by a number of new tax rules, but now there are two new things on the horizon that landlords must consider. Rent-a-Room Scheme The current Rent-a-Room scheme offers people up to £7,500 a year tax-free from letting out a spare room. However, HM Revenue &… Read more…

The archetypal 9am to 5pm working day might be so ingrained into the psyche of workers across the Western world that Dolly Parton wrote a song about it, but new research has revealed that it is now an unusual way to make a living for UK workers. The YouGov survey found that just six per… Read more…

The increasing sophistication of bank scams means that customers who lose money to such schemes should not automatically be blamed, the Financial Ombudsman Service has said. Caroline Wayman, Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “It’s not fair to automatically call a customer grossly negligent simply because they’ve fallen for a… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced a pair of penalty systems for late filing and late payment under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT, which is due to come into effect in April 2019. Late filing will attract penalty points, which will accrue on the basis of how late the filing is and how… Read more…

A new study has revealed that in the last three months the number of SMEs predicting they could close has doubled from five per cent to 10 per cent. Produced by Hitachi Capital Business Finance, the report makes for worrying readying as the proportion of small business owners reporting their concerns about business failure have… Read more…

With the price of fuel going up, employees and businesses will welcome new changes to the fuel advisory rates, which from 1 September 2018 have slightly increased on the previous quarter for some vehicles. Advisory fuel rates from 1 September 2018 Engine size Petrol – amount per mile LPG – amount per mile 1400cc or… Read more…