According to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the number of underpaid workers getting the money they are owed under the National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation has more than doubled. The Revenue’s latest figures show that in the 2017/18 tax year its investigators identified £15.6 million in pay owed to more than 200,000 of the UK’s… Read more…

Giving away surplus income as a gift to family members is often touted as an excellent way of planning for the future and as a way of reducing liabilities on a person’s estate. But how do the rules regarding gifts work in practice? Gifts provided from surplus income – i.e. income less usual expenditure to… Read more…

In a reverse of its previous position, the Government has backed measures to increase the transparency of offshore tax havens. The measures will compel British overseas territories to make public their records of the true owners of the companies that are registered there. The measures were contained in an amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Bill… Read more…

A response to a freedom of information request has revealed that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) cancelled 270,000 late penalty notices in 2016. However, this figure was dwarfed by the 610,000 cancellations in 2015 and the 400,000 cancellations in 2014. The request was made by a partner in a ‘magic circle’ law firm, who was… Read more…

An overhaul of “the complex patchwork” of tax charges and reliefs affecting businesses throughout various stages of the business lifecycle is urgently required in order to stimulate growth among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has said. In a report published midway through April, the OTS looked closely at business… Read more…

An annual survey suggests that some 1.3 million UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) intend to branch out overseas this year in a bid to expand their horizons and fuel their growth plans. According to CitySprint’s latest annual survey of business owners and decision makers, ambitions among Britain’s SMEs remain strong despite the fact that… Read more…

The percentage of salary employers and employees must contribute to a workplace pension has increased from 6 April 2018. Employees will now contribute three per cent (up from one per cent) of their annual salary into a personal workplace pension, while employer contributions have increased from one to two per cent. Under the new rules,… Read more…

For a while, company directors have been able to make a tax-efficient living by taking a combination of salary and dividends due to the generous Dividend Allowance. However, changes which took effect from 6 April 2018 have cut the allowance from £5,000 to just £2,000. The changes are meant to level the playing field between… Read more…

EU State Aid approval for the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme expired on 6 April 2018, meaning any share options received after this date may not be eligible for tax reliefs. This is an important change for employers who currently grant EMI share options or plan to do so in the future. The Government said… Read more…

Millions of people from across the UK could be paying more tax than they need to, it has emerged, after figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) showed that more than 15 million individuals have not checked their Personal Tax Accounts. The figure means that less than half of taxpayers have accessed their accounts, risking… Read more…