HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has been accused of using small and medium-sized businesses to plug the UK’s tax gap, following a report which showed an additional £468 million was generated in tax revenue by SMEs in 2016. The figure, obtained via a Freedom of Information Request, follows on from HMRC’s announcement at the end… Read more…

The UK’s large army of small businesses will soon be able to switch their accounts between banks more easily, following changes to bank competition rules. The Bacs Payment Scheme, the organisation responsible for the majority of the UK’s automated payments, has agreed to implement a number of improvements to make the retail banking market more… Read more…

The Government’s long-awaited responses to six consultations about Making Tax Digital (MTD) which were originally opened in August 2016 were published at the end of January. Despite ongoing criticisms regarding the proposed short MTD timescale, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) confirmed that the project will not be delayed. This means that mandatory quarterly digital reporting… Read more…

One of the Chancellor’s more significant announcements for small businesses at the Autumn Statement in November was a change to the VAT Flat Rate Scheme. Businesses usually calculate their VAT payments to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by adding up the amount of VAT owed on their sales before subtracting from this the VAT they… Read more…

The Treasury’s coffers were boosted by nearly £400m in 2016, following a crackdown by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on tax avoidance. The amount collected by the HMRC Counter Avoidance Directorate shot up by 80 per cent last year from £494m to £886m. Cracking down on tax avoidance has increasingly become a priority for the… Read more…

Figures released by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last month revealed a record Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) take of £7.7bn in the first eight months of this financial year. The figure represents a 12 per cent increase on the same period in the previous year and comes despite a 10 per cent fall in… Read more…

Research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has revealed that economic growth across the whole of the UK is likely to continue to slowdown during 2017 and 2018. The BCC analysis of the state of the current economy and its future forecasts show that GDP growth for 2017 is likely to be around 1.1… Read more…

The deadline for self-assessment tax returns is looming on 31 January. If you have not yet submitted your tax return or provided us with all the information needed to do so for you, it is crucial that you let us have this as soon as possible. HM Revenue & Customs has now issued a list… Read more…

New analysis from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revealed that property taxes in the UK are higher than any other developed country. In 2014, the latest year for which data is available, property taxes accounted for 12.7 per cent of the total tax burden. This figure was up 0.3 percentage points… Read more…

The latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that since 2012, the number of people saving into a workplace pension has increased by 4.4 million. This means that by 2015 – the latest date for which data is available – nearly seven million people saved more than £82 billion in to… Read more…