MPs slam HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over Google £130m corporation tax settlement and call on the taxman to take the lead in reforming complicated international tax laws February 24, 2016 MPs have today condemned HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) recent deal with Google to pay £130m in unpaid corporation tax, and called on it to lead by example in reforming international tax laws. A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) slammed the settlement for seeming "disproportionately small" compared to the size of the technology company's business [...]
David Cameron names Edward Troup as executive chair of HMRC, Jon Thompson as chief executive February 24, 2016 Edward Troup has been announced as executive chair of HMRC, while Jon Thompson will become chief executive, the government has confirmed today. Troup, who is currently HMRC’s tax assurance Commissioner, will take up his new role on 5 April. Thompson, currently permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, will join HMRC "shortly". Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed [...]
Memo from business to politicians: Don’t let the EU referendum paralyse real governing February 24, 2016 So now it’s official. Britain’s politicians and opinion-formers will spend the next four months in hyper-drive, as they seek to convince the public of the case to leave or remain in the European Union. Many Westminster-watchers have already cleared the decks, reasoning that little else will get done while megaphone diplomacy, claims, and counter-claims dominate the [...]
Property sales kicked off the year with a rise, HMRC property transaction figures show February 23, 2016 The number of properties sold at the start of 2016 across the UK was 7.7 per cent higher than in 2015, new figures reveal. Nearly 105,400 residential properties were sold in January and just over 9,600 non-residential, compared to 97,000 and 9,740 a year earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. “Even as the housing market builds a head of [...]
Keep the fires burning: Beat inheritance tax using investments in AIM shares and the government’s business property relief rules February 19, 2016 Complex rules govern what, when and how much people can pass on to their children. The basic rule is that an individual can pass on £325,000 in assets, tax free. The taxman takes a 40 per cent cut of assets above that level, although there are some exemptions and the levels are changing. There is [...]
Osborne’s latest pensions raid: Flat rate tax relief would be both irrational and unfair February 18, 2016 Private pensions have always been a soft target for cash-hungry chancellors. Nigel Lawson made pension funds restrict the size of their surpluses under threat of losing their tax-exempt status. Gordon Brown abolished Advance Corporation Tax in the great pension raid of 1997. And George Osborne has done his bit by slashing the annual and lifetime [...]
Innovative Finance Isa: A guide to the new product and what it means for investors February 18, 2016 In less than two months, the Innovative Finance Isa will be launched, enabling savers to hold peer-to-peer (P2P) loans within the tax efficient wrapper. Hailed as the moment the P2P industry will chassé into the mainstream, research suggests it’ll also be popular with savers. According to research by P2P lending platform ThinCats, one in four [...]
Homes owned through companies falls below 4,000, HMRC figures show February 15, 2016 The number of high-end homes held under company names has fallen to just 0.2 per cent of the UK's total house stock, according to new figures by a leading asset manager, in a sign that government efforts to clamp down on owner-occupiers using vehicles to buy property is paying off. London Central Portfolio (LCP) chief executive [...]
Pension changes mean it’s time to talk to your boss: Drop in the annual allowance will catch City workers out February 15, 2016 TIME is running out for higher earners to re-negotiate their pension packages before planned new changes to the tax system kick in this April. The amount people can save tax-free in a pension each year will drop, with special rules coming in for anyone earning over £150,000. Experts are advising city workers to check their [...]
New personal savings allowance, which allows people to earn up to £1,000 in interest tax free and is due to be introduced in April 2016, is too complex, warn tax experts February 14, 2016 Changes to the way savings are taxed, which are due to come into force this April, will be helpful for the majority of people but may prove tricky for some to get their heads around, tax experts have warned. The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) cautioned late last week [...]