Buyers on the hunt for riskier big mortgages April 23, 2014 MORE than a quarter of prospective home buyers are now chasing riskier large mortgages, according to research released today, suggesting that announcements about the controversial Help to Buy scheme have driven the interest. According to Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB), 27 per cent of house hunters are now looking to pay out less than a 10 [...]
Taxman ramps up probes into gift aid claims April 21, 2014 HM Revenue & Customs probed more than a thousand charities for their gift aid tax relief claims in the last financial year, double the number it examined in 2011-12, according to figures out today. The taxman looked into 1,057 claims compared to 510 in the previous year, statistics published by accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy showed. [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 16 April 2014 April 15, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Market troubles dent Moelis flotation Boutique investment bank Moelis raised $163m from its US initial public offering after last-minute investor concerns forced it to shrink the size of its share sale and cut the price of the deal below its expected range. The IPO is the latest to come under pressure on the [...]
G4S wins new contract from HMRC April 15, 2014 Outsourcing firm G4S yesterday said it has won a £4m contract to provide facilities management services to three regional HMRC tax offices. The deal comes just a week after a ban was lifted on the firm bidding for public sector work in the wake of the prisoner tagging scandal. The three year contract with the [...]
Ukraine fatally weakened by failure to embrace real capitalism April 14, 2014 IN the dreadful communist days, Ukraine and Poland used to be equally poor. The former was part of the Soviet Union, and Poland was one of the USSR’s satellite nations, belonging to the Warsaw pact. In 1990, both countries had roughly the same GDP per capita – their economies were eerily similar. A quarter of [...]
Companies turn away from tax avoidance plans April 14, 2014 THE TAXMAN suspects Britain’s biggest companies of underpaying taxes to the tune of £18.8bn in the last year, though this figure is down 12 per cent on the previous year in a sign that firms are being less aggressive with their financial planning. Figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that suspected underpayments or “tax [...]
Accountants warn new powers for the taxman could be illegal April 9, 2014 PLANS to give the taxman power to seize money from individuals’ bank accounts to cover tax bills could fall foul of the law, top accountants have warned. Frank Haskew, head of tax at the ICAEW, said that “it’s a fundamental tenant of English law and democratic society that unless I’ve agreed it, there has to [...]
Tax avoiders to be forced to pay off bills sooner March 19, 2014 THE TAXMAN will now demand faster payments of income tax and national insurance from people using disclosed avoidance schemes, under further steps to fight the practice. The new rules mean HM Revenue & Customs will hold onto disputed tax while the individual case is ongoing. Osborne referred to the changes as giving HMRC “modern powers to [...]
Clampdown on profit transfers from UK firms March 19, 2014 A CRACKDOWN on tax avoidance in yesterday’s Budget will extend a scheme to limit avoidance through transferring profits internationally. Chancellor George Osborne said that HM Revenue & Customs would try to net more firms that it suspects are moving profit overseas to avoid UK tax, extending a move taken in December’s Autumn Statement. The change comes [...]
40p tax threshold rises by one per cent March 19, 2014 George Osborne has left those who were hoping for a significant rise in the 40p tax band disappointed, after he announced a one per cent rise from annual incomes of £41,451 in the current financial year to £41,866 next month. HMRC have said the government's decision will see the number of people paying the 40p [...]