Everything revealed in the Budget March 19, 2014 Apparently this a budget for makers, doers, and savers. But enough of the buzzwords, onto the substance. GrowthThe UK grew by three times as much as the OBR predicted at the budget last year. Now the OBR has revised its growth forecasts up. 2014 should see growth of 2.7 per cent, up from the 2.4 [...]
City A.M.’s bumper Budget preview March 17, 2014 As chancellor George Osborne gets ready to unveil the penultimate budget before the general election, we've pulled together all the expected announcements, and what others are hoping for. Deficit Due to the scale of the budget deficit Ernst & Young believe the chancellor has little room for manoeuvre in terms of giveaways. While the Office [...]
Corporation tax: Why it’s workers who really pay when we squeeze firms March 17, 2014 WHEN One Direction (1D) weighed in on the corporation tax debate, calling on their fans to pressure George Osborne into “cracking down on company tax avoidance”, it was the clearest indication yet that business tax has become a popular issue. But what has not filtered through to the public debate is the question of who [...]
HMRC steps up asset seizures to pay VAT bills March 17, 2014 THE NUMBER of businesses who have had assets seized and sold by HM Revenue & Customs to settle overdue VAT bills has soared during the recession, according to data obtained by finance provider Syscap. Figures sourced from HMRC show that 3,657 businesses had assets seized last year after being served distraint orders by the taxman, [...]
Corporation tax: Why it’s workers who really pay when we squeeze firms March 17, 2014 WHEN One Direction (1D) weighed in on the corporation tax debate, calling on their fans to pressure George Osborne into “cracking down on company tax avoidance”, it was the clearest indication yet that business tax has become a popular issue. But what has not filtered through to the public debate is the question of who [...]
Meet the Co-op traditionalists’ top dog March 11, 2014 Ben Reid, the chief executive of the Midcounties Co-operative, is seen as the likely flag-bearer for the traditionalists in a battle for control of the Co-operative Group. The traditionalists have been opposed to many of the measures the departed chief executive Euan Sutherland has been trying to impose, such as restructuring, the selling off of [...]
Three things you didn’t know about… March 10, 2014 Senior Partner at KPMG Kevin Smith 1 Kevin used to be a drugs officer in HMRC – he joined as a junior and “went straight into the drugs cruise.” He used to take boats to pieces and put them back together again to try and find drugs. 2 He has a 1ft high zombie gnome [...]
Can you handle these 3 facts on immigration? March 5, 2014 Last night, a Newsnight report claimed the publication of a much-anticipated cross-governmental report on immigration has been put off by Downing Street, because it points to immigration having a smaller impact than the government claims. The BBC's detailed how Number 10 sources have said the report isn’t ready for release, but how, according to officials, [...]
How to take Aim with growth market stocks March 4, 2014 SHARES listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) have surged in popularity since August last year, when they became eligible for inclusion in Isas. And from the date the new rules were introduced until mid-February, the FTSE Aim market has outperformed the FTSE All Share, returning 18.9 per cent compared to just 2.1 per cent. [...]
French invasion heralds the collapse of tax and spend March 4, 2014 PIMLICO Plumbers will be a familiar brand to many readers – it has a prominent advert on the approach into Waterloo station. But the company is now calling for plumbers who are fluent in both English and French, and says applicants will be interviewed by a native French speaker. This is just the tip of [...]