WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 14, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES FRANCIS MAUDE TACKLES CIVIL SERVICE PAY-OFFS Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, attempted to force the hand of civil service unions yesterday as he laid emergency legislation to slash their redundancy terms while offering negotiations on a new severance deal. With up to 100,000 civil service jobs likely to go during the next [...]
Budd insists that OBR is independent July 13, 2010 THE head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was yesterday forced to deny there was a conspiracy to revise down how many jobs would be lost through George Osborne’s budget. Sir Alan Budd received a grilling from the Treasury select committee yesterday over accusations his Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) came under government pressure [...]
HMRC gets City’s vote of confidence but change needed July 6, 2010 HM REVENUE and Customs (HMRC), despite winning a vote of confidence from the City still needs to make improvements, an influential survey published yesterday found. After speaking to 22 of the UK’s largest companies, information gathered by law firm Norton Rose found that their relationship with the HMRC was broadly on the right track but [...]
Rank puts cost on tax rises June 23, 2010 Leisure group Rank yesterday became the first major public company to put a total on how much extra the emergency Budget would cost it. The Mecca bingo and Grosvenor casinos operator said the rise in the standard rate of VAT and changes to the National Insurance regime would result in a net cost increase of [...]
Controversial IR35 tax rules set to be scrapped in a boost to small business June 22, 2010 SMALL businesses were given a boost by the chancellor yesterday with the news that controversial IR35 tax rules for entrepreneurs using personal service companies could be abolished. Other fillips included a reduction in the small profits tax rate and a national insurance contribution holiday for small start-ups in certain regions. Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax [...]
Vantis shares suspended as crisis deepens June 14, 2010 VANTIS, the troubled accountancy outfit, is preparing a fire sale of its assets unless it can find an investor with a “wad of cash” to help pay down its £54m debt pile. The Aim-listed firm tumbled deeper into crisis yesterday when its shares were suspended due to doubts over its ability to continue operating. In [...]
When going public does not work out June 14, 2010 THE high-profile problems suffered by Vantis as a listed entity could deter other professional service companies from joining the public market, experts warned yesterday. Vantis’ share price has been hammered in the past year as doubts over its largest project liquidating Sir Allen Stanford’s assets, reputational issues to do with an HMRC probe into two [...]
CITY VIEWS: should vat go up or should banks be taxed more? June 10, 2010 BRIAN COLGAN | AVIVA “I think tax the banks more. Increasing VAT equals less spending which drives less money into the economy. They caused the problem so they can get us out of it.” JAMIL ALAM | RBS “Definitely the banks in my opinion. Why charge the individual? The bottom line is, they created the [...]
HMRC’s tax assault to hit honest firms June 6, 2010 A TOP City accountancy firm has claimed that a tax crackdown by HMRC will mean innocent firms being investigated at the taxpayers’ expense. UHY Hacker said that plans to seize an additional £4bn in revenue in 2010/11 through a more aggressive strategy would leave blameless businesses facing unnecessary probes into their dealings. The total figure [...]
TIME TO PAY June 3, 2010 Q. What is the “time to pay” scheme and how does it work? A. The “time to pay” scheme is a long-standing tax deferral scheme by HMRC that was not widely known prior to 2008, when the government re-launched it as part of a package of recession-busting measures. It allows businesses to delay paying a [...]