Revenue’s error leaks tax details May 27, 2010 HM Revenue and Customs apologised yesterday after it sent the confidential details of thousands of tax credit claimants to the wrong people. Tax credit renewal packs were posted to claimants but some mistakenly included the earnings, bank sort code and the last four digits of bank accounts of other claimants, while some received packs with [...]
Q&A: PAYE May 20, 2010 Q. I have recently started my business and I am in the process of hiring staff, what should I know about PAYE? A. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the way that HMRC collects income tax and national insurance. As an employer once you start hiring people you have a legal obligation to collect PAYE [...]
Q&A: LETTING May 20, 2010 CEO OF ONLINE LETTINGS AGENT WWW.UPAD.CO.UK Q. I’ve heard I need planning permission to let a house to three people sharing. Can this really be true? A. As of 6 April, if property previously occupied by one household (family) is let to three or more unrelated sharers, forming two or more households, this will need [...]
Nasty double whammy for investors May 18, 2010 WITH all the focus on growth and the deficit, too little attention has been paid to inflation. Yesterday’s disastrous figures show how unwise this has been. The rise in the official consumer price index inflation to 3.7 per cent is bad enough – but I suppose it can be tolerated, given the ending of quantitative [...]
SPORT | IN BRIEF May 6, 2010 Tiger back on form at Sawgrass GOLF: Tiger Woods made a welcome return to form as he closed in on the leaders in the Players’ Championship at Sawgrass. Woods, who missed the cut in the Quail Hollow Championship last week, was just three shots behind clubhouse leaders JB Holmes and Robert Allenby on three-under-par as he [...]
All Child Trust Funds are not equal, so pick yours carefully April 29, 2010 WITH Child Trust Funds (CTF) turning five this month, families are being urged to view this anniversary as an opportunity to review the scheme they have in place. Launched in April 2005, CTFs were opened for all children born after 1 September 2002 with a £250 lump sum, rising to £500 for children from the [...]
Don’t forget an ETF’s dividend April 28, 2010 WITH earnings season once again upon us, investors are turning their minds towards the possibility that their share holdings will pay them at least some dividend income. Although figures earlier this week from Capita Registrars showed that British firms paid out 2.5 per cent less in dividends in the first quarter than the same period [...]
Wasps chief remains cool on tax threat April 22, 2010 WASPS owner Steve Hayes has dismissed suggestions that the club are facing a winding-up order over an unpaid tax bill of over £1m. Reports claimed that HM Revenue and Customs had issued a warning to the Guinness Premiership club earlier this month with the threat of a winding-up petition looming over them. The HMRC refused [...]
TRAVEL CHAOS April 22, 2010 Q. I am a small business owner and one of my employees is caught up in the flight chaos. What are my rights as an employer? A. The advice from the Forum of Private Business is to be flexible with stranded staff but to know where to draw the line on unpaid leave. “The key [...]
Repatriation costs deemed a benefit in kind April 21, 2010 LAWYERS warned yesterday that tax bills for both employees and employers associated with the disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano are to sky rocket as the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) takes a hardline on repatriation costs. Commercial law firm EMW Picton Howell said yesterday that the HMRC will demand tax payments on any expenses [...]