Ebay snaps up Motors.co.uk as it races Autotrader for car dealerships’ spending budgets October 19, 2018 Bidding platform Ebay is set to acquire car search site Motors.co.uk as it takes on Autotrader. The online shopping giant will buy the website from current owner Cox Automotive for an undisclosed sum, Cox said today. Read more: MPs urge government to ban diesel and petrol cars by 2032 Ebay plans to fold the website [...]
City Moves for 18 October – who’s switching jobs at TSB, Yapster and Barclays? October 18, 2018 Today’s City Moves cover TSB, Yapster and Barclays. TSB TSB has appointed Niv Subramanian as customer solutions director for its small and medium enterprise (SME) banking leadership team. Niv brings a combination of experience across strategic, commercial and operational roles in retail, commercial and corporate banking, with a keen focus on transforming the SME banking [...]
Customers stay sweet on Cadbury’s despite low-tax owner October 17, 2018 Last week, several news outlets carried the news that Mondelez International – owners of chocolatier Cadbury – paid no corporation tax in 2017, though the company made profits of £185m. Mondelez’s subsidiaries were reported to have paid a combined total of £5.9m to HMRC. The news drew opprobrium from figures such as shadow chancellor, John [...]
Civil servants are moving to Canary Wharf in a cost-cutting drive October 16, 2018 Today marks an impressive milestone with the opening of our new Canary Wharf Hub. It’s part of our long-term Civil Service transformation to reduce government buildings from 800 to 200 by 2030. We’ve seen 6,000 civil servants leave Whitehall to come and work in London’s financial centre including those from HMRC, OfGem and the Ministry [...]
Embattled Patisserie Valerie boss steps down from The Restaurant Group amid financial fiasco October 15, 2018 Patisserie Valerie’s boss has resigned from his role on the board of The Restaurant Group (TRG) “with immediate effect”, as he vies to keep the cake firm afloat in the wake of an accounting scandal. Paul May has stood down from his position at the group, which owns brands such as Frankie & Benny's and [...]
Patisserie Valerie finance director arrested and released on bail as fraud probe launched October 12, 2018 Suspended Patisserie Valerie company finance director Chris Marsh has been arrested and released on bail, the company announced this morning, as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened a criminal investigation into potential fraud at the company. Marsh was suspended on Wednesday after the high street cake shop revealed it had been notified of "significant and [...]
Ebay hit with £7m extra UK tax bill after a review by HMRC October 11, 2018 E-commerce auction site Ebay’s UK office paid out an additional £7m in owed corporate taxes last year, after the closure of a review by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). In accounts published yesterday, Ebay UK paid a total of £13.5m in tax in 2017, £6m of which was for last year alone, on profits of [...]
HMRC boss received death threats after revealing £20bn cost of Brexiters’ customs plan October 11, 2018 The UK's chief taxman received death threats after revealing it would cost £20bn to put in place the hard-Brexiters' customs plan, he revealed today. Jon Thompson, chief executive of HMRC, told MPs the figure in May as he gave evidence on a range of post-Brexit systems. The system, dubbed maximum facilitation, or 'max fac', would see [...]
Patisserie Valerie facing closure without immediate cash injection October 11, 2018 Patisserie Valerie is facing closure without an immediate cash injection, the firm said today. The high street cake shop halted trading in its shares yesterday as it announced that it had been notified of "significant and potentially fraudulent" accounting irregularities, and suspended chief financial officer Chris Marsh. Sky News reported that the black hole in the company's [...]
EU pushes for new technology tax on internet giants Facebook, Amazon and Google October 10, 2018 The EU is pushing for a new tax on technology giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google that it claims could raise £4.4bn a year across Europe. Seven months ago, the European Commission published proposals for a three per cent tax on the revenues of multi-national internet companies with global revenues above £660m a year. [...]