Bankers’ bonuses: Supreme Court sides with HMRC in appeal against UBS and Deutsche Bank, ruling out scheme designed to avoid income tax March 9, 2016 Bankers may see their bonuses sliced into, as the Supreme Court today sided with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), agreeing that taxes could not be avoided when using a special scheme to award employees in shares. UBS and Deutsche Bank set up schemes to pay their bankers discretionary bonuses in redeemable shares in offshore companies. The [...]
As the collapse of Powa shows, fintech can be a dangerous game because the UK’s capital structure is prohibitive to growth March 4, 2016 Another day, another failed fintech business. I don’t say this glibly as it is in my interests to be part of a thriving UK financial technology industry. I do however think that we need to analyse ‘sustainable’ fintech and concentrate on that arena. Companies like Powa Technologies, the payments group, stand out. Powa was at [...]
As large multinationals like Google are slammed for taking advantage of the tax system, the Office for Tax Simplification vows to untangle tax burden for smaller companies March 3, 2016 Government has today unveiled a slew of recommendations designed to simplify tax for small businesses, including better sharing of data across departments and rejigging filing dates. The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS), which published the recommendations aimed at companies with less than 10 employees, believes a tax system that applies the same set of rules [...]
UK income tax: Chancellor George Osborne says lowering the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p raised an extra £8bn for the Treasury in one year March 1, 2016 Cutting the top rate of income tax has raised billions of pounds in extra revenues for the Treasury, chancellor George Osborne said today. Speaking in the House of Commons earlier today, Osborne said that lowering the top rate from 50p to 45p raised an additional £8bn in its first year. Osborne said the new revenue figures "completely" [...]
HMRC raises an extra £3.5bn from small businesses for underpayment of VAT, says tax investigation insurance company PfP February 29, 2016 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has raised an additional £3.5bn in the last year through inquiries into the under-payment of VAT by small businesses, tax investigation insurance company PfP said today. Increased VAT revenue accounted for 45% of the additional tax take in 2014/15 from investigation by HMRC’s local compliance teams, according to PfP. The [...]
MPs slam HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over Google £130m corporation tax settlement and call on the taxman to take the lead in reforming complicated international tax laws February 24, 2016 MPs have today condemned HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) recent deal with Google to pay £130m in unpaid corporation tax, and called on it to lead by example in reforming international tax laws. A report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) slammed the settlement for seeming "disproportionately small" compared to the size of the technology company's business [...]
David Cameron names Edward Troup as executive chair of HMRC, Jon Thompson as chief executive February 24, 2016 Edward Troup has been announced as executive chair of HMRC, while Jon Thompson will become chief executive, the government has confirmed today. Troup, who is currently HMRC’s tax assurance Commissioner, will take up his new role on 5 April. Thompson, currently permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, will join HMRC "shortly". Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed [...]
Memo from business to politicians: Don’t let the EU referendum paralyse real governing February 24, 2016 So now it’s official. Britain’s politicians and opinion-formers will spend the next four months in hyper-drive, as they seek to convince the public of the case to leave or remain in the European Union. Many Westminster-watchers have already cleared the decks, reasoning that little else will get done while megaphone diplomacy, claims, and counter-claims dominate the [...]
Property sales kicked off the year with a rise, HMRC property transaction figures show February 23, 2016 The number of properties sold at the start of 2016 across the UK was 7.7 per cent higher than in 2015, new figures reveal. Nearly 105,400 residential properties were sold in January and just over 9,600 non-residential, compared to 97,000 and 9,740 a year earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. “Even as the housing market builds a head of [...]
Keep the fires burning: Beat inheritance tax using investments in AIM shares and the government’s business property relief rules February 19, 2016 Complex rules govern what, when and how much people can pass on to their children. The basic rule is that an individual can pass on £325,000 in assets, tax free. The taxman takes a 40 per cent cut of assets above that level, although there are some exemptions and the levels are changing. There is [...]