Energy firms among worst billers March 3, 2014 One fifth of households have been billed wrongly by energy suppliers, according to new research today commissioned by comparison service uSwitch. The energy industry is among the worst billers for the eighth year running, only surpassed by HMRC, according to customers surveyed by market research firm YouGov. The average amount owed following a billing error [...]
UK set to abolish tax on Bitcoin March 3, 2014 The UK is planning to scrap VAT on the trading of digital currency Bitcoin, reports the Financial Times. A briefing by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said it would end the 20 per cent VAT on Bitcoin transactions, adding that it would not tax margins as well. A formal announcement is expected later in [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 03 March 2014 March 3, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Britain to scrap VAT on Bitcoin trades Britain’s tax authority plans to ditch value added tax on Bitcoin trading only days after the collapse of Mt Gox, one of the virtual currency’s leading exchanges, losing almost $500m of customer deposits. In a meeting with a group of UK traders last week, HM Revenue [...]
Celebrity chefs treat financiers at Carpenters’ Hall for FoodCycle February 27, 2014 DINERS from the likes of Rothschild Advisors, New Amsterdam Capital and Spayne Lindsay were in for a treat when they showed up at Carpenters’ Hall on London Wall last night, for the FoodCycle Mardi Gras Feast last night. A champagne reception with canapes by Salt Yard’s Ben Tish was followed by a rather special banquet. [...]
The real reason squeezing the rich makes us all poorer February 26, 2014 RADICAL reform of income tax is not only desirable, but completely possible. To achieve it, however, proponents of change need to provide a strong evidence base for a much flatter tax system, with a much lower top rate in the UK in particular. We need to show that the optimal revenue-raising top rate of tax [...]
Big firms face account probe February 24, 2014 ACCOUNTING standards are under increased scrutiny from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which suspects poor financial practice means too little tax is being paid by big firms, according to lawyers Pinsent Masons. The law firm said HMRC believes as much as £442m is underpaid, up 57 per cent on the £282m it was looking into [...]
Russia must back down over Ukraine to avoid a catastrophe February 24, 2014 VLADIMIR Ilyich Lenin was a monster. He was a central theorist of communism, a key player in the Bolshevik revolution, a commissar, a leading instigator of the Red Terror and other massacres, and the first leader of the Soviet Union. For decades, busts of Lenin adorned the communist empire; they were finally torn down in [...]
Taxman cracks down on builders February 23, 2014 Construction firms coughed up £122m in extra tax to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) during the last year, according to accounting services group NoPalaver. The figure is a 55 per cent increase on the previous year, when only £78.9m was taken in extra tax. The charges are levied through the construction industry scheme, which [...]
SNP’s Salmond insists that Scotland could join EU February 17, 2014 Scottish first minister Alex Salmond insists that no EU member state has indicated it would block a move for a newly independent Scotland to join the political union. That clashes directly with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who on the BBC's Andrew Marr show said that "it will be extremely difficult to get the approval [...]
Britain is now being taxed so much that the pips are squeaking February 6, 2014 BRITAIN has become dangerously reliant on a small-number of highly paid and wealthy individuals for its tax receipts. If these people decide to leave the UK, or for some reason suddenly earn or spend less money, the public finances would suffer disproportionately. That is one of the conclusions I draw from a fascinating report published [...]