Frustrating UK tax quirks can easily mean missed mortgage payments September 24, 2012 WHEN HMRC wrongly changed my tax code last October, I was paying 40 per cent of my total income as tax for six months. It had a huge impact on my finances – my take home pay went below my mortgage costs. And HMRC couldn’t correct it, despite admitting its error. In the end I [...]
THE TIPSTER | Rebuilding dominance September 24, 2012 AS TALK of a housing recovery gains momentum, investors may be looking to add growth-orientated stocks to their portfolio. Persimmon has seen tough times since the onset of the financial crisis, with shares falling from their peak above 1,500p. However, the house builder has added 67 per cent to its share price this year and [...]
The Liberal Democrats’ attack on middle class will backfire September 23, 2012 It is hard to know what the Liberal Democrats are playing at. Their traditional positioning was centrist, appealing to people who were repelled both by Labour’s statism, high taxes and authoritarianism (as well as its foreign policy) and by the Tories’ low-tax, smaller government, Eurosceptic policies, as well as their traditional social conservatism. The Lib [...]
What the other papers say this morning September 19, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Push to relax terms of tech IPOs A push to make it easier for high-growth technology companies to list in London will be launched by the government today. Ministers will put forward proposals including relaxing listing rules on the London Stock Exchange, allowing companies to list as little as 10 per cent of [...]
HMRC launches crackdown on London lawyers September 18, 2012 THE LEGAL industry reacted with surprise yesterday after Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announced a crackdown on tax dodging by London lawyers, with the aim of recovering up to £3m in missed payments. “It is not, at present, clear to us exactly why the legal profession has been targeted by HMRC,” said Michael Todd, [...]
What the other papers say this morning September 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CCB eyes $16bn European bank move One of China’s biggest lenders plans to make the country’s largest foreign bank purchase to date and has set its sights on potential targets in Europe. China Construction Bank, the second-ranked Chinese lender by assets after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, could spend as much as [...]
Simple tax planning helps to reduce costs September 16, 2012 But a new EU directive will hike price of life assurance for women I MET a new professional client recently who has just taken out £300,000 of life insurance online. She is married and both she and her husband have made wills, but their combined estates are over the inheritance tax (IHT) threshold. Therefore, on [...]
HMRC squeezes more from rich September 11, 2012 THE EXCHEQUER has bagged an extra £500m in tax from Britain’s wealthiest under a new scheme, it announced yesterday. HM Revenue & Customs said its high net worth unit has exceeded collection targets since being set up three years ago. The office probes the tax affairs of the 5,000 richest people in the UK – [...]
Law firm claims taxman is wrong in half of complaints September 9, 2012 THE TAXMAN admitted it was wrong in well over half of the complaints it received through the 2010-11 tax year, research from law firm Pinsent Masons has revealed. There were some 58,110 complaints made to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in 2010-11, and in 33,284 – or 57 per cent – of these the [...]
Top MP hits out at Barclays tax dodge claims September 5, 2012 BARCLAYS’ evidence to the Treasury Select Committee of MPs on tax avoidance measures directly contradicts that given by the chancellor, the committee’s influential chairman Andrew Tyrie declared today, demanding an explanation from the bank. HM Revenue and Customs retrospectively clamped down on the bank in February after it reduced its tax bill by roughly £300m [...]