NEWS IN BRIEF February 5, 2012 TAXED ON TIME According to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), this year saw a record 9.45m self assessment tax returns filed on time, with a record 7.65m filed online. This means that 90.4 per cent of taxpayers met the deadline – an increase of 4 per cent on last year and the highest on-time filing [...]
How to survive these taxing times January 29, 2012 AS THE dreaded 31 January rolls around for the self-employed – in fact, 1 February this year following planned industrial action – tax is once again top of the agenda. Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, has upped the ante by calling for the personal allowance to be raised to £10,000. In these taxing times, [...]
HMRC extends its tax deadline January 26, 2012 TAXPAYERS will have an additional two days to fill in their self-assessment forms after workers at HM Revenue & Customs announced plans to strike on 31 January, the official deadline for submissions. As a result the taxman has announced that no fines will be given to those who submit their return online by 2 February, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 24, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WATCHDOG TO PROTECT IRRATIONAL INVESTORS Investors cannot be counted on to make rational choices so regulators need to “step into their footprints” and limit or ban the sale of potentially harmful products, the head of the UK’s new consumer protection watchdog said yesterday. In his first big interview since starting work last autumn, [...]
THE BEST LAID PLANS OF SOME ENTREPRENEURS January 22, 2012 JOHN, Jeremy and Joan had a plan. A good plan. A plan to start a business. They were so sure that the business would succeed that each used £100,000 of their own money to fund the start-up costs and take the inevitable losses until they turned the corner into profit. Their hunch was right, and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES MORRISON COOLS INTEREST IN IRELAND Wm Morrison’s interest in Iceland Foods is cooling, raising doubts about whether Britain’s fourth biggest supermarket chain by market share will mount a £1.5bn bid for the frozen food specialist. Morrison was one of the companies expected to make an offer for Iceland Foods, for which second round [...]
With the Eurozone tottering it may be time we signed up for some Norwegian lessons January 15, 2012 NORWAY is indeed a country of good fortune. Post World War II, the quality of living was relatively poor by Western standards, based upon the proceeds of an old-fashioned primary economy. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1960s, this nation of only 4.9m has rocketed to fourth in the IMF’s league table, [...]
Educating your kids requires a plan January 15, 2012 TONY Blair said “education, education, education”, while Abba said “Money, money money”. It’s still hard to get the best of the former without a pile of the latter. Many parents are faced with massive dilemmas due to the spiralling costs of giving their children what they believe to be the best start in life. For [...]
MPs’ fury at £25bn tax owed December 19, 2011 THE TAXMAN is chasing more than £25bn from Britain’s top businesses, according to a damning report from MPs published today. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) also appears to be “too cosy” with large companies and has refused to give “straight answers” to questions, claims the Public Accounts Committee, which has produced the study on tax [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 14, 2011 A flatter tax pitch I gratefully acknowledge the coalition’s willingness to embark on a witch-hunt of benefit cheats, but I am not convinced they have the courage to tackle tax cheats with the same vigour. A company I jointly founded some years ago was put into voluntary liquidation as a result of not being able [...]