Firms up in arms at £2bn tax raid December 6, 2010 THE government yesterday announced a clampdown on tax avoidance which it said would raise £2bn, drawing fierce criticism from business groups. David Gauke, the Treasury minister in charge of taxation, announced a raft of measures, including two that will come into force with immediate effect. He said the changes would raise £2bn by the end [...]
Cadbury may be next target for protesters December 5, 2010 CADBURY could be the next firm to be hit by organised groups of protesters after it relocated part of its operations to Switzerland for tax reasons. The move comes as Topshop boss Sir Philip Green was left counting the cost of closing his flagship Oxford Street store on Saturday afternoon after a protest over his [...]
Football clubs have to look to long-term November 30, 2010 INSOLVENCY is becoming more common for football clubs. So how can clubs avoid administration in the hard times ahead? What can administrators do to prevent it? The unique – and controversial – element of a football club insolvency is the requirement that certain football related creditors be paid in full as a condition of the [...]
Q&A November 25, 2010 Q. What can I do to get better or cheaper deals on office equipment? A.It’s a good idea to consider swapping unwanted stock with other companies’ goods, services, or advertising space: things for which both sides would usually expect cash. This transaction is called corporate trade or corporate barter. There are now a number of [...]
NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS CELEBRATE VERY BEST OF BRITISH November 9, 2010 “CELEBRATING” the Best of British was how Prime Minister David Cameron described the National Business Awards last night, speaking via a video link recorded before his trip to China this week. And a fine celebration the ceremony was too, honouring companies of all sectors and sizes across the UK economy, from niche tiddlers such as [...]
ACCA EXPERTS | WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW November 9, 2010 Chas Roy-Chowdhury Head of taxation It’s very disappointing that HMRC’s budget was cut, although given that the Treasury had its budget cut by 33 per cent, maybe a 15 per cent cut isn’t as bad as it could have been. However, HMRC is a department that is having trouble even standing still, so any cut [...]
Four-year government plans miss the target November 8, 2010 THEY are calling it a revolution. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have announced a rejection of Labour’s target culture, offering instead four-year departmental business plans, opened up for public scrutiny and updated by regular progress reports. The ministerial statement claims this will “change the nature of government”, but this does not look like the accountability [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NEW HOLE IN CONNAUGHT DEBT The scale of debt at Connaught, the collapsed property services group, will be greater than previously thought after administrators found 50,000 invoices that the company had not accounted for. Management accounts had led administrators from KPMG to believe that the social housing maintenance arm of Connaught owed £46m [...]
Child benefit proposals hit major hurdle October 28, 2010 THE government’s plans to scrap child benefit for higher rate tax payers could be almost impossible to enforce, it emerged yesterday, in the latest saga to hit the controversial reforms. Earlier this month, George Osborne announced plans to axe child benefit for all households that contain at least one higher-rate taxpayer from 2013, saving the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES SOUTH AFRICA STILL A DRAG ON ANGLO AMERICAN Anglo American, the mining company, is finding it hard to escape its South African roots despite its efforts to become a cosmopolitan corporate citizen. An array of risks in South Africa, the source of 41 per cent of operating profits last year, is having an [...]