We’ll go bust if we lose in court, say Portsmouth August 4, 2010 PORTSMOUTH say they could go out of business if they lose their court case against the tax authorities today. HM Revenue & Customs are challenging a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) to allow the club to come out of administration, claiming it is owed £13m more than the £24m stated by the club’s administrators. And Portsmouth’s [...]
Why unemployment remains so high August 3, 2010 UNEMPLOYMENT in the UK is far higher than most commentators realise. The figures used by economists and the media only include people who are looking for work, thus missing out several million benefit claimants who are on the dole in all but name. The latest official statistics (from last November) reveal that there are 5.87m [...]
HMRC under fire for backlog of tax cases July 21, 2010 HM REVENUE & Customs (HMRC) has been criticised by the National Audit Office (NAO) for failing to deal with its huge backlog of more than 18m unresolved income tax cases. The NAO said about half the 18.2m cases might involve underpayment or overpayment of tax. It warned that as much as £4.4bn was at stake. [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS July 21, 2010 RBS FREE SEMINAR ON EUROPE TONIGHT Europe has never been far from the headlines and the falls in European stock markets have garnered lots of interest from investors. RBS is holding another free seminar tonight where David Stevenson will be discussing why he feels that Europe and especially Euroland could be looking good value compared [...]
Our tax code needs a total overhaul July 19, 2010 LET us hope the coalition is serious about tax simplification. Britain’s taxes are not only far too high; they are also extraordinarily complicated. I was recently talking to a very senior tax lawyer who admitted to me that no single person understands more than a small proportion of our tax code. His views were all [...]
The new Office for Tax Simplification won’t turn the UK into a low-tax state July 19, 2010 ANOTHER week, another independent body that could prove a headache for the chancellor. Hot on the heels of the creation of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which has had a less than illustrious start, George Osborne will today launch an Office for Tax Simplification. It has been charged with lighting a bonfire under Britain’s [...]
HMRC scuppers Pompey bid to exit administration July 15, 2010 PORTSMOUTH face more months of uncertainty after the taxman blocked their attempt to come out of administration. HM Revenue and Customs yesterday lodged an appeal at the High Court against Pompey’s proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement. A hearing is not expected to be held before October, leaving the club hampered by a transfer embargo as they [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 14, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES FRANCIS MAUDE TACKLES CIVIL SERVICE PAY-OFFS Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, attempted to force the hand of civil service unions yesterday as he laid emergency legislation to slash their redundancy terms while offering negotiations on a new severance deal. With up to 100,000 civil service jobs likely to go during the next [...]
Budd insists that OBR is independent July 13, 2010 THE head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was yesterday forced to deny there was a conspiracy to revise down how many jobs would be lost through George Osborne’s budget. Sir Alan Budd received a grilling from the Treasury select committee yesterday over accusations his Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) came under government pressure [...]
HMRC gets City’s vote of confidence but change needed July 6, 2010 HM REVENUE and Customs (HMRC), despite winning a vote of confidence from the City still needs to make improvements, an influential survey published yesterday found. After speaking to 22 of the UK’s largest companies, information gathered by law firm Norton Rose found that their relationship with the HMRC was broadly on the right track but [...]