Exclusive: Brits slapped with £571m in HMRC fines in crackdown on tax avoidance and late payments May 31, 2022 Penalties imposed by HMRC on taxpayers have jumped by nearly a third, from £445m to £571m in just one year, according to fresh HMRC data, shared exclusively with City A.M. today. The primary reason behind this jump is HMRC increasingly clamping down on tax avoidance as part of its efforts to make up for revenue [...]
Should it take four hearings to decide employment status? May 31, 2022 Justine Riccomini explains the outcomes in the two latest employment status cases to emerge from the Court of Appeal Another two IR35 cases were decided recently, which furthered the cause of HMRC in their pursuit of television and radio presenters when the Court of Appeal found in favour of HMRC in both instances. Kickabout The [...]
Royal Mail under fire for wrongly charging British customers £150 ‘Brexit tax’ May 30, 2022 Royal Mail is under fire from angry Brits for reportedly charging incorrect Brexit import fees on deliveries from the European Union. The mail giant wrongly slapped fees on items customers already own. One man was charged around £200 for a pair of glasses to be sent back from a hotel in Spain, according to a [...]
Revealed: HMRC now tracking 277 UK businesses it suspects of using tax havens to reduce tax bills May 30, 2022 HMRC is now tracking 277 British businesses it suspects of using ‘tax havens’ to artificially reduce their tax bills in the UK, according to a City law firm. HMRC is concerned that some UK businesses are still avoiding tax in the UK by recording income in countries with zero or near-zero corporation tax. Countries traditionally [...]
Exclusive: Steep surge in income tax and national insurance as higher taxes bite in cost of living May 26, 2022 The combined amount of Income Tax and National Insurance paid in the last twelve months has soared by 13 per cent to more than £387bn, new figures from HMRC show. The latest data from the taxman comes amidst the growing cost-of-living crisis, the Government is now likely to come under increasing pressure to alleviate the [...]
Reforms to stamp duty holiday could pin down runaway house prices, say industry chiefs May 25, 2022 A cocktail of record house prices, HM Revenue and Customs HMRC’s record stamp duty earnings and plunging property transactions have left property chiefs calling for reforms. Reworking the stamp duty, the tax put on residential properties over £125,000, could help rebalance the hot property market and runaway valuations, according to onlookers. “Stamp duty has an [...]
Govt owes itself £263m in back taxes as Whitehall departments failed to comply with payroll rules May 25, 2022 Due to a failure of Whitehall departments to comply with rules on off-payroll working, MPs have stated that the Government owes itself hundreds of millions of pounds in back taxes. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said it was “not acceptable” that central government was paying out to cover tax owed for individuals who had been [...]
When complex arrangements are really just good-old employment income in disguise May 19, 2022 Justine Riccomini explains why it is important for employment tax practitioners to “look through” what appears to be a complex arrangement and see it for what it really is – in this case, a way of paying cash bonuses to employees. Background In Jones Bros Ruthin (Civil Engineering) Co Ltd and Britannia Hotels Ltd v [...]
Exclusive: Jump in small businesses planning to find fresh cash through EIS as enthusiasm for equity raises grows May 16, 2022 The number of small businesses planning to raise money under the Government’s flagship Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) rose nearly 10 per cent last year from 2,965 in 2019/20 to 3,245 in 2020/21, according new data shared with City A.M. this morning. The rise in SMEs looking to raise funds though EIS shows that enthusiasm for equity fundraising [...]
Capital gains tax receipts increase £5bn in two years: Is its future aligned with income tax? May 15, 2022 The amount of Capital Gains Tax collected by the government has shot up by more than £5bn in the past two years, according to official figures from HMRC. Rising from £9.8bn in 2019/20 to £14.9bn in 2021/22, the huge increase comes after changes to the tax and rising house prices. The increase in Capital Gains [...]