According to the Government’s latest Labour Market Enforcement Strategy report HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is to receive an additional £5.3 million of funding in 2017/18 to ensure businesses are paying employees the national minimum wage (NMW) and national living wage (NLW). This follows on from a previous increase of £20 million in 2016, which has allowed the team to expand to more than 360 Read more…

From January next year businesses across the UK need to ensure that consumers are no longer being charged extra for paying by debit or credit card, according to new legislation from the Government. It is thought that in 2010 alone customers spent £473 million on charges from card payments, which is why the Treasury has announced that businesses will no longer be able to add Read more…

A new survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has revealed that more than 40 per cent of UK businesses believe that Brexit has hurt their investment plans. The Confederation’s latest Investment Survey clearly asked 357 companies in the UK how the UK’s decision to leave the EU had affected their plans, with nearly 150 saying that they changed their plans to spend as Read more…

Cash-in-hand payments should be replaced with technology driven alternatives in hopes of collecting up to £6 billion more in tax – this is the conclusion of a Government-commissioned review conducted by Matthew Taylor, head of the think-tank the Royal Society of Arts. The 116-page report, entitled Taylor Review of Modern Work Practices, was commissioned to explore modern employment practices in the UK, in particular how the Read more…

The Government has announced that it plans to delay the full implementation of digital taxation until 2020. Making Tax Digital (MTD), the details of which will be included in the upcoming Finance Bill for 2017, has already faced a number of delays and was placed on hold before the snap general election in June. However, the Government has now revealed that businesses with a turnover Read more…

Landlords are being advised that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is redoubling its efforts to crackdown on individuals who fail to properly report their taxes. A number of reports have emerged recently which suggest that the Revenue’s Connect ‘supercomputer’ is being used by the tax authority to gather far-reaching data on taxpayers and to effectively crack down on those who are failing to declare or Read more…

Businesses across the UK are being targeted by scammers who are charging them to update companies VAT registration numbers online, when it is not necessary. Typically businesses are told that as part of changes to EU legislation, which obligates all companies to provide their VAT registration numbers on ‘various’ documents since 2010, they as a company are required to update their database. This service is Read more…

If you have lived abroad for six or months or more in a year, you are classed as a “non-resident landlord”, and the income you receive from renting out your home whilst abroad is taxable in the UK. This needs to be declared to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), but you do not necessarily need to file a tax return. Non-resident landlords can choose to Read more…

Last year saw a raft of changes come into effect at Companies House. Amongst the measures introduced was the requirement for companies to maintain a register of Persons of Significant Control (PSCs). New rules, which came into effect on 26 June 2017 mean that companies need to report all changes to their PSC information as they take place and will no longer be able to Read more…

While most of us invest a lot of time and thought about how to improve our finances, we do not tend to spend quite as much time looking at how our finances can improve our lives. But research is showing that not all wealth is equal, with some spending having a greater impact on happiness than other spending. Here are our top five ways to Read more…