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The government has unveiled an important new law that will protect furloughed workers who are made redundant. This will ensure that any employee who was furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will receive their full basic statutory redundancy entitlement. This amount will be based on their normal wages, rather than the reduced furlough rate. The legislation came into effect on 31 July 2020. Employees are normally entitled to statutory redundancy pay if they have been working for their ...
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The government has published draft clauses for insertion into a new Finance Bill 2020-21, to be introduced into Parliament in the Autumn. These include changes which will affect employers who make termination payments. The part of a termination payment which is treated as being a payment in respect of the employee’s notice period and subject to income tax and NICs is called the “post-employment notice pay” (PENP). The provisions will provide an alternative PENP calculation where an employee’s pay period ...
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The government has launched a new scheme - open to anyone in England - with a bike in need of repair. The Fix your Bike Voucher Scheme is a new initiative that has been championed by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to help fix old bikes by offering a £50 bike repair voucher towards the total cost of repairs needed. The scheme hopes to provide an alternative to using public transport, reduce short car journeys and keep more people fitter ...
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Many will remember the empty shelves in supermarkets when lock-down commenced March 2020. In particular, the absence of toilet rolls… Compare this with supplies of TVs and other luxury goods where there was no noticeable absence of supply. These examples point to a basic economic theory; that a product with few substitutes (toilet rolls) and where demand is constant, is inelastic. Products where there is no immediate, compelling need, chocolates or a new iPad, are said to be elastic from ...
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There are working time limits that state the legal maximum weekly working hours that a person has to work. They should not exceed 48 hours a week on average. The maximum hours for under 18’s is fixed at no more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. The average working hours are calculated over a 17-week period and includes overtime. This means that an employee may work more than 48 hours in some weeks as long as ...
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To accommodate coronavirus disruption HMRC temporarily changed the time limit from 30 to 90 days for notifying a VAT option-to-tax for land and buildings. This extension was set to expire on 30 June 2020 but has been extended to 31 October 2020. The option to tax rules allows businesses to make an election to standard rate the supply of most non-residential and commercial land and buildings. This means that subsequent supplies by the person making the option to tax will ...
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A new measure that will provide HMRC with additional civil information powers is expected to take effect when the Finance Bill 2020-21 receives Royal Assent. The new measure known as a Financial Institution Notice (FIN) will be used to require financial institutions to provide information to HMRC, when requested, about a specific taxpayer and without the need for approval from the independent tribunal that considers tax matters. Currently it takes HMRC on average 12 months to respond to requests for ...
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HMRC has published a series of a consultations together with details of proposed legislative changes to existing anti-avoidance regimes to strengthen HMRC’s ability to further clamp down on the market for tax avoidance. The proposals include:

• ensuring HMRC can effectively issue stop notices to promoters, under the Promoters of Tax Avoidance Scheme (POTAS) rules, to make it harder to promote schemes that do not work
• preventing promoters from abusing corporate entity structures to avoid their obligations under the POTAS ...
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HMRC’s annual reconciliation of PAYE for the tax year 2019-20 is well under way. HMRC uses salary and pension information to calculate if you have paid the correct amount of tax. The calculation is usually generated automatically by HMRC’s computer systems on what is known as a P800 form. P800 forms are sent out from the end of the tax year with HMRC expecting all forms to be sent by the end of November. The P800 form is also used ...
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The Brexit transition period is due to end 31 December 2020. The UK and EU have agreed there will not be any further extensions, although with the COVID-19 outbreak nothing appears certain. As things currently stand, no formal trade deal has been reached with the EU. Consequently, it seems likely that the process for exporting goods to the EU will change from 1 January 2021. Current guidance published by HMRC states that from 1 January 2021, businesses will need to ...
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As well as filing accounts with Companies House, there is an important requirement to check that the information Companies House has about your company is correct every year. This is facilitated by the filing of an annual company confirmation statement. The confirmation statement was introduced in June 2016 and replaced the annual return. You could be subject to a fine of up to £5,000 for failing to send a confirmation statement. Companies House can also prosecute a company and its ...
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The government has confirmed that the next business rates revaluation in England will be postponed until April 2023. The government has previously announced that the revaluation that was due in 2021 would be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic but no date had been announced. The revaluation in April 2023 will be based on property values on 1 April 2021. The new revaluation date means that business rates will be based on property rental values that better reflect the impact ...
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This may seem to be an odd question. They buy because you offer what they want at the right price? But is that the only consideration? For faceless organisations like the larger online retailers, customers benefit from the huge range of goods on offer, easy payment options and reviews from previous buyers. Competing on these terms is difficult for smaller businesses which prompts the question, what can we offer our customers aside from providing what they need at the right ...
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1 August 2020 - Due date for Corporation Tax due for the year ended 31 October 2019. 19 August 2020 - PAYE and NIC deductions due for month ended 5 August 2020. (If you pay your tax electronically the due date is 22 August 2020) 19 August 2020 - Filing deadline for the CIS300 monthly return for the month ended 5 August 2020. 19 August 2020 - CIS tax deducted for the month ended 5 August 2020 is payable by ...
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The government has published the draft legislation for Finance Bill 2020-21, along with accompanying explanatory notes, tax information and impact notes. The consultation on draft clauses is intended to make sure that the legislation works as intended. The consultation will close on 15 September 2020. The Finance Bill will contain the legislation for some of the tax measures that have been previously announced by the government many of which have since been the subject of further consultation. The publication of ...
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Inheritance Tax (IHT) is levied on a person’s estate when they die and can also be payable during a person’s lifetime on certain trusts and gifts. The rate of Inheritance Tax payable is 40% on death and 20% on lifetime gifts. IHT is payable at a reduced rate on some assets if an individual leaves 10% or more of the 'net value' to charity of their estate. There is a nil-rate band, currently £325,000 below which no Inheritance Tax is ...
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The government has confirmed allocations for individual councils in England from the £500 million of additional support for Coronavirus-related spending pressures. This further injection sees a total of £4.3 billion in direct funding to councils to help with issues caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The money is being distributed to councils based on population and levels of deprivation, and how the costs of delivery of services varies across the country. The government has also announced a co-payment scheme that will ...
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The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has written to the OTS (Office of Tax Simplification), asking the OTS to undertake a review of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and aspects of the taxation of chargeable gains in relation to individuals and smaller businesses. In response to the request, the OTS has published a scoping document for the review, together with a call for evidence and an online survey. The scope of review will include looking at the following areas: the overall scope of ...
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We would like to remind students that work part time, for example in a summer job, that they are entitled to claim back any tax overpaid. Students (and other temporary workers) are not required to pay any Income Tax if their earnings are below the tax-free personal allowance, currently £12,500. However, employers are required to calculate the amount of tax you need to pay on the basis that you would be working for the rest of the tax year. This ...
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HM Treasury has confirmed the extension of Making Tax Digital (MTD) to cover businesses with a turnover below the VAT threshold and for certain individuals who file Income Tax Self-Assessment tax returns. This announcement provides much-needed clarity of the way forward for this scheme. MTD started in April 2019 (for VAT purposes only) when businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 became mandated to keep their records digitally and provide their VAT return information to HMRC using ...
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