News – Page 20
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ArticleHMRC publishes templates for share scheme returns
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published templates for organisations to use in order to comply with their online filing responsibilities for employee share plan returns.All employers need to submit their first annual share plan return for 2014/15 online through HMRC’s pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) online service by 6 July 2015.The templates ...
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ArticleMale staff win equal pay case against University of Wales
More than 18 male employees have won an equal pay case against the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.The support staff, which includes plumbers and caretakers, took the university to an employment tribunal on the grounds of sexual discrimination after discovering female colleagues on the same pay grade were being ...
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ArticleAsda staff launch equal pay case
More than 400 female employees at Asda have launched legal action against the supermarket around equal pay.The cases are aimed at determining if the mainly female-staffed retail jobs are of equal value to higher-paid jobs in Asda’s male-dominated distribution centres.If the case is successful, the employees who have alleged they ...
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ArticleReed Group loses £158m salary sacrifice appeal
Reed Group has lost its case in the Upper Tax Tribunal against HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concerning the tax treatment of travel and subsistence expenses to staff.A number of Reed Group organisations now face a liability to HMRC worth up to £158 million in unpaid tax and national insurance ...
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ArticleTax and legal changes to employee benefits take effect
A number of changes affecting employee benefits came into effect on 6 April.These include:The savings limit for sharesave schemes has doubled from £250 to £500 a month, and the maximum value of shares that an employee can acquire with tax advantages through share incentive plans has risen to £1,800 a ...
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ArticleKey changes to employee benefits in the 2014 Budget
Here is a round up of all the key announcements impacting employee benefits:2014 to 2015: more flexibility to be allowed for employees retiring with defined contribution pensions.From 27 March: maximum lump sum taken from a pension pot increased to £30,000 from £18,000. From 27 March: number of small individual pension ...
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ArticleGovernment sets pension charges cap at 0.75%
The government has announced it will set the charges cap for workplace pensions at 0.75%.The proposal for the cap on pension charges was part of the Department of Work and Pensions’ consultation into charges on workplace pension schemes, which opened in October 2013 and closed in November 2013.The government has ...
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ArticleBP and Tui criticised over executive pay
BHP Billiton, BP, Morrisons, Sage Group and Tui have been held up as examples of employers that are not fully complying with regulations governing the reporting of executive pay.The High Pay Centre and partner organisations, including Pensions and Investment Research Consultants, Trade Union Share Owners, ShareAction and the Friends Provident ...
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ArticleExpat share scheme tax changes to be postponed
The government has proposed that share scheme tax and national insurance contribution (NIC) changes for expatriate employees should take effect from April 2015, rather than September 2014 as previously proposed.In its Overview of tax legislation and rates, which was published alongside the Budget 2014 on 19 March, the government confirmed ...
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ArticleMore flexibility to be allowed when taking DC pension savings
In the Budget 2014, Chancellor George Osborne (pictured) announced greater flexibility in the way employees retiring with defined contribution (DC) pensions can take their savings.In the future DC members will be able to take their pension wealth as a lump sum, drawdown, or an annuity.From 27 March the maximum lump ...
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ArticleGovernment to consult on four tax simplifications
The government is to consult on four tax simplifications in response to the Office for Tax Simplification’s (OTS) review of employee benefits and expenses, according to Chancellor George Osborne’s 2014 Budget.These include abolishing the £8,500 threshold, the voluntary payrolling of benefits, a trivial benefits exemption and a general exemption for ...
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ArticleFlexibility on pension pots could hurt low earners
The government will increase the tax-free amount that can be taken out of small individual pension pots as a cash lump sum to £10,000, up from £2,000. This is regardless of overall total pension wealth of an individual, and cash can be accessed from age 60.Chancellor George Osborne announced in ...
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Tax and legislative changes announced in January and February
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) changed its policy on the recovery of VAT on defined benefit pensions. There are now circumstances in which employers may be able to claim input tax in relation to pension funds: http://bit.ly/1gzU60qHMRC also announced that it will stagger the introduction of real-time information (RTI) penalties. ...
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ArticleMinimum wage to increase by 3% from October
The national minimum wage will rise to £6.50 an hour for adults aged 21 and over from October.This represents a 3% increase as recommended by the Low Pay Commission.According to a report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) around two-thirds (64%) of respondents thought policymakers should try ...
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ArticleBanks restructure bonuses to meet FCA guidance
All major retail banks have either replaced or made substantial changes to their financial incentive schemes, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).The City watchdog’s latest review of financial incentive schemes found significant improvements at many UK banks, but adds that further work is needed.For example, the FCA has identified ...
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ArticleHMRC loses NI contributions case
The Supreme Court has ruled against HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in a national insurance (NI) test case, rejecting the argument that a single employer pension contribution to a funded unapproved retirement benefits scheme (FURBS) should have been subject to NI contributions liability.The case, HMRC v Forde and McHugh, is ...
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ArticleGovernment names five employers which failed to pay minimum wage
The government has named and shamed five employers for failing to pay the correct national minimum wage.It is is introducing a series of measures to crack down on employers that fail to pay the national minimum wage. The first of these, a tougher naming and shaming scheme, came into effect ...
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ArticleEmployers to increase share plan savings limits
EXCLUSIVE: More than half (54%) of employer respondents that provide sharesave schemes intend to increase the monthly savings limits when new legislation comes into force from 6 April, according to research by Equiniti.Its research, which surveyed 40 employers that provide a sharesave plan and 26 that provide a share incentive ...
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ArticleLow Pay Commission recommends 3% minimum wage increase
The Low Pay Commission has recommended that the adult minimum wage should be increased by 3% on 1 October 2014, from £6.31 to £6.50.The Executive summary of the Low Pay Commission 2014 report stated that this could increase the number of jobs covered by the minimum wage by more than ...
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ArticleHMRC to change share plan administration process
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to change the way both new and existing employee share schemes are administered.In its Finance Bill 2014 new guidance notes, published on 7 February, HMRC detailed its new self-certification and online filing process, which follows recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification in ...