All Tax and legislation articles – Page 39
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ArticleHigher-rate tax threshold to rise
Autumn Statement 2014: The higher-rate tax threshold will rise to £42,385 from April 2015.The current higher-rate threshold is set at £41,865 per annum.According to Chancellor George Osborne, this will take 138,000 people out of the higher-rate tax band.Lesley Fidler, associate director at Baker Tilly, said: ”In the past, generosity at ...
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ArticlePersonal tax allowance to rise to £10,600
The government will increase the income tax personal allowance to £10,600 from April 2015.This is higher than the previous planned increase of £10,500 announced in the Queen’s Speech in June. It means the first £10,600 of an employee’s annual salary will be exempt from income tax. Anna McCaffrey, senior associate ...
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ArticleChancellor confirms plans to scrap pensions death tax
Autumn Statement 2014: Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed that the government will scrap the 55% tax rate to which pension savings are subject on the death of a scheme member.The plans, which were first announced in September 2014, will come into effect from April 2015.Zoe Murphy, partner at law firm ...
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ArticleLinklaters to offer enhanced shared parental leave
Linklaters will offer enhanced shared parental leave (SPL) to staff following the statutory rights that have come into force in the UK this week.The global law firm is offering employees full pay for up to six months’ leave, subject to certain conditions. This is inclusive of any maternity or paternity ...
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ArticleUpdate of key compliance issues in November
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled that overtime pay must be included in holiday pay calculations.PricewaterhouseCoopers lost a sex discrimination case against an employee, Erik Pietzka, who wanted to work flexibly but had his request rejected. The employment tribunal heard that the employee who dealt with Pietzka’s application was of ...
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OpinionAndrew Roycroft: Tax relief for bonus clawbacks
The tax position of such arrangements is complicated by the commercial imperative to pay the bonus upfront, and any repayment occurs only at a later date (clawback). Such bonuses are taxed on receipt, and the difficulty is obtaining tax relief for the repayment.The rules governing deductibility of amounts paid by ...
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AnalysisOctober case law round-up
Here is a round up of case law impacting employee benefits, where rulings have been made in the last month.A former Nestle’s employee has been ruled to be liable for the tax on a lump sum payment received in exchange for giving up membership of the organisation’s healthcare scheme. An ...
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ArticleGovernment updates bring-your-own-device guidance
The guidance applies to any type of BYOD software product running on a personally-owned device including: container applications on personally-owned smartphones, bootable USB media on home PCs and remote desktop or remote application products.The security aspects in the guidance include: creating an effective BYOD policy to ensure devices are only ...
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ArticleGovernment taskforce to assess holiday pay ruling
A taskforce is to be set up to assess the possible impact of the ruling on holiday pay from the Employment Appeal Tribunal.In the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal judgement it was decided that holiday pay should reflect non-guaranteed overtime.The taskforce, which was announced by business secretary Vince Cable, will consist ...
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ArticleOvertime must be included in holiday pay
The Employment Appeal Trubunal (EAT) has ruled that overtime pay must be included in holiday pay calculations.The decision relates to three conjoined cases:Bear Scotland v Fulton and Baxter.Hertel (UK) v Wood and others.Amec Group v Law and others.Bear Scotland v Fulton focused on whether overtime pay or shift allowances should ...
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Article50% to offer new pension flexibility to older staff
Half of respondents could offer new pension and remuneration flexibility to older workers to enable them to take advantage of the new Freedom of Pensions rules, according to research by Jelf Employee Benefits.The new legislation, which is due to come into force in spring 2015, will allow older employees, (those ...
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Analysis
Update on shared parental leave
The shared parental leave legislation is part of the government’s commitment to support working families, and is included in the Children and Families Bill 2013, which received Royal Assent in March 2014.What is shared parental leave?The new system will allow working families to have more choice around how they balance ...
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ArticleActors denied minimum wage for not meeting 'worker' classification
A number of actors that worked under a profit sharing arrangement have been denied the right to be paid the national minimum wage. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has rejected the original judgement because it failed to apply the correct legal test to see whether the employed actors were defined as ...
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ArticleGovernment to abolish short service pension refunds
The government is to abolish short service pension refunds for employees who leave an employer after less than two years’ service.Under current arrangements, a member of an occupational pension scheme that leaves having completed more than three months but less than two years’ qualifying service may be entitled to receive ...
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ArticleNestle employee liable for tax on payment in lieu of benefit
A former Nestle employee’s has been ruled to be liable for the tax on a lump sum payment received in exchange for giving up membership of the organisation’s healthcare scheme.While Mr Forsyth was employed by the organisation, the claimant was a member of its healthcare scheme. Although this membership ceased ...
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ArticleEmployee fails to win claim for outstanding sick pay
An employee has appealed against the initial ruling in an unfair dismissal case, Mr Clutch Auto Centres v Blakemore.The employment tribunal ruled that the claimant was still an employee of the respondent, despite the claimant arguing that he had been wrongfully dismissed and the respondent claiming that he had resigned. ...
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ArticleCourt rules employers are liable for lost pension rights
Employers could be liable to pay pension contributions to employees that are found to have been unfairly dismissed and have lost out on pension rights as a result.However, in such cases, employers must also be aware of the types of tribunal guidance on which such calculations can be based, the ...
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ArticleEqual pay audits and antenatal rights to come into force
Several pieces of new employment legislation will come into force tomorrow (1 October 2014).From this date, employers can be required by employment tribunals to conduct and publish equal pay audits if they are judged to have breached the equal pay provisions of the latest Equality Act.Ingrid Waterfield, a director in ...
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ArticleOTS benefits simplification reforms not likely until 2017
The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) is simplifying the way employee benefits and expenses are taxed but some of the reforms could be unlikely until 2017.Speaking at Employee Benefits Live 2014 on 24 September John Witting, tax director at OTS, said: “We are looking for opinions and views on issues ...
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ArticleFord justified in not paying enhanced paternity pay
An employment tribunal has ruled that car manufacturer Ford was justified in not paying enhanced paternity pay to a male employee during additional paternity leave.In the case of Shuter v Ford Motor Company, an employment tribunal ruled that the organisation was not obliged to provide enhanced pay incircumstances where it ...