All Tax and legislation articles – Page 46
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Article
Executive remuneration consultation closes
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) consultation exercise on revised executive remuneration reporting regulations has closed.The consultation, Directors’ pay: revised remuneration reporting regulations, includes draft regulations setting out the proposed form and content of the director’s remuneration report.The proposals of the report, if enacted, will give shareholders a ...
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Opinion
Robert O’Hare: Tax issues around auto-enrolment
It does not appear that auto-enrolment will have any direct tax impact, but there could be an indirect tax impact on employees.For example, the threshold for the maximum amount of annual pension contributions that qualify for tax relief was recently cut to £50,000. If an employee’s annual pension savings already ...
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Opinion
Gagandeep Prasad: Update on employment reform
On the legislative front, the coalition government is continuing its programme of employment reform. This includes new provisions on executive remuneration aimed at curbing boardroom excess by giving greater powers to shareholders contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, now going through parliament.The government has also confirmed it will ...
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Opinion
Alex Fricke: Legal issues around staff health and wellbeing
Ensure employment contracts and/or applicable policies clearly set out the organisation’s approach to sickness absence. For example, how many days will be paid under a contractual sick pay scheme and is the employer entitled to seek a medical report?Review provisions regarding any private health insurance cover. Ensure that there is ...
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Article
ECJ considers Tupe case
The European Court of Justice is currently hearing a case that could impact on the remuneration employers provide to employees as part of a transfer covered by transfer of undertakings (protection of employment) (Tupe) regulations.The case, Parkwood Leisure versus Alemo-Herron and others, involves a private sector organisation that took over ...
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Article
ECJ to examine VAT on DB pensions
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will examine whether defined benefit (DB) pension schemes should pay value-added tax (VAT) on investment management services.The case under examination involves Wheels Common Investment Fund (WCIF), a multi-employer scheme, and the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), after a tribunal in London in February ...
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Article
Public sector pensions bill published
The government has published the Public Service Pensions Bill 2013, which is forecast to save £65 billion over the next fifty years and aims to reduce public sector pension scheme costs by around half.The Independent Public Service Pensions Commission published its final report in March 2011. The government accepted its ...
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Article
Small employers could face RTI penalties
Small organisations and those that employ casual staff could suffer under real-time information (RTI) reporting, particularly from the on-or-before payment requirement.It requires the employer to submit information to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) each time they pay an employee. For example, when a catering company that uses casual staff to ...
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Article
FSA announces incentive scheme review findings
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has completed a review of 22 organisations’ financial incentive schemes.The review encompassed banks, building societies, insurers and investment firms.It found:Most incentive schemes were likely to drive employees to mis-sell and these risks were not being properly managed.Firms were failing to identify how incentive schemes might ...
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Opinion
Lesley Fidler: Tax best practice
Unless tax specialists are working at the giddy heights where tax planning merges into tax avoidance/political outrage, the substance of a transaction is usually of little concern. Down at ground level in the well-trodden realms where payroll and flexible benefits schemes collide, it is the form the transaction takes that ...
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Analysis
Flexible Benefits: Top 10 tax tips: Taming the taxman
If you read nothing else, read this… The tax treatment of benefits varies, so employers should ensure their flex scheme takes account of these differences. Employee communications about benefits tax should be clear, simple and targeted to enable employees to make informed decisions about benefits. Employers should review their flex ...
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Article
Third of Scottish employment tribunal cases relate to equal pay
Over a third of all Scottish cases that are referred to the Employment Tribunal are related to equal pay, according to figures by HM Courts and Tribunal Service.The figures show that 10,000 cases were brought before the tribunal relating to issues of equal pay. The data was released following a ...
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Article
Kay report calls for realignment of executive remuneration
A report commissioned by the government has proposed to realign company incentives by better relating directors’ remuneration to long-term sustainable business performance.The report, UK equity markets and long-term decision making, has also proposed that long-term performance incentives should be provided only in the form of company shares, to be held ...
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Article
HMRC publishes consultation on tax avoidance schemes
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published a consultation on improving the information available about tax avoidance schemes and the risks of using them.The consultation includes proposals to revise and extend the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (Dotas) hallmarks (the descriptions of schemes required to be disclosed for income tax, ...
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Article
High Court ruling will protect the pension benefits of Urenco employees
A ruling from the High Court on 12 June against nuclear fuel company Urenco will protect the pension benefits of 13,000 former employees of British Nuclear Fuels (BNF) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).The ruling stated that the pension protection provided by the Energy Act 2004 for the former ...
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Article
HMRC reminds employers about late penalties for annual tax return
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has written to employers this week with a reminder about the late penalties for missing the 19 May deadline for their 2011-12 employer annual returns.Employers that missed the deadline will receive an increased penalty if they do not act by 19 June.Even if an employer ...
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Article
High Court rules that BBC pension scheme cap is legal
The High Court has ruled that the BBC pension scheme reforms, which cap future pensionable salary increases at 1%, are legal.The judgement, Bradbury vs. BBC, dealt with an appeal to the decision of the pensions ombudsman in a case brought by John Bradbury, a member of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. ...
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Article
Beecroft report on employment law published
The Beecroft Report on employment law has been published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).Business secretary Vince Cable said the report, which was written by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, has been published to dispel some of the myths that have been associated with it.He added: “Because of ...
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Article
Report on employment law to be published
A report on employment law, known as the Beecroft report, will be published this week.The report, written by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft and commissioned by prime minister David Cameron’s former chief policy adviser Steve Hilton, is likely to include the following proposals: Delaying the pension reforms, which would force employers ...
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Analysis
How will pension reforms affect employment contracts?
If you read nothing else, read this… Auto-enrolment is complex and may cause employers difficulties. Care is required in how part-timers, fixed-term workers and secondees are treated. Identifying eligible employees is one of the hardest tasks, because an employer’s existing systems will not be set up to capture this data. ...