All Tax and legislation articles – Page 46
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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. ...
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Article
Employee Benefits/Towers Watson Flexible Benefits Research 2012: Tax-efficient benefits
Changes in tax legislation have made employers more wary about certain benefits, but any tax and NI savings are a strong draw in straitened times, says Tynan BartonSome 85% of employers offer tax-efficient benefits through flex, a small drop from the 90% that did so in 2011. In 2008, this ...
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Article
Budget 2012: Government consultation on integrating income tax and NI due in April
Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed that the consultation on the integration of income tax and national insurance (NI), as announced in the 2011 Autumn Statement, will be published in April.The plans to consult on the integration of income tax and NI were announced in a paper in November 2011, which ...
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Article
Budget 2012: Tax reliefs capped at 25% of income for higher earners
The government is to introduce a limit of 25% of income on all uncapped income tax reliefs for those earning more than £50,000 annually, announced Chancellor George Osborne in the 2012 Budget report.This will increase effective tax rates and help ensure that those with the highest incomes pay a fairer ...
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Article
Budget 2012: 50p tax rate to be reduced to 45p
The top 50p rate of income tax is to be reduced to 45p from April 2013.In the Budget report 2012, Chancellor George Osborne said the 50p rate, which is levied on taxable income above £150,000 a year, has damaged Britain’s competitiveness.Sean Drury, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), said the move ...
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Article
Budget 2012: Tax relief on luncheon vouchers scrapped from 2013
As announced in the Budget 2011 and Finance Bill 2012, the government has now confirmed that it will proceed with the abolition tax relief on luncheon vouchers from 6 April 2013.Luncheon Vouchers are currently NIC and tax exempt up to £36 a year. That is, roughly, a tax break on ...
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Article
Budget 2012: Tax relief abolished on some group life assurance premiums
As previously announced, from 6 April 2015, tax relief will be abolished on group life assurance premiums paid by employers under employee-funded retirement benefit.Read more stories from the Budget 2012
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Article
Duncan Brown: What is on your wish list for the Budget on 21 March?
I would like to see more substantive action announced by the Chancellor to encourage employers to provide meaningful work opportunities for young people, with record levels of youth unemployment across Europe being one of the most distressing aspects of our current economic malaise. But the problem is primarily one of ...