Archive for February, 2009

The Isle of Man and Ireland governments have confirmed that both countries have completed their legislative procedures and that the Tax Information Exchange Agreement and the Double Taxation Agreement between the two countries entered into force on 31 December 2008. Further information: Tax Co-operation Agreements with Ireland come into force The UK Payroll News is [...]

Interest is charged by HMRC when income tax and NICs are paid late, and credited when they are overpaid. New interest rates have been announced and take effect from 27 January 2009. This is the first change of rates to occur since Regulations were made in December allowing HMRC to amend rates more quickly following [...]

The Low Pay Commission’s remit for 2008/09 is to review the levels of each minimum wage rate, make recommendations for October 2009 and provisional rate recommendations for October 2010, and report to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform by the end of February 2009. On 14 January 2009, [...]

A new Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) between the UK and Guernsey was signed in London on 20 January 2009. The agreement will enter into force as soon as both governments have completed the legislative procedures needed to give it effect. This is the fourth comprehensive TIEA signed by the UK, the others being with [...]

The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 makes provision for a new judicial and legal framework that brings together individual Tribunals into a new, unified tribunals structure. The Act creates a two-tier Tribunal system – a First–tier Tribunal and an Upper Tribunal. The Upper Tribunal primarily, but not exclusively, reviews and decides appeals arising from [...]

HMRC has announced a reduction in the official rate of interest from 6.25% to 4.75% from 1 March 2009. An employment-related loan is a taxable benefit in a tax year if it is “beneficial”, i.e. it is provided at a rate of interest that is less than HMRC’s official interest rate. The cash equivalent of [...]

The practical guidance document for employers on redundancy, published by BERR, has been updated and makes reference to the increase in the maximum statutory redundancy rate to £350 from February 2009. However, when the previous version was republished in September 2008, we suggested to BERR that the reference in the document to outdated HMRC 1996 [...]

In the case Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth and Others, the Court of Appeal, in April 2005, ruled that there is no obligation for an employer to treat a worker as entitled to paid holiday leave under the WTR rules who is on long-term sickness absence, and has been unable to attend work throughout [...]

Employers making use of the modified PAYE and NICs arrangements for tax equalised employees coming from abroad (Employment Procedures Manual, Appendices 6 and 7A), and the modified NICs procedure for employees working abroad (Appendix 7B), should note that the Appendices have been amended to reflect the April 2008 changes to the residence and domicile rules, [...]

The UK Border Agency introduced serious penalties in February 2008 for employers engaging illegal migrant workers, including a fine of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker engaged and a new criminal offence of knowingly using illegal migrant labour, punishable with a prison sentence of up to two years. Further punitive measures are included in [...]

The BillPay service provided by the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank now allows tax and NICs to be paid by both debit card and credit card. Employers may register for the service and make payments at the secure link given below. Payments of between 1p and £100,000 may be made in this way. There is [...]