Archive for December, 2009

Summary For the 2010/11 tax year: the multiplier for the car fuel benefit charge increases from £16,900 to £18,000 the van fuel scale charge increases from £500 to £550. There are no changes to the measures already announced in Budget 2009 for the calculation of the car benefit charge for the 2011/12 tax year. For [...]

The Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction can provide 100% UK tax relief on earnings from carrying out duties as a seafarer wholly or partly outside the UK, during an eligible period. One of the qualifying conditions for the deduction is that the claimant must be ordinarily resident in the UK. The 2009 Pre-Budget Report announced that this [...]

The 2009 Pre-Budget Report documents made reference to “PAYE scheme pooling”. This arrangement would allow large connected employers to combine or “pool” their PAYE scheme references, returns and payment obligations in order to reduce administration time and costs. HMRC has already carried out informal discussions about PAYE pooling with selected employers and representative bodies and intends [...]

The 2009 Pre-Budget Report documents announced that HMRC and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are to consult early in 2010 on proposed changes to the National Minimum Wage Regulations to tackle the issues raised by so-called “travel schemes”. Such “travel schemes” are operated by labour providers and “umbrella companies” in order to [...]

Summary Five amendments are proposed to the existing rules for disclosing tax avoidance schemes, namely: A change to the trigger point for disclosure of marketed schemes to ensure early disclosure of schemes. An information power to require persons who introduce scheme promoters to clients to identify who the promoter is. Enhanced penalties for failure to [...]

Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) is a share option scheme that provides tax and NICs advantages and is aimed at smaller, higher-risk companies to help them recruit and retain key employees.  In order to qualify for EMI, a company has to meet various conditions with respect to its size, independence and trading activities. As the scheme [...]

During 2009, HMRC has used statutory powers to legislate the provisions of various Extra-Statutory Concessions (ESCs) where it is believed that they exceed HMRC’s discretion to make concessions that depart for the strict application of tax law. Most of the ESCs relate to areas other than income tax law.  However, one ESC, currently awaiting Parliamentary [...]

By Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx, Inc. CNN recently published an article about the aftermath of the recession, claiming that the economy is “finally back in gear.” What does this mean for businesses like yours? Projects that were sidelined for the past year or two could come off the bench, and there might be more [...]

Our news items this week cover CIS monthly returns, civil service redundancies and late payment penalties. Our FAQ looks at the provision of living accommodation. We have also started to add public and bank holiday dates to our various payroll calendars. Next week we will bring you full coverage of the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report. Not [...]

The CIS Contractor’s Monthly CIS300 Return is completed online or on pre-populated paper forms in respect of payments made to subcontractors during each tax month. The pre-populated Returns and continuation sheets show the tax month ending date (e.g. “05 12 2009”) and, if any blank Returns or continuation sheets have to be completed, the contractor [...]

The Cabinet Office has announced substantial reforms to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) to take effect from 1 April 2010. They are intended to save up to £500 million over the next three years without impacting on the very lowest-paid civil servants. The CSCS sets out how much compensation should be given to staff [...]

From the start of the 2010/11 tax year, a new penalty regime will apply to all employers who do not make their monthly or quarterly payments to the Accounts Office on time and in full. It replaces the current surcharge regime that applies only to large employers, i.e. those with over 250 employers, although large [...]

This week we provide details of the new advisory fuel rates for company cars, which come into use from 1 December, only five months since the previous changes. The absence of any notice period to allow employers to prepare for the new rates was mentioned by HMRC a couple of weeks ago and if, as a [...]

In the seven months since the Pre-Claim Conciliation (PCC) service was introduced, Acas has helped businesses avoid more than 2,000 employment tribunal claims. The PCC service was launched in April 2009 alongside the new Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures following the Government’s Dispute Resolution Review in 2007.  Acas recently expanded the [...]

In a judgement delivered by the London Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) on 25 November 2009 in the case Hamilton House Medical Ltd v Hillier, the employment judge ruled that, where an employee’s hours of work are such that only premium rates of pay are paid, the basic rate on which those premium rates are based [...]

In June 2008, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), now merged with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), published Consulting on a new right to request time to train for employees in England.  Consultation exercises were also carried out in the other countries of the UK.  The resulting statutory provisions for [...]

Two weeks ago we reviewed an HMRC announcement about the withdrawal of the month’s notice that has been given in the past of changes to the advisory fuel rates.  Our interpretation of that announcement was incorrect in some respects and the following review provides details of the new rates that are effective from 1 December [...]

From 14 December 2009, the resident labour market test for Tier 2 of the points-based system will be extended to four weeks for all jobs.  This will replace the current requirement to advertise jobs for two weeks, or one week for jobs where the salary is £40,000 or more. The change will apply to advertising [...]

The Finance Act 2008 made provision for HMRC to accept payment of taxes by credit card but imposed a requirement for the taxpayer to pay a fee that covers the costs incurred by HMRC in handling the payment. From 14 December 2009, the fee for credit card payments made by telephone is increasing from 0.91%, [...]

Last week’s newsletter reviewed the new calculation procedures that apply to Scottish current maintenance arrestments (CMAs) and earnings arrestments (EAs) from 6 April 2010. In that article we indicated that employers should not apply the new calculations until instructed to do so by a debtor or creditor, but that the new calculations must be applied [...]