Archive for April, 2012

The major recent change in employment law is that any new employees you take on must acquire two years of service before they can claim unfair dismissal. However this increases the likelihood that, if dismissed, they will find some other grounds for a claim that require no service qualification, for example a breach of the [...]

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. Indeed major conflicts can grow quickly from small grievances, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the workplace. The law provides a process for managing grievances, but this is quite mechanistic and in any case requires that the issue first be explored less formally so that the grievance [...]

A question that is put to us from time to time in a rather embarrassed way is “How much notice do we have to give to senior staff?”. Why it is embarrassing, we do not understand, but certainly there are quite a few misconceptions about the topic, so we probably need to set things straight [...]

Health & safety responsibilities I am the Manager of our Admin Office but have just been made in addition Safety Officer for the whole commercial organisation. I am told that this is because I possess good common sense, but even so I am worried stiff that I do not know enough about the topic and [...]

The problem you were left with last month was this: You have carefully packed for export fifteen pairs of black gloves and fifteen pairs of brown gloves. Your boxes can hold only ten pairs of gloves, therefore you have packed one box full of black gloves, one of brown, and one of black and brown [...]

Thankfully, it is nice and quiet on the payroll front as far as news and updates are concerned.  As regards processing, this is one of our busiest times of the payroll year, with year-end on the near horizon, followed by P9D and P11D processing right behind. Please do not struggle and ensure that you are [...]

Aside from the ‘Granny Tax’, perhaps the most controversial issue to come from Mr Osborne’s Budget 2012 was the proposal to cap unlimited tax reliefs at 25% of taxable income, or £50,000, whichever is the greater.  Whilst we await the draft legislation, this is widely understood to cover: Qualifying loan interest relief Gift Aid and [...]

HMRC have issued a press statement aimed at anyone who was due to complete a SA Tax Return by 31 January 2012 but has not.  The reason for this is that HMRC’s penalty structure allows for an initial fixed penalty in the sum of £100.00 to be imposed for late receipt after 31 January, with [...]

There are many pension schemes that offer pension solutions to its employees via the use of salary sacrifice.  This is where the employee and employer enter into a legally-binding contractual change to the terms and conditions of employment whereby a sum is given up in return for contributions being made to a pension scheme.  Tax [...]

It is appropriate this week that pool cars are covered in the Newsletter, as they have been the subject of both questions that we have been frequently asked and some recent case law: FAQ – What are the conditions for treating a car as a pool car? If a car or van meets the statutory [...]

An ‘Agreement’ between the UK and Switzerland in respect of taxation was signed in London on 06 October 2011.  A Mutual Agreement has made amendments to this and was signed in Zurich on 18 April 2012.  Both the Agreement and the amending Mutual Agreement are scheduled to be effective 01 January 2013. Further Information Payroll [...]

Between the tax years 2006/07 and 2009/10, Time for Group Limited (TFG) had a number of company cars, which they claimed as pooled cars.  However, HMRC imposed a Class 1A National Insurance Contributions (NICs) charge in the sum of £6,602.00 on TFG in respect of the NICs due on a benefit charge.  TFG, owned by [...]

2012 is the Chinese year of the Dragon.  According to the Website I visited, some of the Dragon’s traits are that they are driven, unafraid of challenges and willing to take risks.  They are passionate in all that they do and do things in a grand fashion. This seems perfectly fitting for this new payroll [...]

Quick as a flash following the end of the tax year, HMRC issued a Return reminder to employers on 19 April 2012.  This reminded employers that their annual returns should be sent on time or a penalty will be issued.  Just our own reminder of the late filing penalties: Return Deadline Late Filing Penalty P35 [...]

I did wonder what was going on when I received the dramatic E-Mailed press statement on 11 April stating ‘The tax revolution starts’.  Of course, this was announcing that the pilot of RTI was officially underway.  David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary said: ‘RTI will remove the administrative burdens of £300 million a year from employers, mainly [...]

Recently, we advised that revised Staging Dates have recently been made available on the DWP Website as part of a consultation and the publication of draft legislation.  See the link below as a reminder. All employers are able to bring forward their Staging Date from that stated in legislation.  There may be a number of [...]

In a friendly letter to HMRC’s new Chief Executive Lin Homer, the Chancellor George Osborne outlines the remit for her department in 2012/13.  These are: Improving Tax Collection Chief objective (‘priority’) for Ms Homer is the requirement to maximise revenue in 12/13 in the sum of at least £17 billion.  This will be, primarily, by [...]

Automatic Review of State Pension Age (SPa) Recent legislative changes have seen increases to the State Pension age from the familiar 65 for men and 60 for women.  The current legislative position is as follows: SPa will be equalised at 65 for men and women by November 2018 (Pensions Act 1995, amended by Pensions Act [...]

The following is a selection of questions that have been posted to our Forum over the past week.  Can you contribute to any of the discussions?…………. I have a limited company with one director.  There is no salary, only dividends, but there are benefits to declare.  Is a tax reference required and is there a [...]

We do not know whether we are going to have a petrol shortage during the coming months but it certainly could come about as a result of industrial action by delivery drivers or by events in the Middle East. Time to think and plan therefore. Could you operate your plant? Will supplies be affected? Could [...]