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Compliance
Compliance Matters
Friday, June 3rd, 2011HMRC are well aware that some industry sectors have a poor record of compliance. But they are now taking a close look at trading on the internet and it is possible that some readers may be “trading” without actually realising it. HMRC guidance states that “If you are just selling some unwanted items that have [...]
Naming and shaming minimum wage offenders
Thursday, January 13th, 2011The Low Pay Commission, in its 2009 Report, recommended that a “name and shame” policy be put in place to expose those employers who show a wilful disregard for the National Minimum Wage (NMW). On 30 September 2010, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced that such a scheme would be introduced from [...]
Measures to strengthen tax avoidance scheme disclosure rules
Friday, December 31st, 2010In a consultation document issued at the time of the 2009 Pre-Budget Report, HMRC sought views on a number of proposed changes to the “Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme” (DOTAS) regime. The disclosure rules were originally introduced by means of the Finance Act 2004 but they have been developed extensively since then and now apply [...]
New operational guidance for employer compliance
Friday, December 31st, 2010A project to modernise HMRC’s compliance operational guidance has produced updated material to replace the Employer Compliance Handbook. The Compliance Operational Guidance Manual covers the way in which compliance checks are conducted by HMRC, setting out the correct processes for starting, conducting and completing compliance checks. It does not, however, consider case law and does [...]
Ireland: 2011 Budget and the Universal Social Charge
Friday, December 10th, 2010Ireland’s 2001 Budget measures, presented by the Minister for Finance on 7 December, include significant changes to taxation in employment. The key changes involve: replacing the Income Levy and Health Levy with a single Universal Social Charge removing the PRSI employee contribution ceiling increasing the PRSI rate for the self-employed, higher earning public servants and [...]
New penalty regime for tax avoidance non-compliance
Monday, November 29th, 2010In a consultation document issued at the time of the 2009 Pre-Budget Report, HMRC sought views on a number of proposed changes to the statutory Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme rules. They were originally introduced by means of the Finance Act 2004 but have been developed extensively since then and now apply to income tax [...]
Salary sacrifice and canteen arrangements
Monday, November 29th, 2010Section 317 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 provides a tax exemption for the provision of free or subsidised meals provided for employees in a canteen or on the employer’s business premises. By means of provisions in the Finance Act 2010, a further condition has been added so that, from April 2011, [...]
Processing of P11Ds creates new or additional P800 tax calculations
Thursday, November 18th, 2010The latest weekly informal update (dated 12 November) from HMRC to employer representatives explains how the tax liability adjustments as a result of the processing of P11Ds for 2009/10 will affect the issuing of P800 tax calculations to taxpayers. In addition to the explanation, there are also a number of FAQs aimed at employers and [...]
DWP announces changes to pension personal accounts in order to “make automatic enrolment work”
Thursday, November 4th, 2010On 27 October, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published the detailed results of an independent review of the procedures needed to ensure that automatic enrolment into the new pension personal accounts from October 2012 will work and be effective. Automatic enrolment will be introduced in monthly stages between 2012 and 2016, with the [...]
Further guidance from HMRC on tax relief restrictions on employer-supported childcare
Thursday, November 4th, 2010The following notes appeared originally in a newsletter in March 2010. They have been updated in line with newly published HMRC guidance for employers and employees. In September 2009, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced that the tax exemption for childcare vouchers would be phased out from 2011. Following widespread dissent, this decision was reversed [...]
Are accountants protected by legal professional privilege when required by HMRC to documents relating to their clients’ tax liabilities?
Thursday, October 28th, 2010In a decision given on 13 October 2010 in the case Prudential Plc & Anor, R (on the application of) v Special Commissioner of Income Tax & Ors, the England and Wales Court of Appeal ruled that legal professional privilege applies only to solicitors, barristers and appropriately qualified foreign lawyers. In November 2007, Prudential was [...]
Can a worker who refuses to work more than 48 hours on average per week be moved against his will to another job which involves fewer hours?
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010In a decision given on 14 October 2010 in the case Fuss (Social Policy), the European Court of Justice ruled that it is a breach of the Working Time Directive to transfer compulsorily a worker to another job because the worker has asked the employer to comply with the weekly working time rules, even though [...]
Employers paying less than the minimum wage to be named and shamed from January 2011
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010The Low Pay Commission, in its 2009 Report, recommended that a “name and shame” policy be put in place to expose those employers who show a wilful disregard for the National Minimum Wage (NMW). The government of the time accepted that more should be done to publicise employers that try to cheat their workers and [...]
New Code of Practice for Republic of Ireland Revenue Audit from October 2010
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010Revenue audits are conducted to ensure that individuals and businesses comply with tax and duty legislation. It may involve an examination of an individual’s or a company’s books, records and compliance with tax obligations in order to establish the correct level of liability. In some cases, subjects for audits are selected randomly but, in general, [...]
£900 Million for HMRC to Tackle Non-compliance
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010In the advance of the Government’s Spending Review, due to be announced on 20 October, the Treasury has announced that an additional £900 million will be made available to HMRC to reduce compliance risk in the following areas: greater deterrents against tax avoidance and evasion, including a five-fold increase in criminal prosecutions, prevention of offshore [...]
HMRC Compliance factsheets
Monday, September 13th, 2010HMRC introduced a new system of compliance checks from April 2009, supported by a new penalty system. A series of thirteen factsheets have been published that are issued to employers, as appropriate, during a compliance check. The factsheets are: CC/FS1 General Information CC/FS2 Request for information and documents CC/FS3 Visits – Pre-arranged CC/FS4 Visits – [...]
Meeting the pool car conditions
Thursday, August 12th, 2010A small Scottish company, whose employees had to travel extensively around Scotland, had, for many years, made a number of cars, including two prestige cars, available to all of the employees for business use. HMRC, following a compliance audit, decided that the cars did not meet the statutory conditions for categorising company cars as pool [...]
Emergency Budget 2010: Tax payment and collection
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Recovering arrears of tax Following a successful pilot exercise in 2009/10, HMRC has announced that it will use Debt Collection Agencies during 2010/11 to provide it with additional capacity to pursue and collect tax debts. As part of HMRC’s debt strategy, all debts are risk assessed and in-house resources are focused first on the highest [...]
European Working Time Directive – Working time rules apply equally to self-employed drivers
Monday, June 21st, 2010The 2002 European Working Time Directive, as it applies to mobile road transport workers (i.e. drivers of commercial goods and passenger vehicles), makes provision for its rules to apply to self-employed drivers from 23 March 2009. However, in 2008, the European Commission consulted on permanently exempting self-employed drivers, proposing instead that the Directive should be [...]
Republic of Ireland: Tax Avoidance – Schemes Consultation begins on new mandatory disclosure requirements
Monday, June 21st, 2010On 17 June, the Revenue Commissioners published a consultation document and draft regulations relating to the Mandatory Disclosure of Certain Transactions legislation introduced in section 149 of the Finance Act 2010. The legislation requires the promoters of tax schemes with certain characteristics to disclose them to the Revenue Commissioners shortly after they are first marketed [...]
