Government publishes revised timetable for pensions auto-enrolment
February 2, 2012

The Government has published a revised staging timetable for when employers of all sizes must start enrolling their staff in a workplace pension scheme. Starting from 1 October 2012, and depending on PAYE scheme size and reference, employers wil... Submitting online VAT returns
February 1, 2012

From 1 April 2012 all VAT Returns must be submitted online and payment must be made electronically. This measure completes a process started 1 April 2010 when VAT registered businesses with a turnover exceeding £100,000 and all newly VAT registered b... Commonwealth games tax break announced
February 1, 2012

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has announced a tax break for athletes that take part in the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow. The move means that athletes from outside the UK will be exempt from UK income tax on any payment i... PAYE penalties
February 1, 2012

The tax office has now begun to issue penalty notices to employers that have not filed their starter and leaver forms online in the period 6 October 2011 to 5 January 2012. The penalties for failing to file online range from £100 up to a maximum of £... PAYE – share based payments
January 25, 2012

New regulations were introduced in April 2011 which changed the tax code that applies to certain payments of PAYE income made to an employee after cessation of employment which have not been included in the form P45. The new regulations introduced th... Qualifying period increase for unfair dismissal will not be retrospective
January 23, 2012

On 6 April 2012, the qualifying period for claiming unfair dismissal will increase from one year to two years. When the Government announced this change back in October 2011, it gave no indication as to how it would apply to existing employees, ... Fraudulent emails from 'HMRC'
January 18, 2012

It is apparent that a significant number of fraudulent emails are still being sent to taxpayers purporting to be sent by HMRC. The emails target taxpayers who may be expecting a refund of tax from HMRC and provide a link to a clone of HMRC's web... Business records checks under review
January 18, 2012

The Business Records Checks programme imposes penalties for significant record-keeping failures relating to Income Tax, Corporation Tax and VAT and applies to the self-employed, sole traders and businesses with a turnover of less than €50m and with l... Contractual disclosure facility (CDF)
January 18, 2012

A new Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF) was launched by HMRC on 31 January 2012. The CDF is a facility for taxpayers to disclose serious tax fraud to HMRC. The CDF is only suitable for taxpayers who want to admit to tax fraud. It is not a method ... Class 2 National Insurance contributions
January 11, 2012

Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are paid by all self-employed taxpayers unless they qualify for the small earnings exemption or other exemptions that remove the necessity to pay. Class 2 NICs are payable at a flat weekly rate. S...