HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is to carry out a review of its Business Record Checks project, designed to tackle poor record-keeping by small and medium-sized enterprises. In September 2011, HMRC said it planned to complete up to 12,000 checks by...

The government has outlined its plans for charging fees to take cases to employment tribunals, designed to cut a multi-million pound bill for the taxpayer and ease pressure on businesses. Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly launched a consultation o...

Businesses will be banned from levying “excessively high” surcharges on all forms of payment before the end of this year, under government plans. Firms will be able to add a small charge to cover their actual costs for using any particular form...

Website owners must try harder to comply with the new cookies law, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The comments came as the ICO published an update on progress on website compliance with the new rules on 13 December, alon...

Social media is likely to be one of the biggest workplace issues in 2012, the head of employment relations service Acas has warned. Highlighting key challenges for employers in the coming year, Acas chairman Ed Sweeney said: “The rise of social m...

Time is ticking away for the first retailers to be affected by a ban on tobacco displays to ensure their premises are compliant with the law. From 6 April 2012, large shops – those with a floor area of more than 280 square metres – will no long...

An online trader has been jailed for attempting to evade more than £420,000 of VAT, ahead of the launch of an HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) campaign targeting people who use e-marketplaces to buy and sell goods and who fail to pay tax owed. Gre...

Business Secretary Vince Cable has set out plans for major reform of employment law. The package of measures, announced on 23 November, include an overhaul of employment tribunals, expected to deliver £40 million a year in benefits to employers. ...

Government plans have been announced for a major reduction in health and safety rules, with the first changes taking effect from January. An immediate consultation will begin abolish large numbers of health and safety regulations, with the intenti...

A major change to the way that employers submit information on tax and national insurance for their employees is to begin next year with a pilot programme. Following consultation on Real Time Information (RTI) – under which employers will report ...

Small and medium sized businesses in England are set to benefit from £95 million in government investment. The government funding, announced on 10 November will support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) considering investing in new capita...

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has launched five new taskforces around the country to tackle tax evasion in sectors including fast food, property rentals and scrap metal dealing. Announcing the taskforces on 7 November, Exchequer Secretary David Ga...

A £250 million plan will be launched in the new year, designed to give businesses the power to design, develop and purchase vocational training. Announcing the scheme on 17 November, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I know times are tou...

A new small claims service is to be introduced at the Patents County Court (PCC), helping small and medium-sized businesses to protect their copyright, trade marks and designs. With small firms often put off enforcing their intellectual property (I...

29 November 2011 Introduction Economic growth and borrowing Business Tax Pensions and benefits Infrastructure and transport Housing View official documents and full Autumn Statement   Introduction Despite warning...

Pensions experts have warned that around three million people may drop out of a government scheme designed to encourage more workers to save for their older age. According to the findings of a Populus poll for the National Association of Pension Fu...

Employers are being urged to make sure their PAYE paperwork is correct after hundreds of returns incorrectly claimed to employ A N Other in 2009/10. As well as 507 A N Others, employer returns submitted to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for 2009/1...

Businesses are becoming more aware of their obligations under the Data Protection Act (DPA), according to new figures from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Data published on 21 October found that showed that nearly three-quarters of b...

Almost three-quarters of small and medium-sized UK businesses are failing to check on their customers’ credit worthiness, according to new research. Global information services company Experian surveyed nearly 700 UK small businesses and found ...

Delays in dealing with business rate appeals are costing businesses £300 million per year, according to new research. Business rates specialist CVS revealed in October that there was a backlog of more than 328,000 business rate appeals at the Valu...

Innovative UK businesses are set to benefit from a free system to access information on patents launched by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The new, online service, called Ipsum, will remove the cost to businesses of requesting patent docum...

Insolvency experts have warned that a proposed new European Commission measure to freeze the assets of British businesses could deal a serious blow to work to rescue firms in financial difficulties. The European Account Preservation Order (EAPO) i...

HMRC has hit back at suggestions that tax amnesties, such as the deals reached recently with Switzerland and Luxembourg, could help criminals gain respectability. Jonathan Fisher QC claimed last month in a speech to the 29th International Symposium...

The Financial Reporting Council and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) have published a joint missive calling for annual accounts for the smallest businesses to be simplified in order to cut red-tape for micro-entities. The FR...

HM Revenue and Customs say the number of scam “phishing” emails has increased by more than 300% over the past year. The figure comes in the lights of HMRC’s warning about the scam emails which aim to steal individuals’ bank account details...

The Government has introduced new Agency Worker Regulation (AWR) changing the way businesses introduce new staff on a short term basis. The Agency Workers Directive came into force across the UK on October 1 which will provide temporary workers eq...

The Business Secretary Vince Cable has once again attacked banks over a lack of lending to SMEs. Mr Cable made the attack during a speech on the economy at the Liberal Democrat’s annual conference in Birmingham. He said: “Productive British bus...

A crack team of more than 2,000 tax inspectors is to be set up by HM Revenue and Customs to target tax avoidance and evasion. The move was announced by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, during his speech to the Lib Dems’ autumn c...

A survey of nearly 700 small businesses has found that more than 71 per cent did not check their customers’ credit status. Furthermore, the survey by credit agency Experian, found that 39 per cent of small businesses did not even know what a cre...

A major bank is set to offer interest and fee-free loans to businesses hit by the summer riots. Natwest and RBS will provide small businesses directly impacted by the riots a loan of up to £25,000 for up to six months. This will create immediate...

Against the backdrop of global financial turbulence, AWD Chase de Vere, considers how sticking to some investment fundamentals can help investors weather the storm. It is not surprising that investors around the world are increasingly worried about...

New research has highlighted the potential scale of organisations and businesses failing to comply with EU directives on downloading cookies. An August report issued by the Society for Local Authority IT Managers (Socitm) revealed that only six o...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has found in favour of an NHS employee, ruling that she was entitled to payment in lieu of holidays she had been unable to take while on sick pay for a year. The NHS Leeds worker was signed off sick for the whol...

New rules affecting employers who take on agency and temporary workers will take effect from 1 October 2011. From that date, the Agency Workers Regulations mean that agency workers who work in the same role with the same hirer for 12 continuous cal...

Businesses have been urged to do more to protect customers’ data after hackers were able to access the payment details of thousands of customers of cosmetics and toiletries retailer Lush. Lush breached the Data Protection Act after the security o...

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched a new online resource to help businesses comply with the law when selling goods and services at a distance, such as website or mail order sales. The Distance Selling Hub provides information about the ...

The government has bought forward the closure of a loophole that allowed businesses to accelerate capital allowances claims for plant and machinery and obtain advantageous early tax relief. The change was announced on 12 August by Economic Secreta...

Small businesses are set to be able to access equity finance more cheaply and effectively with early changes to European regulatory measures. Two amendments to the EU Prospectus Directive have been brought into effect a year early by the UK, allo...

Students are being reminded that they may not have to pay any  tax on the money they make from summer jobs. Many college and university students take on temporary work over the summer to earn extra cash but HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) says th...

Conciliation service Acas helped to prevent more than 13,000 workplace disputes between individuals and their employers from reaching an employment tribunal, its latest annual report has shown. The report for 2010-2011, issued on 28 July, revealed...

Businesses should be more willing to undergo data protection audits, says the Information Commissioner. The warning came as figures published in the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) showed that private companies reported the most data secur...

A new service has been launched to help UK companies learn about the security and business risks in 90 markets when working abroad. The Overseas Business Risk service is particularly aimed at giving SMEs the information they need to help them do bus...

A new report has shown that the UK is the top destination for foreign direct investment in Europe and the third worldwide. The World Investment Report, published on 26 July by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the...

Retailers’ lives are set to be made easier after the government said more than 160 regulations would be simplified or scrapped in the first changes to be introduced through its Red Tape Challenge. The first wave of reforms, announced by Business...

Tax experts say there could be “grave consequences” unless problems with the PAYE system are resolved before the introduction of a new system. The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), an initiative of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, spoke ...

The government is asking businesses for their views on integrating the income tax and national insurance contributions (NIC) systems. Its call to evidence, a preliminary consultation launched in July and continuing until 19 September, aims to build ...

Around 500,000 people who complete self assessment tax returns will have to wait longer than normal to find out how much tax they have to pay, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced. Some of the self assessment statements due to be issued i...

June 2011 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced it is to target individuals and businesses who are trading above the VAT threshold but have not registered for VAT in a new drive against rule breaker.